Government Will Approve Today: Exemption for Haredim from the IDF Draft 

  -- Globes

All the media are running this type of a headline, but it is more sensationalist and less than accurate. The exemption being given is going to be for those avreichim who will volunteer for a form of sheirut leumi. 1300 avreichim will be "drafted" for the national service - those from 26 and above (with even no children), and those from 22 years old with one child, will qualify for this program. There will be some financial benefits for those who join, such as monthly stipends and arnona discounts. This arrangement will be in effect until August 31, 2013.

A lot of politicians are making a lot of noise about this decision. They are screaming about how the government is exempting the haredim from the army, and it goes against the ideal of equal service for all. They seem to be ignoring the fact that the exemption is only for those volunteering for national/civil service. All along that had been pegged as a fair and reasonable option for equal service - either full IDF service or national/civil service. Now that a plan is being put into place, suddenly those politicians are looking to earn some political profit off opposing it. These 1300 haredim are not being exempted from the IDF and let go for no reason - they are going to be performing some sort of national service.

this image is being passed around. I don't know the source, but it is a powerful image. I know a series of photos were recently released to the published from Wermacht archives, but I don't know if this is from that set.

I just stumbled across this video. I havent even had time yet to watch the whole thing, but from the ilittle I did watch so far it is fascinating/intriguing/troubling..

It is a tough call - guard the holiness of Jerusalem through religious coercion and imposing my lifestyle on other people who live differently, or live and let live allowing people to do what they want, especially when it does not affect me directly, but in effect degrading the holiness of Jerusalem.

Mixed dancing in public is different than using images of women in advertising. There is nothing wrong with the face of a woman on a billboard, but mixed dancing is a problem. As a matter of fact, as the jokes go, it might be the biggest of all the problems (i.e. x is prohibited because it might lead to mixed dancing).

Haredi representatives in Jerusalem City Hall are upset about plans that have been formulated for more cultural events that will include evening dances in Kikar Safra, the plaza outside of City Hall. The dances are planned to be mixed with men and women together. The haredi reps say they will not allow these dances to be approved. The only way they will allow it, they say, if the Iryah insists, is by designating either separate hours or separate days for men and women. The Iryah said they are moving ahead with the plans and the events will be passed and dancing will be with no separation.
(source: Mynet)

 In the evening hours, and on Saturday nights, Kikar Safra is quiet and fairly empty. During the day it is busy with people coming and going taking care of their business, but at night it is quiet. Having these dances at night will not usually disturb any haredim directly. It is not right next to a haredi neighborhood, haredim do not need to pass through there (unless they want to), and it is nighttime events so there isnt even city business to take care of. Yet, holding such dances is still against the general haredi worldview regarding the holiness of Jerusalem. So, even though it does not affect them directly, it still bothers them.

I personally lean to prefer less religious coercion, considering the world we live in. Religious coercion never achieves anything, and in the end only causes more problems creating a negative approach to religion. If it does not affect me directly, and if I can avoid it, better to let them live their lives how they want.

Rav Eliyahu Abergil, av beis din of Yerushalayim, seems to publish unique piskei halacha. Some of his halachic decisions have been featured here in the past, and today we will see nother interesting psak of his.

According to the report on Mako, Rav Abergil has recently published a psak halacha that prohibits rabbonim, shuls, yeshivot, gabbaim and other religious organizations from accepting donations from criminals.

Rav Abergil says that their money is stolen money, not like the hard earned money of regular citizens who donate wholeheartedly. The criminals steal money via charging protection fees to business, or they get their money via dirty businesses such as prostitution and casinos. Money earned through criminal activity cannot be accepted, and torahs that are written using such monies cannot be read from.

Rav Abergil contines saying that he knows many rabbonim who transgress many sins, they roll their eyes heavenward and take the money from criminals in order to fund their lifestyles. Such money is not l'shem shamayim (perhaps that can mean earned with good intentions or maybe donated with good intentions), and one is not allowed to accept it.

If this psak will take hold, which it won't, it will put an end to a lot of the rabbinic courts. Some of these criminals use the rabbis as a way of laundering some of their money, others use it to "kasher" their money as they can justify their bad deeds by saying they give a lot of tzedaka, others dont care and just want to be prominent supporters, and others might think they are buying their way into heaven or at least getting blessings for more success.

But it won't take hold, because their is too much for some of these people to lose.  Why should they stop these criminals from doing one of the few mitzvos they might actually do, I don't know where he got the money from, why should I assume he did bad and didnt earn it legitimately, I know nothing about that, whats the difference between him and the guy who fudges on his taxes.. these are all arguments that will justify continuing to take this money.

