I am not a big fan of Minister Dudi Amsalem. In recent years I have taken a strong dislike to him.

Haaretz has an interesting story about a young lady who couldnt play basketball on her team. 

Tel Aviv is a great example of a place where pretty much everything goes, and there is a room for everybody, as long as you have a live and let live approach. This is true of most big cities, though not necessarily always true regarding neighborhoods within, and that is one of the great things of Tel Aviv and other big cities.

An Orthodox Hassidic Jewish sailor in the US Navy, aboard Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt, has been fighting for an exemption from shaving. he wants to keep his beard for religious reasons.

the premise is taking 5 secular people, each having a close relative (eg son, brother, father, etc) who became religious and cut off ties, connecting each to someone in the Haredi community to observe for a period of time with the goal being to bring the relatives together.




I find this search fascinating, but at the same time troubling. It always bothers me when religion comes between people, especially close relatives. People can be friends and people can have close relationships without trying to impose their lifestyle on each other...

There is an interesting battle going on, and it is centered on the Ministry for Religious Affairs.

Despite the fact that the government has only been a caretaker government for nearly a year, with no coalition and already two rounds of elections behind us with a third on the way, political parties are making their demands for what ministries they expect to receive authority over in a future government, as a condition for entering a coalition, and others are fighting about what ministries to be given now, even in just a temporary capacity..

The most interesting of these is the "New Right", Yamina, led by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked. Both have made statements that they will demand as a condition for entry into a future coalition both the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Bennett said he would appoint a professional appointment to this position rather than a political appointment), and the election of a Zionist rabbi to the Chief Rabbinate.

Shas, currently in control of this ministry and having been in control of this ministry for many years in recent history, has responded with attacks on Bennett. They scoff at the size of his party wondering why he thinks such a small party should get it. They scoff at Bennett, the current Defense Minister, asking if he is willing to trade the Defense Ministry for the Religious Affairs Ministry. They attack him for being responsible for the elections by not uniting with other parties and not passing the threshold thus wasting many right wing votes. They attack Bennett for not treating the ministry properly when he did control it. Basically, Shas is fighting back saying they want to keep this ministry and Bennett can't/shan't take it away from them.

On the one hand, the fight is silly, especially in context of the current difficulty in forming a government. Maybe they need to focus on campaigning, bringing in votes, uniting with other parties to ensure they pass the threshold, and whatever else is part of an election campaign. Talking about future coalitions and jobs is a bit premature at this point.

On the other hand, it excites the electorate. people love some good political sparring. people love some good fighting, some good arguing. This wakes everyone else up. Maybe he deserves it, maybe not. Maybe Shas deserves it, maybe not. That does not matter. This type of a fight can be good to wake people up and excite them and get things moving. I would not be surprised if it was even coordinated between the two parties, as it is really good for both of them.

I am not even sure why the Yamina party would even want the position, besides for just to create the excitement of a fight. They talk about being religious "lite" and more right of a party than religious, so if they are going to remain small and only deserve one or two ministries, it seems that Religious Affairs would not be their focus.

This is similar to the Likud primary. Saar is great for putting his neck on the line against Bibi, but nobody expects him to even get close to winning. The primary seems like a big waste of time and resources, but it is great for the Likud electorate. This is a good energizer for them and will give them momentum into the campaign for the general elections.

An article in Mako is complaining about hadata, or religious coercion, in the form of faith-based music.

The author has a problem that he turns on the radio in his car and hears two men singing a song being played about asking God to save us. And this is on Galgalatz, the IDF music station, not religious radio. He changes the station and hears two men singing a song about God. He switches to a third station and hears Neta Barzilai (the recent Israeli Eurovision winner with the chicken clucking song), Moshe Peretz and Omer Adam singing about the great God. He goes back to Galgalatz figuring the song will soon be over and something else will be playing, but the next song playing is also similar to those.

