Living in fear as a parent of IDF soldiers --- Not Like The Parents Who Never Worry About Their Kids In Order For Bibi & Deri To Stay In Power...

Living in fear as a parent of IDF soldiers 

 

When you have sons fighting in the IDF, you live in a state of personal and permanent emotional conflict about the war and about the state of the Jewish people.

This is not an easy column to write, for several reasons. First, my wife doesn’t want me to write it. She feels it’s too personal and raises an issue that we find challenging to confront, namely, the safety of sons at war. 

Second, the Jewish concept of Ayin Harah (the evil eye,) either real or an imagined superstition, cautions against discussing certain issues so as not to jinx them. Israel is at war. Let’s pray in general but not speak about anything in particular. Third, I have a lot of anger about this particular issue. How did God allow so many Jews to die in a single day 80 years after the Holocaust and after the creation of a state and an army that are supposed to protect them? And fourth, my thoughts on the subject are not in any way fully formed.

When you have sons fighting in the IDF, you live in a state of personal and permanent emotional conflict about the war and about the state of the Jewish people. Pride and fear. Defiance and surrender. Love and hate. You’re confused. Better not to write, isn’t it?

On the one hand, we’re an American family. My son Mendy was born in Oxford, England, where I served as the Rebbe’s shaliach (emissary) and rabbi at the university, and my son Yosef was born in Englewood, NJ. What the heck are my American sons doing at war in the Middle East against savage terrorists?

On the other hand (and I know I now sound like Tevye the milkman,) don’t all Jews have to bear the burden of Israel and the Jewish people’s security? Then again, why my sons, who actually had the choice not to serve – especially our elder son, currently in an active war theater, who sustained a serious training injury and was released from combat duty only to spend years strengthening the injury in order to reenlist?

An IDF soldier salutes the grave of a fallen soldier at the Har Herzl military cemetery 

 

But after spending a day at the Nova festival site, which my daughter Cheftziba said reminded her of our visit to Auschwitz, and Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Rafah border, where I saw the charred ruins of homes that resembled the remnants of the Warsaw ghetto, I returned feeling dejected and depressed. As we listened to the non-stop booms of what appeared to be Israeli tanks and artillery engaged in combat in Rafah, a mere five kilometers away, where the IDF was striving to establish Never Again as a tangible policy rather than a mere slogan, I found myself grappling with the question of why my own sons are in such danger.

After hearing the accounts of entire families burned alive and young women raped, as well as visiting the freshly dug grave of Shani Louk, to whose memory I dedicated a Torah – with Robert Kennedy, Jr. speaking with her parents at their moshav – I had to come to terms with the reason why every Jewish man and woman on Earth must be invested in the fight for Israel’s survival.

What changes when you send your children to serve?

When you have sons at war, your deepest values and political principles are immediately compromised. I have been steadfastly opposed to any ceasefire with Hamas for the most obvious of reasons. If Hamas survives, there will be another October 7 – plain and simple. They say it outright, and their barbarity and savagery easily equal that of the Nazis, with one major difference: whereas the Nazis feared future international tribunals and therefore covered their crimes, Hamas broadcast their atrocities to the world, secure in the knowledge that an immoral UN would later indict the Israeli prime minister and defense minister rather than the terrorists.

However, when it’s your sons fighting the terrorists, you pray for an immediate ceasefire, whatever the cost. This is why I assume that it isn’t the hostages’ families, facing something infinitely worse than we are, or the IDF parents, who can make these decisions alone. Even concerning odious, terror-funding Qatar, which I have fought for seven years in global media and which, according to The New York Times, hacked my emails in retribution, you start to think that even these monsters might play some positive role in negotiating a ceasefire. (They won’t. They are liars and murderers from whom the US must remove their Air Force base, once and for all.)

Then there’s the anger. I love the Jewish people, and I love being a Jew. But when you return to the US and see how few of us American Jews shoulder the burden of Israel’s defense, you become instantly judgmental. Why were my sons naive enough to enlist? Why aren’t they working on Wall Street, making money, or building a tech startup? And how pathetic are we American Jews to believe that dining at plush, five-star hotels in Jerusalem as smiling tourists and donating $1,000 to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, which hasn’t even bought a single ballistic helmet or bullet-proof vest for the soldiers, somehow passes for real support of Israel? (Strangely, the FIDF claims that their lawyers don’t allow it, which begs the question: why do they exist at all. Or maybe they should find new attorneys.)

YOU KNOW that these emotions are wrong, and you try and fight them.

But the anger at God is real and, perhaps, justified. The word Israel literally translates as “he who fights with God,” and it gives you a mandate to do just that, much as my wife chooses the opposite approach of complete trust in God, reciting Psalms for our sons throughout the day. I’m angry at the Creator. What, Lord, do You want from the Jewish people? Almighty God, are you serious that we alone, as a nation, must die in order to live? Do we have to fight just to survive? Are Swedish kids fleeing booby-trapped buildings in order to breathe? Are Australian kids frolicking at Bondi Beach suddenly called to dodge drone strikes at their borders? Are Belgian parents mourning their 20-year-old sons at their graves? What do you want from us, Lord? And how long will this go on?

For thousands of years, God, we have been slaughtered, crucified, and cremated. Can you tell us, Oh Lord, that there really is some higher plan for this?

We have visited so many families who have buried children in Israel. Remarkably, they informed me that this is the “tax” they must pay to restore ancient Israel and live in our ancestral homeland. Almighty God, is such a tax fair in any way whatsoever? When the American colonists faced a tax on their tea, they rebelled. What kind of God demands the very lives of our children? Who can live like this?

On Shavuot, just days after my father’s fourth yahrzeit (annual date of death,) I read the Ten Commandments from a Torah with a crowd of some 100,000 people. As I did so, I began to believe that we Jews maintain our Judaism solely to embarrass God into doing so Himself. We do not murder, Oh Lord. So why do you? We keep Shabbat. So why don’t you? October 7, 2024, fell on the Sabbath. Could you not, in your infinite power, have prevented the desecration of the Sabbath on that horrific day? We, Oh Lord, cradle your sacred Torah in our arms on the holiday of Simhat Torah to show our adoration for its sacred text. Why, God, do you not do the same? How will we ever enjoy Simhat Torah again? And even as you allowed the sacrilege and defilement of your Torah on October 7 – Simchat Torah – we will continue to dance. We will dance again, even if you try to stop us. We will keep your Torah, Oh Lord, even when you degrade it. And perhaps, as you watch us crying and dancing, you will follow our lead and allow us to dance again, undeterred.

