We now write antisemitism (n.), antisemitic (adj.), without a hyphen and with no capitalization.
This is a change from AP's previous style: anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic.#ACES2021Online

— APStylebook (@APStylebook) April 23, 2021

Since yesterday's post about the Haredi family in Jerusalem that were really missionaries, much more information has come out and been made public. I posted some links in the comments section of yesterday's post, and you can check those links out for more details and information.

What I wanted to add here, after being in touch with people who knew the family personally and were even involved along the way with the discovery of the family's real identity, is that the entire story seems less dramatic than it initially sounded or as the news made it out to be.

First, Mr Fraud, Michael Elkohen, was learning in a kabbalist yeshiva and claimed to be a cousin of Baba Sali. That is pretty funny. I wonder if he was aiming to turn himself into a Baba like the rest of the family and make millions off the family name.

The anti-missionary organizations knew about them for a while and were not overly concerned. Maybe because they were not actively missionizing. I do not fully understand because even without the missionary work they were non-Jews posing as Jews and should have been outed. Perhaps they served treif food to friends and to community members (ie guests for Shabbos, shalach manos, meal train participation, etc). While it might not be the worst prohibition in the Torah, at minimum anyone who ate their food was eating bishul akum even if the food was not actual treif. So the organizations seem to have known but were not overly concerned.

It seems he was sofer but never wrote a torah and the mezuzas and tefillin he wrote were not sold publicly but were written for his messianic community. Also he was not a public mohel but only circumcised his children. I am not sure all this information is 100% true - if a friend asked him to do a bris, would he always have said no? If a friend asked for tefillin or a mezuza would he always have said no? If we knew he was writing for messianics all along, how was he not exposed earlier? It sounds strange but it also sounds like his influence, in the sense of being a messianic and missionary, was very minimal.

The worst of it seems to be the deception on a personal and communal level. They made friendships, they used that to raise money from friends, all based on a false persona created by deception. That hurts people who were their friends.

The news has been reporting that PM Netanyahu (or someone on his behalf) offered (or floated the idea that) Aryeh Deri might be Prime Minister for an initial term of 1 year and only after that will Netanyahu serve as Prime Minister in a rotation agreement. (Deri says he is not interested, though I don't know why not)

Another proposal reported on is that of Netanyahu trying to sway Benny Gantz to join his coalition with Gantz's 8 mandates, in exchange for a rotation agreement, but this time Gantz would serve as Prime Minister first. Gantz supposedly said no, though I don't know why. I guess that ship has sailed.

Another idea discussed has been having someone else form the Likud, maybe Yariv Levin, serve as Prime Minister first, in order to form a coalition, and then after a year switch to Netanyahu.

Basically, Netanyahu seems willing to offer the position of Prime Minister, and first in a rotation arrangement, to almost anyone with a pulse other than Naftali Bennett.

MK Moshe Arbel (Shas) has approached the Ministry of Justice with a request to cancel all fines given for people leaving their homes beyond the allowed distance during the October lockdown.

 The Supreme Court already ruled that all fines given during the October lockdown to people who left their homes beyond the permitted distance to participate in a protest must be canceled. The right to protest is a basic right in a democracy and the people should not be fined for it.  Arbel has petitioned the Ministry to equate people leaving their homes for the purpose of prayer to that Supreme Court decision and any fines given to people who left their homes for the purpose of prayer should be canceled retroactively.

According to Kol Hai News, the Ministry of Justice is considering the request, and is also considering canceling all fines from that lockdown (for leaving home beyond permitted distance). The reason for this consideration is that the police do not have accurate information on the fines and who got fined for what exactly and why they had been beyond the permitted distance. 

Arbel is also requesting that should these fines get canceled, anybody who already paid the fine should get his money back. And obviously anyone in the process of legal issues because of the fines (ie added interest, collection agency, hotzaa lapoel, etc) should be released form all that with it canceled.

We all knew it was coming. Nothing surprising here. Break the rules, don't pay the fines and the politicians will get it canceled for you. The rest of us are freiers, suckers, but that's ok, and we knew it already anyway. 

Hatzala Beit Shemesh from Menachem Schloss on Vimeo.