According to Gal Ochovsky, faith-based music is the hottest genre in Israel right now. Ishay Ribo is the hottest concert ticket in town. According to Ochovsky, Ishay Ribo consistently steps up the religious coercion in his songs, with his latest release being the ultimate in faith music, with the next step being separate-gender concerts and no female singers will be broadcast on the radio.

Ochovsky claims the religious are conquering the airwaves. He claims that the religious singers and performers, such as Ishay Ribo, Shuli Rand, Amir Benayoun, Hanan Ben Ari, and others, are trying to turn everyone religious through their music.

Ochovsky says that this is what the religious radio stations are for. Tefillot should not be on the general radio stations. He claims there is a direct line between these songs and Rav Firer's evening event that was cancelled and songs like Vetain Chelkainu that had only male performers participating about gemara-learning groups that only men learn in (I guess he has not heard about the women's daf yomi).

Ochovsky says this is not a musical trend, but it is a faith campaign. The music is not really music - all you need is a nice melody, a guitar and that everyone should realize the song is about God and we believe and thank Him, and nobody cares about production and quality and musical notes. He protests that stations like Galgalatz are in on that action.

While singers like Omer Adam and Eyal Golan and the like can get away with the occasional song like Modeh Ani and Mee Shemaamin lo Mefached and others like that because it is diversity in their repertoire, and they perform alongside women. There is a certain sense of the Middle Eastern tradition in this, and not something overtly religious.

Ishay Ribo can sing about whatever he wants, with whoever he wants. He can sit with Natan Goshen and cry out to God all day long to save them, but these are missionary type songs. Right now Ishay Ribo only performs separately once a year, but in a few years he will add more and more gender-separate concerts, and he'll start performing with singers like Yonatan and Ahron Razel who will request gender-segregation.

According to ochovsky this faith-music industry is an attempt to subvert the secular character of the State and turn it more religious.

Personally I doubt Ishay Ribo is attacking anything and trying to change the country, but I really know nothing about his inner feelings and motivations. I do see how Gal Ochovsky is worried and feels threatened by the success of singers like Ishay Ribo, because extremism is regularly spreading, as we saw by the Rav Firer event (in the sense that suddenly an event with secular performers in front of a secular audience was justified for excluding women).

I get that Ochovsky sees a trend that he does not like, but this is the free market. People like Ishay Ribo's music and the radio stations play it because it brings in the listeners and therefore the advertising revenue. Ishay Ribo is not banning women - he is a lone singer who sometimes collaborates with other singers but he performs before mixed crowds. Assuming he wont in two or three years is just an assumption. He should not be banned from the radio waves just because Gal Ochovsky is making an assumption about something that might or might not happen. I can understand the secular radio stations not playing Mordechai Ben David and Motti Steinmetz music, should they choose not to, as a way of taking a stand, because those types of performers do behave in ways that the secular community eschews, and those performers eschew the secular community, so I can understand not giving them a platform. Banning Ishay Ribo and others like him seems to me to be an overstep.

It seems a Lubavitch man applied for a job on McDonald's (not kosher, in the USA). McDonald's responded that if he wanted the job he would have to shave his beard. The applicant offered to keep his beard in a net, but he could not shave it off as it goes against his religious principles. McDonald's said that will not work for them and did not give him the job - the applicant claims only because of the beard, as he says was told by the manager that he would have the job if not for that policy violation.

The applicant is now suing McDonald's for violation his religious freedoms and denying him a job for a reason that goes against his religious principles. He applied for the job, and was rejected, in 2016, so he is suing now, in 2019, for back wages for the 3 years he would have been employed by them had they not violated his religious freedom.
source: Newsweek

One fact I left out is that he had applied for work as a maintenance worker, not as a food server or as a cook. I can understand the beard policy with no compromise for someone in a position handling food, but as a maintenance worker changing lightbulbs, fixing leaky sinks, touching up the paint job, adjusting loose chairs, and the like, I do not see why they cannot compromise on this policy in situations of religious needs. I guess the New York Yankees (now known as the New York Savages) also have a strict no facial hair policy with no compromises ever given, so maybe there is something more to it then a loose hair falling into the food and more of a uniform clean look as part of their corporate image.