WE ARE staying in a hotel where we are the only tourists. We are here in Israel, hoping, God willing, that our son will be released from the theater of war so we can see him. The rest of the hotel is populated by refugees from the North – dozens of families who have lived there for eight months. On Shabbat, a rumor began circulating throughout the hotel that eight soldiers had been murdered. My wife and I began to shudder and tremble.

The news did not report what had occurred. The families, so many of whom also have sons in harm’s way, told us not to worry; it was only a rumor.  I hurried to the residence of a government minister I am friendly with, and he verified, while we sat trembling, which units had sustained damage. We confirmed it was not our sons’ units. We wanted to feel relief. We did. But at whose expense? Eight other families have been destroyed. Are we Jews not all one family?

Miraculously, after the Sabbath, our son, knowing that we were in hell, called us from a military phone to tell us he was OK. The sound of his voice was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard. I gave thanks to God for his benevolence and kindness. However, not eight, but 10 families were grieving because that was how many soldiers died in one day on Shabbat, the day that God said was his sacred day. As we gave thanks to God for the safety of our son, the earth swallowed those 10 soldiers whole, putting their families in an everlasting hell.

And so Jewish history continues, with no end in sight. We Jews live in a land where, to survive, we pay with our lives, and in a world that condemns us as Nazis even as we bury our children, who died in self-defense.

When my hero, mentor, and dearest friend Elie Wiesel died in 2016, I took my children on a three-month trip to the killing fields of Europe. The world’s most famous Holocaust survivor had died. The witnesses to the Holocaust were disappearing, and my children, including our seven-year-old daughter, needed to see what had happened before the firsthand witnesses were all gone.

My daughter Rochel Leah, today one of America’s most prominent Jewish social media influencers and fighters for Israel, grew more upset as the trip from hell, which would eventually be memorialized in my book Holocaust Holiday, dragged on. In Budapest, which witnessed the complete decimation of its community in the summer of 1944, she finally confronted me. “Tatty, why did you bring me here? I just finished a year of seminary in Israel, where I witnessed a living, joyous Judaism. But you destroyed it. You brought me to a continent-wide cemetery of Jewishness called Europe.” With futility, I attempted to comfort her. I knew she was right. Were we a triumphant or a tragic nation? But at least there was Israel. A Jewish rebirth. A reborn Jewish nation reestablished in our ancient homeland with an army to protect us.

But as I walked through the giant cemetery of Nova and looked at the hundreds of faces of the beautiful young Jews slaughtered there, and as I was led through the blood-soaked houses of Nir Oz, and as I prayed with Nissim Louk at his daughter Shani’s freshly dug grave, it struck me. Even Israel has become a giant Jewish cemetery. 

And I knew then that there was only one solution: fight, fight, fight. Fight for Jewish survival. Fight for Jewish continuity. Fight the terrorists. Fight the antisemites. Fight the UN. Fight the European Union. Fight the vile, entitled Hollywood set who condemn our struggle for self-defense as genocide. Fight the blood libels. Fight the haters.

Never capitulate. Never lose faith in God. And never give in.

Israel is the greatest miracle of the Jewish people in 2,000 years. And no matter how much the world wants to take it from us, we will never surrender. 

I'm Not A Fan Of The Writer - But I Share His Sentiments On This Topic: 

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-806771

Why do Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews so adamantly decline to serve in the military—and could that change? A communal leader walks us through the deliberations taking place

 For Ḥaredim, this is an unbelievable trauma. Perhaps we don’t think about this every day when we wake up, but ultimately the success of secular Zionism in establishing the Jewish state is a real trauma in the ḥaredi mind, because pre-state, one of the principle arguments against Zionism was that it’s never going to work. (So said the Agudath Israel, R' Elchonon Wasserman, R'Aron Kotler - And no religious Jew should go there to escape the Holocaust) How can it possibly work, that a bunch of secular Jews will establish the Jewish sovereignty, the political representation of the Jews? 

In Israel, nearly all Jewish citizens are required to serve in the Israel Defense Forces or to perform national service—nearly all, that is, except for haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews. Instead, following a deal worked out early on in the state's existence, young haredi men are permitted to study in yeshiva after high school and thereby avoid military service. 

That imbalance has been the source of much civil strife in Israel over the years, but since October 7 it has taken on a different tone. Previously, it was a question of fairness; now, it's one of military need. Israel needs more soldiers, and haredi communities could provide them. This issue is ostensibly part of what broke up Israel's unity government last week.

Why are so many Israeli Haredim—particularly haredi leaders—so opposed to IDF service? And how could that change? Several years ago, Mosaic brought the haredi rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer on its podcast to answer these questions. In the wake of October 7, understanding the haredi perspective on the IDF, and what might push it to evolve, is even more critical today. Just click here to listen.

Mandatory army service plays an essential function within Israeli civic culture, absorbing and equalizing Ashkenazi, Mizraḥi (Middle Eastern), religious, secular, male, female, Ethiopian, Russian, Druze and more. In the IDF, all of these identities step back and create room for a national Israeli identity to step forward.

“Rabbi Wasserman, Rabbi Kotler, Rabbi Rottenberg from Antwerp, rabbis from Czechoslovakia and Hungary were unanimous in rejecting any proposal for a “Jewish State” on either side of the Jordan River, even if it were established as a religious state because such a regime would be a form of heresy in our faith in the belief in the coming of the Messiah, and especially since this little “Jewish” state would be built on heresy and desecration of the Name of G-d.

 https://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2012/02/we-must-keep-in-mind-that-we-will-be.html

*(The podcast was recorded July 2021 --- Some of the rabbi's ideas, while well-intentioned, have no place in today's need of every able young man to serve their country in this post October 7 world)* PM

Almost every Jewish community in Israel serves in the IDF, except one: the ḥaredi (ultra-Orthodox) community. Seventy years ago, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, famously gave ḥaredi leaders an official exemption from compulsory national service, an exemption that persists to this day, along with much accompanying controversy. On this week’s podcast, the ḥaredi leader Yehoshua Pfeffer, himself a rabbinic judge, asks whether that exemption is just. In conversation with Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver, he explores the background behind the reluctance to serve, and brings us inside the debate currently unfolding within Israel’s Orthodox communities about the fulfillment of civic obligation and moral duty.

Excerpt (27:57-29:30):

The melting pot idea of the army didn’t just evaporate into nothing. It morphed and changed, it evolved over the years, but the army still remains very much a melting pot, it still has an educational corps, it still has a vision. That vision has shifted over the years, and now it includes a certain gendered vision, it includes a whole plethora of other aspects, but once again, the ḥaredi society that prides itself on its isolationism, that prides itself on being an educational system that’s not exposed to all of these trends and ideas, has a lot of trouble in going into the IDF. 