I have seen online in social media many people claiming this guy is a fraud and he simply found an easy lawsuit he is looking to make money off. There is no way, they claim, that a frum guy would apply to work, for real, in a McDonald's, so the entire application was just a scam looking to build a case for an eventual lawsuit.

I have no way to know this guy's motives, but I do not see why that has to be true. Today in the USA pretty much anybody can work anywhere with no real limitations. This guy was not applying to serve or prepare treif food, that might be a halachic problem and surely he would not want to do that, but to work in the maintenance department. I doubt there is anything halachically inappropriate about working in McDonalds or in other treif restaurants in a non-food capacity, such as cleaning the toilets, changing the lightbulbs, painting the walls, and all the other issues that require the attention of the maintenance people. In the Land of the Free, in the land of opportunity and freedom, in the current millennium, people can pretty much find ways to do almost anything with few, if any limitations.

While I can understand why some frum people might look at this as a scam and an easy lawsuit, I see no reason this cannot be legitimate. 

The Yom Haatzmaut torch-lighting ceremony was wonderful, and it was hosted by Linor Abergil.

Abergil is an interesting personality. She is a former model who had won the Miss World competition. She eventually became religious, and studied law and became a lawyer, giving up her modeling career. At some point she was critical of her previous environment and publicized that she had been raped while competing in the beauty pageants. Abergil has become an advocate against sexual violence.

A retired judge, Oded Alyagor, posted on his Facebook page, a post that he later deleted, criticism of Abergil's hosting of the ceremony. Alyagor wrote a very vulgar post criticizing Abergil's elaborate hair covering, at the same time as commenting on other body parts of hers. There was some other criticism of Abergil hosting the ceremony being religious and whatnot, but there was very little and the noise was almost completely Alyagor's comment.

The post caused a firestorm of comments and op-eds in support of Linor Abergil and against this judge in particular and and against the anti-religious sentiment expressed. Even the court system and former Justice Ministers criticized him saying he retired a long time ago, he was never representative of the courts, he was problematic even when he was a judge saying horrible things against Arabs and against Haredim and because of the things he said, he was never advanced past his little courtroom and that led to his early retirement.

So basically this idiot said something vulgar and stupid and it should not really be worthy of comment. Not every time someone says something stupid do we need to weigh in. But by now it has snowballed into a movement. MK Sharon Haskel of the Likud blew it up by posting online that in solidarity with Abergil she will wear a similar headdress for a week and called on others to do the same. Good for her. Abergil did a fine job, was very classy in her role as host, and Alyagon was crass and vulgar and the opposite of refinement and high culture of liberalism and acceptance of others.

One thing Alyagor clarified, after the fact, is that his post, which he removed, was really about Abergil being a hypocrite. He says that her elaborate headdress speaking to an extreme level of modesty, was in contrast to her tight dress showing off some of her other body parts in a less than modest way. His clarification did nothing to fix what he initially said.

One thing he does not get, as many do not, especially among the non-religious but even among many religious, is that people are not perfect. People are not all black or all white, or all of any color in between. Just because a woman likes a certain headdress, even if it normally means one thing or another, does not mean she is perfect in all aspects of modesty. Just because a person is religious does not mean he or she does nothing wrong ever. We all have challenges, we all have desires, we all have inclinations and we all have weaknesses. We try our best, and sometimes we win and overcome our challenges and sometimes we do not. Far be it from me to know or suggest what challenges Linor Abergil has to deal with and what her weaknesses are, but nobody is perfect and even if somehow Alyagor has the right or knowledge to judge that Abergil was dressed inappropriately, which he does not, people, including Linor Abergil are not perfect and it is a constant challenge to try to do the right thing and we do not always win. And sometimes we are at different stages where we are prepared to take on one aspect of religion fully but not yet ready to take on another aspect fully.