Perhaps the final consideration, which might be the main one, is this ambivalence towards engagement with the state of Israel. The state of Israel is still a secular state. For Ḥaredim, this is an unbelievable trauma. Perhaps we don’t think about this every day when we wake up, but ultimately the success of secular Zionism in establishing the Jewish state is a real trauma in the ḥaredi mind, because pre-state, one of the principle arguments against Zionism was that it’s never going to work. (So said the Agudath Israel, R' Elchonon Wasserman, R'Aron Kotler - And no religious Jew should go there to escape the Holocaust) How can it possibly work, that a bunch of secular Jews will establish the Jewish sovereignty, the political representation of the Jews? 

But hey, they did, it worked, it was successful. Not just was it successful, but it has long term stability, it’s there. And to be engaged in the IDF is to be a part of the state in the deepest possible way. It’s to be together, it’s to say “we’re a part of this.” I think it’s a step that ḥaredi society needs to go towards for its own sake and for the sake of Israel, but it’s a tough step. 

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israel, Ultra-Orthodox

 

https://mosaicmagazine.com/

Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things

‘Parasites’ who ‘desecrate God’s name’ --- Reiss estimated that of more than 60,000 Haredi men between 18 and 26 who are indefinitely postponing IDF service because Torah is their profession, about 30% have completely dropped out and “don’t even know how to find the yeshiva where they are registered as full-time students.”

 

Meanwhile, over 60,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 26, many of whom fit for military service, avail themselves of the Torah-is-my-profession exemption. Not all devote their productive hours to Torah study.

The discrepancy has led to public outcry.

A video of hundreds of military-age Haredi men sitting in Ramat Gan’s National Park on the evening of June 1, watching an open-air screening of the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund went viral on social media. Comments included, “Parasites,” “Desecration of God’s name,” “My son is serving and didn’t get permission to watch the game,” and, “So soccer takes precedence over studying 

 

'It was important to him to contribute to the Jewish people'

 

A yeshiva that preps Haredi men for IDF service mourns first graduate to fall in battle

 

As Israeli society debates mandatory ultra-Orthodox enlistment amid war, Staff Sgt. Bezalel Kovach’s life and death present a new view of what it means to belong to the community

Staff Sgt. Bezalel Zvi Kovach Z"L, left, with Rabbi Maj. (res) Shimon Hartman

 

On Wednesday, May 22, Staff Sgt. Bezalel Zvi Kovach, 20, was critically wounded while fighting in Gaza. Four days later he succumbed to his wounds at Soroka Medical Center.

Kovach was the first to fall in battle among graduates of Chedvata, a yeshiva that prepares Haredi men for IDF duty.

If fatal casualty rates are an indication which segments of society are doing their fair share in Israel’s defense, the Kovach family’s loss is a step toward balancing inequality between ultra-Orthodox or Haredi and non-Haredi Israelis.

“The soldier Bezalel Kovach fought in Gaza out of a commitment to being a part of the Israeli story, and he embodies the educational legacy I want for our students,” said Rabbi Yonatan Reiss, who created and runs Chedvata.

In recent months, as the uncompromising Haredi political leadership’s opposition to a mandatory military draft threatens to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Reiss, a member of the Belz Hasidic movement, has been making frequent media appearances on Israeli TV dressed in full Hasidic garb with long sidelocks framing his face.

Lawmakers early Tuesday voted 63-57 to apply “continuity” to a bill from the previous Knesset dealing with the military service of yeshiva students, reviving the contentious legislation amid the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

“As a member of the Haredi community, I can tell you that we excel at volunteering and that’s really wonderful, but volunteering is not the same as taking responsibility, with all due respect,” said Reiss.

“The day members of the Haredi community commit, truly commit to three years of service, to being a part of what’s happening here — as Bezalel did — the day they start serving their nation… or even commit to working in a hospital, wherever they feel comfortable, wherever they feel their Haredi identity is respected, that’s the day you’ll see Haredim in the labor market, that’s the day Haredim will be fully integrated and that’s the day they will understand what it means to be an integral part of the Jewish people,” he said.

Kovach’s funeral was conducted in strict accordance with the traditions of Jerusalem’s Perushim (separatists) community, founded by disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, who immigrated to Israel from Lithuania in the 1800s.

The three-volley salute, flower bouquets and other obsequies of IDF burial protocol were absent. The funeral was conducted at the Givat Shaul cemetery, not at Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery.

Kovach’s battalion commander, Lt. Gen. Shlomo Shiran, gave a eulogy before a mostly male crowd, some dressed in black suits and hats, others in olive green military uniforms.

One of the mourners present at the funeral was Yehuda Segal, a close friend of Kovach who grew up in the same Haredi neighborhood, learned with him in the Chedvata Yeshiva and served in the same battalion, Netzah Yehuda, that was designed to cater to Haredi customs.

Segal said Kovach, a squad commander, was the most selfless person he had ever met.

“He was the type of guy who you could wake up at three in the morning and he would be there with a cigarette and a can of Coke and encourage you,” said Segal. “He had this amazing spirit, totally selfless, always there for others, especially his soldiers. It didn’t matter whether that person was Jewish or non-Jewish. ‘So what if he is a gentile,’ he would say when guys pointed this out to him, ‘Hashem [God] created him too.’”

Segal recounted how, while visiting Kovach’s family during the week of Jewish ritual mourning, he met a young Haredi man who had never heard of the Netzah Yehuda battalion.

“I told him how we combine commitment to Judaism with army service, the holy with the profane, contributing to the nation with learning Torah — that the two don’t contradict each other,” said Segal.

“He looked at me like he couldn’t believe what I was telling him. I showed him pictures of Bezalel — I guess he thought he would see someone with dreadlocks and earrings, and suddenly he sees a guy in uniform wearing a four-cornered garment with fringes, sitting during guard duty learning [the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev],” said Segal. “The guy said, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that was possible.’”

Segal noted that in the days between Kovach’s injury and his death, prayer rallies for his recovery were held in Kovach’s strictly Haredi Ramot Dalet Jerusalem neighborhood.

“It can tell you that there will be guys from the neighborhood, and not just one or two, who will follow Bezalel’s example and enlist. Attitudes are changing,” said Segal.

‘Parasites’ who ‘desecrate God’s name’

 

 

But if Haredi attitudes toward military service are changing, the pace is glacial.

In all, there are fewer than 300 students enrolled at Chedvata’s different programs. Another 60 graduates are serving in the IDF.

Based on data provided by the Israel Democracy Institute and statements made by IDF officials in Knesset meetings, despite annual population growth of four percent — the fastest of any group in Israel — Haredi IDF enlistment has remained relatively steady since 2018 at about 1,200, just 10% of those eligible for service in 2023. And many of these men come from the fringes of Haredi society — yeshiva dropouts, children of newcomers to Orthodoxy, boys from modern-minded families with high school matriculation, new immigrants from non-Haredi communities.

Despite attempts by the IDF, public figures and social activists — both Haredi and not — to encourage IDF enlistment, a painful chasm separates those Israeli families who live in fear of the knock on the door from an IDF death notification officer and the vast majority of Haredi families who don’t.

Since the 1950s, a political arrangement anchored in a series of laws and government decisions has allowed Haredi men to postpone mandatory military service until they are too old to be drafted. They need to declare Torah study to be their full-time occupation and commit to remaining unemployed. The state provides those who study with modest stipends. Yeshivot are supposed to be audited for attendance. But tens of thousands of able-bodied men are said to be fictively registered at a yeshiva in order to receive funds but never set foot inside.

For the embattled Jewish state, this arrangement has become increasingly untenable.

Israel faces myriad military threats: the war in Gaza, escalation on the Lebanese border, drone and missile attacks by Iran-backed militias in Yemen and Iraq, the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, the uptick in Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria. Overwhelming defense burdens are being shouldered by those who do serve — along with their spouses, children and parents, who must cope with the economic, physical and emotional stress of having a loved-one away from home for prolonged periods of time exposed to existential dangers.

Since October 7, 299 soldiers and one police officer have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip. About the same number of soldier deaths took place during the October 7 invasion, when thousands of terrorists brutally murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel, the vast majority of them civilians, and kidnapped 251 to the Gaza Strip, where roughly 120 — many of them soldiers — are still being held.

Family and friends of Israeli soldier Master Sgt. (res) Nahman Natan Hertz, 31, attend his funeral at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on May 7, 2024. Hertz was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike on Metula

Meanwhile, over 60,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 26, many of whom fit for military service, avail themselves of the Torah-is-my-profession exemption. Not all devote their productive hours to Torah study.

The discrepancy has led to public outcry.

A video of hundreds of military-age Haredi men sitting in Ramat Gan’s National Park on the evening of June 1, watching an open-air screening of the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund went viral on social media. Comments included, “Parasites,” “Desecration of God’s name,” “My son is serving and didn’t get permission to watch the game,” and, “So soccer takes precedence over studying Torah?”

READ ENTIRE ESSAY:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-yeshiva-that-preps-haredi-men-for-idf-service-mourns-first-graduate-to-fall-in-battle/?utm_source=The+Weekend+Edition&utm_campaign=weekend-edition-2024-06-16&utm_medium=email

Monday’s draft-evasion vote was worthy of Sodom, which outlawed justice and legalized crime.

A Gathering (Asifa) of Horses' Rear Ends! "REMEMBER THE INTERNET"

Draft evasion is not God’s will, and shouldn't be treated as such 

 

Monday’s draft-evasion vote was worthy of Sodom, which outlawed justice and legalized crime.

DESPITE THE IDF’s calculation that it needs 7,000 new troops, Monday’s vote to revive an older haredi draft bill was approved by the majority of the Knesset members.

They happened the same night, hardly 100 kilometers from each other, but one moral light-year apart.

In Rafah, Givati troops entered a booby-trapped Hamas outpost that soon blew up and caved in on them, killing four and wounding 11. In Jerusalem, with news of the incident already known, 63 lawmakers booby-trapped the Jewish state by voting to etch in stone ultra-Orthodoxy’s evasion of service in the IDF.

Ultra-Orthodoxy’s relationship with the Zionist enterprise has known many low ebbs, but this one will be recalled as the lowest: for ultra-Orthodoxy’s leaders, for their grand ally Benjamin Netanyahu, and for the Jewish state which he purports to serve, and they so shamelessly abuse.

Essence of Zionism

ON THE face of it, the vote was procedural. That is also what Netanyahu, the consummate spin doctor, ordered his troops to say; the vote – they soon parroted him – was not about substance but merely about the renewal of a previous legislation effort’s process.

Well, this is not about procedure. It’s about substance, about the very essence of Zionism, the basics of Judaism, and the most elemental meaning of morality. It’s about Israelis who think that even as war rages month after month, they can behave as if it is none of their business.

Everyone is at these harrowing times’ weekly military funerals: rich and poor, natives and immigrants, city folk and villagers, observant and secular, Jews, Druze, Christians, and Muslim Bedouin. Everyone, that is, except the ultra-Orthodox.

Even the IDF’s interim calculation that it needs 7,000 new troops did not impress the people who want us to believe that by leaving the war for the rest of us, they defend us and please God.

Under the selfishness, cowardice, and eye-rolling that all this involves sprawl layers of lies. The biggest lie is that military service precludes observance. Thousands upon thousands of Modern Orthodox soldiers have proven over the decades that there is no contradiction between the two. Some even became great rabbis.

Equally deceitful is the claim that conscription would end the study of Torah. Wow. A man serves between ages 18 and 21 and then lives, God willing, for another 60 years at least. Since only a fraction of the population is aged 18-21, that means that the vast majority’s studying would continue unimpeded if every ultra-Orthodox boy served. How dare anyone say enlistment would end Torah studying?

Yet the biggest lie is that draft evasion is God’s will. It isn’t God’s will.

God’s will is “you shall not stand against the blood of your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:16). God’s will is what a fuming Moses told the people he suspected of draft evasion: “Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here?” (Numbers 32:7)

God’s will is what the Sages meant when they wrote: “In mandatory wars everyone goes, even a groom from his room and a bride from her wedding canopy” (Mishna Sota 8:7). “Mandatory wars” means wars of defense, which is exactly what we face as southern communities’ scars glare and Galilean forests flare.

In the words of a petition circulated this week by prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis, including Benny Kalmanson, president of the Otniel Yeshiva, whose son Elhanan was killed on October 7 while fighting in Be’eri, and Tamir Granot, head of the Orot Shaul Yeshiva, whose son Amitay was killed in October while fighting Hezbollah:

“We call on those who fear God’s word... to enlist... This is a duty not only in terms of Jewish law and sheer morality, this is about national lifesaving.”

The petitioners hope to convince ultra-Orthodox rabbis and politicians to abandon the path of draft evasion. But, alas, ultra-Orthodox leaders can be counted on to ignore the petitioners’ stature, arguments, idealism, patriotism, and pain.