As an aside, I had another comment about this issue being that the secular demand Haredi, and religious in general, integration into society, yet when it actually happens, they get upset. They are worried about the face of the country suddenly looking more religious than they are comfortable with. It seems they dont actually want integration, they just want to control other sectors. Then I realized this protest was of one man, and maybe a few other militant secular people who jumped on the bandwagon, but even the general secular community generally, and admirably, criticized and rejected Alyagor and his comments. So perhaps my comment on integration was wrong.

The art museum in Haifa has a display that has upset many people's religious sensibilities. The display is one entitled "McJesus" and has what looks like a Ronald McDonald figure being crucified.

The Christian community is upset about this, understandably so, and has gone out to protest the display. 200 protesters showed up, and the protest got physically violent at some point as protesters tried to force their way in to the museum in order to remove the display.

According to the museum, this display has been up for 6 months already and is set to come down in about 3 weeks as the entire exhibition comes to a close. the exhibition is about the culture of consumerism. McJesus has already been on display in other countries around Europe.
source: Ynet

Why this caused a ruckus now after being up for half a year already I do not know.

In general it is not really a good thing to scoff at or make fun of other people's religions, just as nobody would want their own religion to be scoffed at. Personally I also think that people need more of a sens eof humor and even if we should not scoff at other people, we should not take ourselves so seriously that we have to get upset at every little thing that might be offensive.

The City of Rishon LeTzion has been running a pilot for a while to open libraries for the religious community. At the request of the community's representatives, the city agreed to run this pilot in which they open 4 libraries once a week after hours - meaning, after the library has already closed its regular operating hours for the public. As well, the library removes from the shelves books deemed inappropriate for the religious public for the duration of the opening hours for the religious community.

The pilot has come to an end, due to a lawsuit for discrimination.

Lee Weizman sued the city of Rishon claiming she was discriminated against when she noticed the branch of the library open and decided to return books she had borrowed. She was told she could not do so at that time, though after arguing they accepted the books from her. Another time as well she went to exchange books and was refused service, but after arguing the manager got involved and let her get new books in exchange for the books she was returning.

Weizman complained to the city but her complaint was ignored, so she decided to sue instead. She sued the city for 75,000nis. The counter claim by the city is that in both incidents in which she tried to avail herself of the library's services, she was provided the service, so she was not discriminated against.

The court decided in favor of Weizman, though for far less than what she claimed. The court awarded her 10,000nis. The judge explained that making separate hours for the religious "torani" community in the municipal library is discriminatory and against the law, as it discriminates against the secular community during those hours. Being that this is not a religious service, and nothing in the service provided by the library requires making a distinction between the religious and secular communities. The fact that a religious community might choose to not avail themselves of the service during regular hours for their ideological reasons does not make it discriminatory against them.

The City's response was that the city tried this pilot to allow the religious public to use the library. The library continued to function as normal for the secular and general public during the same hours as always and nothing was changed for them. The pilot has now been canceled.
source: Ynet

Personally I dont know why people feel they cannot go to a library when secular people are there. Nor do I know why some people might feel insulted or upset because of certain books on the shelves that they won't even borrow to read. However, I do think it is a shame that there seemingly cannot be a legal way to provide services to such communities in a way they find acceptable. Different strokes for different folks. The question is where it will lead to. At what point will the court say that this separation of groups is ok and we will not intervene - will shuls and yeshivas and seminaries eventually become a target as well?

Regarding this case, it is interesting that the Dati community in Rishon wanted to separate themselves for the general public in this way. The Dati community generally prides itself on being involved with the general community and not being isolationists.

Also, how is a librarian supposed to determine if someone is part of the Dati community and provide the service, or not? Even if a person comes in dressed not classicly religious, there is a wide range of people within every community, and people have kids who don't conform exactly to the way the parents want. I dont know how the librarian determined Weizman should not be provided the service, most likely by whatever way she was dressed, but it seems this entire exercise was flawed in that anybody not dressed overtly secular (whatever that might mean) should have been able to get away with getting into the library without too much effort, thus rendering the entire exercise pointless to begin with.