As this display of moral bankruptcy unfolds, the question is not how its ultra-Orthodox engine continues to run, but how much longer its fuel – the Likud’s cynicism – will continue to flow, and the answer is: until the next election.THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX abuse of the Zionist enterprise evolved in three eras: Ben-Gurion, Begin, and Netanyahu.In the first era all the ultra-Orthodox asked was an opportunity to restore the Torah world the Holocaust consumed. The result was 500 draft deferments. The figure slowly grew to 800, but the principle was the same: ultra-Orthodoxy would rebuild the ghetto, and the rest of Israel would not interfere.That changed in 1977, when Menachem Begin removed the limit. That is how 800 annual deferments became more than 10,000. In addition, ultra-Orthodoxy began receiving billions in taxpayer money. Now the Jewish state didn’t merely tolerate the ghetto’s resurrection, it actively joined its building.The third phase came under Netanyahu. Now ultra-Orthodoxy emerged from the ghetto and set out to reprogram the Jewish state. This meant joining Netanyahu’s assault on the Israeli judiciary, in order to mock the law’s principle of equality, so we will risk our lives defending this country, and they won’t.The people of Sodom, who outlawed justice and legalized crime, could not have written this better.This is not “a technicality.” It’s a unique Faustian bargain in which one party buys power, the other buys life, and both shed their souls, but instead of paying with their own blood and money, they pay with ours.As in Sodom, there is one righteous man in the Likud – Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who defied the Likud in the draft evasion vote. In the Knesset it seemed he was alone. But come the next election – Gallant will not be alone. The nadirs of deceit, manipulation, and corruption to which Netanyahu has led the Likud, and the brazen disparagement of patriotism that culminated in this disgraceful vote, will finally result in its engineers’ demise.

This is not only a prediction; it’s a wish, an outcry, and a curse.

 

DEFINITELY WORTH WATCHING TO UNDERSTAND  WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON WITH THE WAR:

https://youtu.be/QBvc2d24klo?si=SVSW8ge_gG9MsM91

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-806163?

"In obligatory wars, everyone goes, even a groom from his room and a bride from her wedding canopy." Defending the land of Israel, especially in existential conflicts, is seen as a mitzvah, a divinely mandated obligation

 

עֵדוּת ה' נֶאֱמָנָה, מַחְכִּימַת פֶּתִי

 

Editorial:

I see a profound connection between Matan Torah, Shavuot, and the ongoing war in Israel, integrating them into a unified narrative of faith, identity, and defense.

The concept of Milchemet Mitzvah underscores the sanctity of defending the land of Israel. The struggles and wars faced by Israel are not merely political but are imbued with spiritual significance. Defending the land and its people aligns with the Torah’s commandments to protect life and pursue justice.

 Sotah:44b

בַּמֶּה דְּבָרִים אֲמוּרִים — בְּמִלְחֲמוֹת הָרְשׁוּת, אֲבָל בְּמִלְחֲמוֹת מִצְוָה — הַכֹּל יוֹצְאִין, אֲפִילּוּ חָתָן מֵחֶדְרוֹ וְכַלָּה מֵחוּפָּתָהּ. אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוּדָה: בַּמֶּה דְּבָרִים אֲמוּרִים — בְּמִלְחֲמוֹת מִצְוָה, אֲבָל בְּמִלְחֲמוֹת חוֹבָה — הַכֹּל יוֹצְאִין, אֲפִילּוּ חָתָן מֵחֶדְרוֹ וְכַלָּה מֵחוּפָּתָהּ.

 

The Mishna adds: In what case are all of these statements, with regard to the various exemptions from war, said? They are said with regard to elective wars. But in wars whose mandate is a mitzva, everyone goes, even a groom from his room and a bride from her wedding canopy. Rabbi Yehuda said: In what case are all of these statements, with regard to the various exemptions from war, said? They are said with regard to wars whose mandate is a mitzva. But in obligatory wars, everyone goes, even a groom from his room and a bride from her wedding canopy.

 

 The concept of Milchemet Mitzvah (obligatory war) and Milchemet Reshut (optional war), as discussed in the Talmud (Sotah 44b), provides a framework for understanding the Jewish approach to warfare. Defending the land of Israel, especially in existential conflicts, is seen as a mitzvah, a divinely mandated obligation.

The current security situation in Israel is viewed through this lens. The continuous threats and acts of aggression necessitate a response that is both just and effective, aligning with the Torah’s teachings on preserving life and justice.

The interplay between Matan Torah, Shavuot, and the war in Israel encapsulates the holistic vision of the  Orthodox Jewish perspective. It sees the divine revelation at Sinai and its annual commemoration during Shavuot as foundational to Jewish life and faith. Simultaneously, it recognizes the sanctity and necessity of defending the Jewish homeland, viewing these actions as a continuation of the covenantal relationship with God.

In this unified narrative, the Jewish people’s commitment to Torah and their resilience in the face of conflict are intertwined, reflecting an enduring legacy of faith, identity, and survival. This perspective not only honors the past but also provides a guiding framework for navigating contemporary challenges, ensuring the continuity and vitality of Jewish life in Israel and throughout the diaspora.

Chag Sameach.

 

Arnon Zmora יהי זכרו ברוך לעולם ועד Was A True Ohev Yisroel - He Sacrificed His Life So Other Jews May Live! He Did Not Hide Behind A Shtender in Bnei Brak or Jerusalem! Let's Have A Conversation About "Real" Mesiras Nefesh!

‘Hero of Israel’: Thousands pay last respects to officer killed in hostage rescue operation

 

Arnon Zmora’s widow eulogizes ‘a sweet man full of laughter, sensitivity and compassion’; in tearful tribute, uncle of rescued hostage says families have ‘unbreakable alliance’

People wave the Israeli flag as they pay their respect to counter-terror officer Arnon Zamora, who was killed in battle on June 8 during a special operation to rescue four Israeli hostages from Gaza, outside his family home in Mevasseret Zion, June 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

 

Thousands of mourners, among them family members of hostages held in Gaza, flocked to Jerusalem on Sunday to attend the funeral of Arnon Zmora, the police counter-terror officer killed Saturday during an operation that rescued four captives from central Gaza.

Zmora, an officer of the elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit, was shot and critically injured by Hamas terrorists guarding three of the four hostages. He succumbed to his wounds shortly upon arriving at a hospital in Israel.

He was part of the mission to rescue Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, Shlomi Ziv and Noa Argamani, which was subsequently renamed “Operation Arnon” in his honor.

Even before the arrival of the funeral procession at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery, Israelis lined the street outside the Zmora family’s home in the nearby town of Mevasseret Zion, waving Israeli flags in tribute.

Inside the cemetery, Zmora’s mother Ruti eulogized her son, whom she said was not only “your mother’s hero,” but also “an entire country’s hero.”

“Your favorite movie as a child was ‘Robin Hood.’ In second grade, you dressed up as a paratrooper. You looked up to Yoni Netanyahu for Operation Entebbe,” Channel 12 news quoted Ruti as saying, referring to the IDF hero — brother of the current prime minister — killed during the 1976 mission that saved over 100 Israeli hostages kidnapped to Uganda.

“My boy, full of joy, of life, with a kind gaze and a rolling laugh that remains in my heart,” she said. “An imaginative, creative child who knows that even if the road is difficult, the sky is the limit.

“My beloved child,” she continued, “I am so happy that last Friday I was able to say to you: ‘Arnon, take care of yourself and your friends. I love you.’ You answered me: ‘Mom, I love you too.'”

“I knew it was Russian roulette,” she said. “You sacrificed your life for the country.”

The head of the Yamam counter-terror unit said of Zmora that he was “always first, and during the heroic operation he led, he acted with courage and was a model for his fighters.

 

Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora, who was killed in a mission to rescue hostages held in the Gaza Strip, June 8, 2024

“His actions brought light to the people of Israel and unfortunately he paid for it with his life,” he added. “Instead of being part of the national jubilation, we are going into deep mourning.”

The funeral was attended by Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, who delivered a eulogy on behalf of the Israel Police.

“Arnon, I knew you and heard a lot about you. You fought on October 7 in the kibbutzim surrounding Gaza, you participated in countless activities and operations that will forever be hidden from the public eye,” Shabtai said. “You always understood the mission that was before you, you strove for contact, you acted with the courage reserved for outstanding people, and I believe you deeply felt the magnitude of the hour.

“Arnon, we agreed that we would parachute together at the end of my term,” said Shabtai, whose tenure will end on July 17. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do it.”

Among those paying tribute to Zmora was Aviram Meir, the uncle of Almog Meir Jan, one of the hostages rescued during Saturday’s daylight operation.

Arnon “brought joy to the families, you brought joy to the people of Israel,” Aviram Meir said through tears.

“I would like to address the Zmora family and tell you that the blood of your children is mixed with ours. This is an unbreakable alliance. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Arnon’s widow Michal Zmora was the last to speak and said she had chosen to do so intentionally.

“I asked to speak last because the commanders were talking about how much of a hero you are… now everyone knows about your heroism,” she said. “More than everything, though, you were a sweet man, full of laughter, sensitivity and compassion. You have been my spouse for the last 12 years. For the last eight years, you have also been the perfect father.

“It’s important that these things be said last, after the stories of heroism. That’s what will resonate from you.”

Michal continued: “There is no other love like ours, there isn’t any. You don’t see that kind of love anymore, a love that involves choosing each other every morning. A love that involves dialogue and listening — with each passing day, we loved each other more.

“We raised two wonderful children together, my love, whose worlds fell apart in an instant. I am enveloping them and protecting them. I know you know that, and I also know that you thought about us in the split second when you realized that death was coming.

“In the end, the children and I will be fine,” she said through tears. “They will know how much of a hero their father was, how many lives he saved… but much more than that, they will remember how much fun they had with you. Riding bikes, playing the guitar, lighting a bonfire, eating ice cream, having fun together, and being a family.”

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogized Zmora at the outset of the weekly cabinet meeting.

“The massive achievement yesterday caused the nation to stand up taller,” said Netanyahu, “and I must say, it caused Israel’s supporters around the world to stand taller as well.”

“But it came with great pain, the fall of the hero of Israel, the IDF warrior, the late commander Arnon Zmora,” he continued.

 

Yoni Netanyahu, in a photograph taken shortly before his death at Entebbe in 1976. (GPO, Wikimedia)

He related a story told by Amir Ofer, a commando who freed hostages from Entebbe Airport in 1976 under the command of Netanyahu’s brother Yoni, about meeting Zmora.

After October 7, Zmora called Ofer to recount the battles he took part in against Hamas terrorists in Israeli towns and on roads near the border. “How did you succeed and we didn’t?” Zmora asked Ofer.

“It took me a few hours to digest your story. You were really heroes and you performed in an extraordinary way under the most difficult conditions,” Ofer wrote to Zmora.

“Arnon will forever be remembered in the history of our people,” said Netanyahu. “Just like the [Yitzhak] Rabin government supported the proposal to call the operation to free the hostage in Entebbe ‘Operation Yonatan,’ after the commander of the assault force who fell in battle, I am sure that our government also unanimously supports the proposal to name the operation to free the hostages in Gaza ‘Operation Arnon’ after the commander of the force who fell in battle — the hero of Israel Arnon Zmora.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hero-of-israel-thousands-pay-last-respects-to-officer-killed-in-hostage-rescue-op/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2024-06-10&utm_medium=email

"...We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent..."

 

"...We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent..."

 



Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Rabbi Aron Kotler, Rabbi Blau



....It was first in 1921 that Reb Elchonon returned to Poland, to Baranovitch, where he was asked to head the local yeshiva, Ohel Torah. He was to head the yeshiva till the war years when he, together with hundreds of his students sanctified the Almighty's name. Witnesses have recounted that dreadful day--eleventh day in Tamuz, 5701 when the murderers came in. He was in the midst of learning Tractate Nidoh. Reb Elchonon spoke quietly and calmly, as was his practice. Not even the sound of his voice was changed. On his face, his customary earnestness. His tone betrayed no feeling for self, and he did not attempt to say good-bye to his son, Reb Naftali. He spoke to everyone, to the whole House of Israel.


"In Heaven it appears that they deem us to be righteous because our bodies have been chosen to stone for the Jewish people. Therefore, we must repent now, immediately. There is not much time. We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent. In this way we will save the lives of our brethren overseas.  "Let no thought enter our minds, G-d forbid, which is abominable and which renders an offering unfit. We are now fulfilling the greatest mizvah. With fire she was destroyed and with fire she will be rebuilt. The very fire which consumes our bodies will one day rebuild the Jewish people."

In the summer of 1937 at the third convention of the rabbinical leaders of Agudath Israel held in Mariband, which included hundreds of rabbis, heads of yeshiva religious academies and grand rabbis of Chassidic communities from a number of countries, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman stood out from among all of them.

 Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Pardes of Chicago, the editor of the rabbinical journal Hapardes, who participated at this convention and who was present at meetings of the Council of Torah Sages that were held during the convention, describes Rabbi Wasserman as follows: “Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, who stood above all the other participants walked with his face towards the ground. His long beard has turned white, and his fear of G-d preceded his scholarly wisdom. He reigns supreme above all the other members of the Council of Torah Sages and the convention itself. He intersperses his speech with simple metaphors hidden with great wisdom that penetrates the hearts of each person according to his level. He is the major disciple of Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, the author of the halachic work, Mishna Brurah, and every word he utters is spiced with teachings and wise metaphors from his teacher. When Rabbi Wasserman enters the meeting of the Council, everyone stands in respect, and he asked to speak before anyone else.