By now you must have surely heard the news about the Chabad event scheduled for Tel Aviv's Rabin Square that was blocked by Mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai..



in case you haven't heard, briefly, Chabad was putting on this event called "Mashiach BaKikar" - an event celebrating what Chabad calls "Chag HaGeulah" the holiday of redemption, as the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson had been released from Russian prison. At the holiday event in Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv, as you can see from the sign, in addition to musical perfromances by Meilech Kahn, Mendy jarufe, Ariel Zilber and Avi Ben Yisrael, they were going to greet the Messiah, praise God, talk about the wholeness of the Land of Israel and its security and get blessings from the King Messiah.

Being that the event was planned to be gender-separate, the mayor, Ron Huldai, went and got legal opinion stating that because it is gender-separate and is taking place on public property he can/should legally cancel the event as being discriminatory against women. So he did.

Since Huldai declared the event canceled and off-limits, there has been a wave of anger against him and claims of being anti-religious. The obvious comparisons were brought up, such as to a women-only race that took place not long ago on the streets of Tel Aviv, along with other events that are female-only that seem to be allowed.

I dont think I have anything unique to say on this. Nobody is saying they cannot rent a hall and have their event there. Just that legally they cannot have such an event in the public area. Besides for that, they complain about the intolerance the secular have of the religious community, and that is a problem. However that problem is equalized by the intolerance the religious have for the secular community.

In general, the live and let live approach needs to spread more around all the different communities. We needn't feel so threatened by every event or statement made by other people in a different style than what we would prefer. Tel Aviv won't lose its character by a Chabad event taking places within the borders of the city, nor will Jerusalem or other cities lose its character by secular events taking place in them.

Army officials have made their decisions today and it seems it has been decided that Brigadier General Ofer Vinter will not be promoted. Generally when this happens at this level it means this is the end for Vinter in the IDF.

To remind you, Vinter is a religious Brigadier General, and would have been the first religious person to reach this  level in the IDF, which now will not happen.

The suspicion is that the top brass did not like Vinter due to his outspoken religious beliefs. He upset many in the last Gaza War when he published a letter for the soldiers under his command in which he referenced God. Since then, Vinter has been continually passed over for promotions. Essentially he is now being pushed out of the IDF.

We do not actually know the reason Vinter was rejected for promotion. The people who make these decisions have not said what the reason is. Anything spoken about among th epublic is just the suspicion, not actual fact.

To that end, it would be a shame if that is the approach of IDF brass, rejecting good soldiers because of non-soldiering issues that in no way cause problems for his service. It is especially bothersome in the days in which the number of religious soldiers in the IDF is increasing by leaps and bounds, and the army works to incorporate even more into the IDF from among the Haredi community. Either they want religious boys or they do not, but forcing them in and then forcing them out makes no sense.

That being said, it is inevitable that it will eventually happen. The IDF head honchos can only delay it for so long, but not forever. At a certain point, they won't be able to avoid it any longer. It is just a matter of time.

I had no idea, but it seems from a report in Jerusalem Local MYnet that the secular residents have been holding protests the past several weeks on Shabbos against the increasing secular coercion in the city. It seems the protests are being held on Road 1 (not the highway but an internal Road 1 in Jerusalem, near Shivtei Yisrael St, behind Mea Shearim).

While I do not know what kind of protests are being held there, it does seem to have effected a change in the Eida's protests, as they have moved theirs to Shivtei Yisrael to counter the secular protests.

The secular participants say they are satisfied as far fewer Haredim are walking around town and approaching bars and pubs and bothering people there. From the Eida side of the protests they are calling these "provocative protests" - only other people protesting is provocative - and say that these protests are not going to change anything and will not cause them to cancel their regular protests against chilul shabbos.

It seems there was a video last week of young (teens?) Haredim on Friday night speaking inappropriately about the secular protesters and the Eida disassociates form them saying they do not need to justify, explain or reject everything someone dressed Haredi says or does. It also seems there was a video of secular protesters spray painting inappropriate messages to try to prevent Haredim from protesting in the area. The secular protesters condemn such actions and call on the police to take action against them.