On Sunday on the evening of 16th of the Hebrew month of Elul [August 23, 1937], the rabbinical leaders met to discuss the issue of a “Jewish State.” The meeting was stormy, and it dealt with the issue of the Three Oaths. A great dispute broke out in the session, and Rabbi Wasserman expressed pungent words that shocked his listeners. The following is what he said:

“We must emphasize and declare the position of our holy Torah in order to banish any confusion of ideas. Inasmuch as there are Jews who are Torah-observant who say that a Jewish State would be the “beginning of the Redemption,” we must inform them of the position of our Torah that this is nothing less than the beginning of a new Exile! What do I mean? After all, Jews have been living in Exile for some two thousand years, so how can this be a “beginning” of a new Exile? My intention is to expose the so-called Jewish Communists. An Exile such as this has never existed until today. None of us can even describe such an exile, an Exile under Jews! Only Jews from Russia have a slight sense of this situation, even though the regime there is not a “Jewish” one. One of the great rabbis of this generation recently told me that the term “beginning of the Redemption” in reference to the Zionist movement makes his hair stand on end!

In Hapardes (Year 11, Issue 7) Rabbi Pardes describes what he saw at the Convention:

“Rabbi Wasserman, Rabbi Kotler, Rabbi Rottenberg from Antwerp, rabbis from Czechoslovakia and Hungary were unanimous in rejecting any proposal for a “Jewish State” on either side of the Jordan River, even if it were established as a religious state because such a regime would be a form of heresy in our faith in the belief in the coming of the Messiah, and especially since this little “Jewish” state would be built on heresy and desecration of the Name of G-d.

Who Has Destroyed More, the Arabs or the Zionists? http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/rabbi_quotes/WhoHasDestroyedMore.pdf (This essay was written by Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman zt'l after the disturbances in Hebron in 1929 which left some 50-60 yeshiva students dead and is very apropos the most recent events on the West Bank. Ed.)

READ ENTIRE TRUE TORAH:

http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/rabbi_quotes/wasserman.cfm

I DO NOT VOUCH FOR THE ACCURACY OF THE ENTIRE ARTICLE OTHER THAN WHAT APPEARS ABOVE.

UOJ

 

 https://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2012/02/we-must-keep-in-mind-that-we-will-be.html

I'm Waiting For a Chief/Giant Rabbi to Admonish The Secular Government --- WHY ON SHABBOS?

 ISRAEL RESCUES 4 HOSTAGES
245 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY
DARING GAZA RAID

 

 

מלחמה אסורה בשבת

Let's break down the numerical values of each letter in this phrase according to standard gematria:

• מלחמה (Milchamah - War):

  • מ (Mem) = 40
  • ל (Lamed) = 30
  • ח (Chet) = 8
  • מ (Mem) = 40
  • ה (He) = 5
  • Total = 40 + 30 + 8 + 40 + 5 = 123

• אסורה (Assurah - Forbidden):

  • א (Aleph) = 1
  • ס (Samech) = 60
  • ו (Vav) = 6
  • ר (Resh) = 200
  • ה (He) = 5
  • Total = 1 + 60 + 6 + 200 + 5 = 272

• בשבת (B'Shabbat - On Shabbos):

  • ב (Bet) = 2
  • ש (Shin) = 300
  • ב (Bet) = 2
  • ת (Tav) = 400
  • Total = 2 + 300 + 2 + 400 = 704

Now, we can add these values together to find the total gematria of the phrase:

123 (Milchamah) + 272 (Assurah) + 704 (B'Shabbat) = 1099

The total numerical value of the phrase "מלחמה אסורה בשבת" (forbidden war on Shabbos) is 1099.

********

(Talmud Torah):תלמוד תורה

• תלמוד (Talmud): ת (Tav) = 400, ל (Lamed) = 30, מ (Mem) = 40, ו (Vav) = 6, ד (Dalet) = 4
  • Total: 400 + 30 + 40 + 6 + 4 = 480
• תורה (Torah): ת (Tav) = 400, ו (Vav) = 6, ר (Resh) = 200, ה (He) = 5
  • Total: 400 + 6 + 200 + 5 = 611

Total for  ---תלמוד תורה: 480 + 611 = 1091

ח (Chet) (SIN) Numerical Value: 8---- TOTAL = 1099

Porush added his best wishes to students of the yeshiva currently serving and engaged in the “battle against the vile murderers” of Hamas.

 Porush Takes Chutzpah To A New Level!

Haredi minister upbraids national religious for opposing military draft exemptions

 

Speaking at flagship yeshiva of religious Zionist movement, Meir Porush says it ‘is not appropriate to criticize the order of our conduct’

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Meir Porush - Makes Arye Deri Look Like a Saint!

 

Addressing students at the flagship yeshiva of the religious Zionist movement on Wednesday, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush condemned members of the more modern religious community who criticize the ultra-Orthodox effort to secure widespread military exemptions for their youth.

“I don’t deny the complexities between us, the differences in attitudes, but we need to resolve this between us. On both sides, there are public figures of sufficient stature, who can gather in a room, and reach a proper and respectful solution that preserves the world of Torah and yeshivas,” the senior United Torah Judaism lawmaker declared during a Jerusalem Day speech at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

“But it is not appropriate for individuals from religious Zionism to criticize our conduct and our policies of continuous Torah study,” he insisted.

He added his best wishes to students of the yeshiva currently serving and engaged in the “battle against the vile murderers” of Hamas.

Haredi women and male yeshiva students are generally exempt from military service due to controversial longstanding arrangements that have generated significant criticism and resentment among the general population.

With the courts deeming those arrangements illegitimate, the government is currently caught in a contentious public dispute over the future of the Haredi draft.

Responding to Porush’s comments, Yehuda Veld, the director general of the Religious Zionism party, tweeted a quote from Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook — the former dean of the yeshiva and the son of its founder — stating that exemptions from army service constituted a “dishonor of the Torah.”

“To come to his yeshiva and speak against him is simply impudence and contempt for scholars,” Veld declared.

In 2017, the High Court of Justice invalidated the Haredi draft exemptions as discriminatory and ordered the government to pass a new conscription law. The government has since been unable to agree on legislation, repeatedly extending the non-conscription policy, while Haredi politicians have sought to pass legislation cementing the exemptions.

On March 28, the High Court ordered the state to cut funding for yeshiva students eligible for the draft who do not enlist as of April 1, prompting Porush to accuse it of “imposing economic sanctions against those who chose to study the Holy Torah.”

“This is a serious violation of our right to exist in the Land of Israel – the highest judicial authority of the State of Israel seeks to throw Torah scholars into prison,” he declared at the time. “We will not put up with this situation and will fight to cancel the decision immediately, along with the effort to quickly regulate the status of yeshiva members so that they can observe the Torah without interruption.”

 

Students pray at Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem

 

During a high-stakes hearing Sunday on petitions demanding the immediate conscription of thousands of yeshiva students, a panel of nine High Court justices was sharply and unambiguously critical of the government’s claims that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students should not be drafted into the army.

The nine justices presiding over the hearing, including conservatives, expressed intense skepticism — bordering at times on anger — toward the claims and remarks of the legal representatives of the government and the state-funded Haredi yeshivas, accusing them of “word games” and “going round in circles,” and even appearing to mock their arguments.

The sharp and at times caustic responses of the justices to the government’s arguments appeared to suggest the court’s patience with the decades-long failure of successive governments to deal with the Haredi enlistment conundrum has run out.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-minister-upbraids-national-religious-for-opposing-military-draft-exemptions/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2024-06-07&utm_medium=email

SBC leaders do just enough to make it look like they care (Agudath Israel Take Note), without any real progress. You have more in common with the Xtians than you'll admit to.

 

SBC abuse reform task force ends its work with no names on database and no long-term plan 

 

Their report marks the second time a proposed database for abusive pastors has been derailed.

(RNS) — A volunteer Southern Baptist task force charged with implementing abuse reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination will end its work next week without a single name published on a database of abusers.

The task force’s report marks the second time a proposed database for abusive pastors has been derailed by denominational apathy, legal worries and a desire to protect donations to the Southern Baptist Convention’s mission programs.

Leaders of the SBC’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force say a lack of funding, concerns about insurance and other unnamed difficulties hindered the group’s work.

“The process has been more difficult than we could have imagined,” the task force said in a report published Tuesday (June 4). “And in truth, we made less progress than we desired due to the myriad obstacles and challenges we encountered in the course of our work.”

To date, no names appear on the “Ministry Check” website designed to track abusive pastors, despite a mandate from Southern Baptists to create the database. The committee has also found no permanent home or funding for abuse reforms, meaning that two of the task force’s chief tasks remain unfinished.

Because of liability concerns about the database, the task force set up a separate nonprofit to oversee the Ministry Check website. That new nonprofit, known as the Abuse Response Committee, has been unable to publish any names because of objections raised by SBC leaders.

“At present, ARC has secured multiple affordable insurance bids and successfully completed the vetting and legal review of nearly 100 names for inclusion on Ministry Check at our own expense with additional names to be vetted pending the successful launch of the website,” the task force said in its report. 

Josh Wester, the North Carolina pastor who chairs the ARITF, said the Abuse Response Committee — whose leaders include four task force members — could independently publish names to Ministry Check in the future but wants to make a good-faith effort to address the Executive Committee’s concerns.

Task force leaders say they raised $75,000 outside of the SBC to vet the initial names of abusers. That list includes names of sexual offenders who were either convicted of abuse in a criminal court or who have had a civil judgment against them.

“To date, the SBC has contributed zero funding toward the vetting of names for Ministry Check,” according to a footnote in the task force report.

Earlier this year, the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission designated $250,000 toward abuse reform to be used by the ARITF. Wester hopes those funds will be made available to ARC for the Ministry Check site. The SBC’s two mission boards pledged nearly $4 million to assist churches in responding to abuse but have said none of that money can be given to ARC. 

The lack of progress on reforms has abuse survivor and activist Christa Brown shaking her head.

“Why can’t a billion-dollar organization come up with the resources to do this?” asked Brown, who for years ran a list of convicted Baptist abusers at a website, StopBaptistPredators.org, which aggregated stories about cases of abuse.

Brown sees the lack of progress on reforms as part of a larger pattern in the SBC. While church messengers and volunteers like those on the ARITF want reform and work hard to address the issue of reforms, there’s no help from SBC leaders or institutions. Instead, she said, SBC leaders do just enough to make it look like they care, without any real progress.

 

READ MORE: 

https://religionnews.com/2024/06/04/sbc-abuse-reform-task-force-ends-its-work-with-no-names-on-database-and-no-long-term-future-plan/

More than 300 million children across the globe are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse each year, research suggests.

 Debi Fry, a professor of international child protection at the university, said the issue affects children “in every classroom, in every school, in every country”.

More than 300m children victims of online sexual abuse every year

 

First global study of its kind exposes ‘staggering scale’ of crime, with one in nine men in the US admitting to the offence

More than 300 million children across the globe are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse each year, research suggests.

In what is believed to be the first global estimate of the scale of the crisis, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that 12.6% of the world’s children have been victims of nonconsensual talking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year, equivalent to about 302 million young people.

A similar proportion – 12.5% – had been subject to online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk that can include sexting, sexual questions and sexual act requests by adults or other youths.

Offences can also take the form of “sextortion”, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, and abuse of AI deepfake technology.

The research suggested that the US is a particularly high-risk area. The university’s Childlight initiative – which aims to understand the prevalence of child abuse – includes a new global index, which found that one in nine men in the US (equivalent to almost 14 million) admitted online offending against children at some point.

Surveys found 7% of British men, equivalent to 1.8 million, admitted the same.

The research also found many men admitted they would seek to commit physical sexual offences against children if they thought it would be kept secret.

The chief executive of Childlight, Paul Stanfield, said: “This is on a staggering scale that in the UK alone equates to forming a line of male offenders that could stretch all the way from Glasgow to London – or filling Wembley Stadium 20 times over.

“Child abuse material is so prevalent that files are on average reported to watchdog and policing organisations once every second.

“This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country, it’s growing exponentially, and it requires a global response.

“We need to act urgently and treat it as a public health issue that can be prevented. Children can’t wait.”

Stephen Kavanagh, the executive director of Interpol, said traditional law enforcement approaches were struggling to keep up. “We must do much more together at a global level, including specialist investigator training, better data sharing and equipment to effectively fight this pandemic and the harm it inflicts on millions of young lives around the world,” he said.

Grace Tame, a child sexual abuse survivor, who founded the Grace Tame Foundation, said a centralised global research database was essential to safeguarding children.

 

Rabbi Pinchas Scheinberg, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and bais din judge.

"If he doesn't penetrate, you can wait" "If the pants don't fit, you must acquit"

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/27/more-than-300m-children-victims-of-online-sexual-abuse-every-year

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/more-300-million-children-face-230100531.html