Jerusalem is very hot right now. I don't know why this has not made a bigger splash in the news sites.

interesting situation..

The Ministry of Religious Affairs appointed a news spokesperson. After the fact they discovered that this person is not religious, and posts things online publicly on Shabbos. There are calls for the appointment to be revoked, and the Minister has said that if he will not resign and remove himself from the office, he, the Minister, will have to fire him.
source: Kipa

While it seems to be logical that the Ministry of religious Affairs should have someone religious filling so public a role as spokesperson, I don't know that it is crucial for the job - he can probably perform the job of spokesperson perfectly fine even as a not-religious person.

So, if any other office in the country refused to hire someone, or fired that person, because he is religious, that would surely be illegal, and the religious parties would be up in arms over it, but firing someone because he is not religious is ok and legal? I wonder if this will go to court...

A common destination in recent years for small groups of Israelis, and especially Breslavers, has been the grave of Ahron Hakohen in Jordan.

According to a report on Kikar, the authorities in Jordan have told a group of Israelis who are there to daven by Ahron Hakohen's grave for his yahrtzeit, that because of the tense situation (with the shootings by the Israeli Embassy in Jordan), they will not be allowed to pray at the grave. Anybody seen doing so, will be arrested.

Rav Zalicha from Bnei Braq, who is present in Jordan, also says that the Jordanians are not letting them daven anywhere in Jordan, not just at the grave of Ahron, even in the privacy of their own hotel rooms, and not to put on tallis and/or tefillin. I am not sure how they can know that unless they have video cameras in all the rooms in the country, or at least where it is common for Israelis to stay.

The connection to Har Habayit is greater than just blaming Arab violence on Israelis actions at Har Habayit. If Israel does not allow Jews to pray on Har Habayit, and if the Arabs don't allow Jews to pray on Har Habayit and Israel lets that go with no outcry, how can we be upset when Jordan does not let Jews pray, whether in a hotel room or at the grave of Ahron Hakohen?

As by now you surely know, the new person, Yossi Cohen, appointed to head the Mossad is a somewhat religious Jew. he grew up religious, learned in yeshiva, his kids learn in yeshiva, he is shomer shabbat and keeps kosher, though he does not normally wear a kippa during the week, and is an accomplished person with a strong record as a Mossad agent.

After the appointment was made public last week, Cohen spoke on shabbos in his shul in Modiin. During his drasha he mentioned that the State was founded with God's help. Cohen also said that the State still needs God's help today.

This threw the media and many on the Left into a frenzy. How dare Cohen mention God! How dare Cohen, the head of Israel's intelligence agency, believe that God had some role in our country! Will he next turn the State into a halacha state? Will he cancel democracy? How dare he talk about God in a speech in shul!

this is a Jewish state, in addition to being democratic. With more religious people moving into more and more roles of leadership and authority, they better quickly get used to the new approach, to hearing God mentioned a little more frequently than before.

I see nothing wrong with what he said nor with what he believes. The strong rejection of what he said by some is more troubling. This is a Jewish State. God plays a role. Somehow, somewhat is something that can perhaps be debated, but it is time the Left, the media and the secular accept the fact that the religious, even those in leadership roles, include God in their lifestyle and beliefs.

And. the best thing about Cohen's speech in shul was probably that he got, perhaps for the first time, so many people to go to shul when they normally wouldn't - just because they wanted to hear what he would say, perhaps get some scoop (as they did). Perhaps one or two were even inspired by what he said or by something else in the services. It at least opens the door for them.

According to INN, the Left is concerned that there is a takeover of the IDF going on by the religious.

All I have to say is that they started a process of bringing more and more religious people into the army, they will now reap what they sow. If they did not want so many religious people in the army, moving into leadership positions, they should have left the system alone. They thought they were fixing it, and it turned out not to their liking. Oh well.

You can't have everything. That's what I was always told. the Left can't have all the religious in the army, btu still retain control and run the army the way it used to be. The more religious people that join, the more religious people there will be moving into the running of the army.

You reap what you sow.