Jews in sports always is a soft spot for me.. that's another thing great about Israel - most of the athletes in local sports are Jews in sports (though the truth is I only follow Israeli sports very peripherally)...

ESPN has an article about an Orthodox Jew playing basketball for Northwestern. Aaron Liberman is a frshman, though he has yet to play due to suffering from shin splints. Right now his yarmulke, and his tzitzis that he plans to wear, is on the bench, due to his injury, but soon it will also be seen on the court.

I wonder how he will deal with the Shabbos and holiday issues that will surely crop up sooner or later. If I am not mistaken that is really what did in Tamir Goodman's bid for a successful Orthodox basketball college career. There is no word on how Northwestern is planning to accommodate Liberman on that issue, and it is most likely to do him in, one way or the other, as well. That's just the way it is, though I wish him success. In the meantime it will be fun watching him play ball.

From ESPN:

Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, begins at sundown Saturday. But there's already cause for celebration among Jewish basketball fans thanks to Aaron Liberman, a freshman walk-on at Northwestern who also happens to be an Orthodox Jew. He hasn't yet appeared in a game this season because of a nasty case of shin splints, but he's easy to spot on the bench: He's the one wearing a yarmulke.

When Liberman is eventually given medical clearance to make his Northwestern debut, which he expects will be "pretty soon," he plans to wear his yarmulke on the court. (Northwestern is making two versions for him -- purple and white for home games, and purple and black for the road.) That will make him only the second yarmulke-clad player in Division I basketball history. The first such player was Tamir Goodman, the much-hyped "Jewish Jordan," who played for Towson in 2000 and 2001. But disagreements with a new coach derailed Goodman's college basketball career early in his sophomore year, leaving Division I hard courts yarmulke-free until Liberman's arrival this season.
And get this: Liberman, who's 6-foot-10 and was fifth in the nation in blocked shots for Valley Torah High School in Los Angeles in 2011, also plans to wear tzitzit -- the specially knotted fringes or tassels worn by observant Jews -- on the court. The tzitzit will be underneath his base-layer undershirt, and the fringes will be tucked into his shorts. Goodman didn't wear tzitzit while at Towson, so Liberman almost certainly will be Division I's first tzitzit-clad player. Mazel tov!

Northwestern University
Northwestern center Aaron Liberman plans to be the second player ever to wear a yarmulke in a Division I game -- and the first to wear tzitzit, the knotted fringes or tassels worn by observant Jews.
Liberman -- a soft-spoken, very likable kid, at least during a phone interview -- is aware of his rarefied status in the narrow region where athletics and Jewish religious apparel intersect, but he shrugs it off as no big deal. "Everyone here has been great toward me, and nobody's said anything about the yarmulke," he says. "Everyone's cool with it. They just see me as one of the guys."
Although yarmulkes are seldom seen in big-time college hoops, they can routinely be found down in Division III. That's because of Yeshiva University, many of whose players cover their heads (as does their coach, Dr. Jonathan Halpert).
Elliot Steinmetz wore a yarmulke while playing for Yeshiva from 1999 through 2002. Today he runs the website Jewish Hoops America and coaches basketball for North Shore Hebrew Academy High School on Long Island. North Shore is part of the Yeshiva League (not to be confused with Yeshiva University), a group of about two dozen Jewish schools in the New York-New Jersey area, whose games feature lots and lots of yarmulkes.
"Not all the kids in our league are necessarily Orthodox, but they're required to wear yarmulkes to school, so most of the schools require the players to wear them on the court as well," Steinmetz explains. "A lot of schools have the yarmulkes made in school colors, or with a school logo or a little basketball icon. It's a team accessory, like a headband or whatever."
Some schools take it even further, like Beren Academy in Houston, which has the players' names and uniform numbers printed onto their yarmulkes. (As you may recall, Beren is the school that successfully lobbied to have a state tournament semifinal game postponed earlier this year because it had originally been scheduled for a Friday night, which is the Jewish Sabbath.)
Steinmetz says a 12th-grader currently playing for Beren, Zach Yoshor, is good enough to be getting looks from Ivy League schools and some other lower-level Division I programs. But that doesn't necessarily mean there'll be another Division I yarmulke on the court next year. "He wears a yarmulke now because he's playing for a Jewish school," Steinmetz says. "But I don't think he will in college."
Wondering about the practicalities of wearing a yarmulke on the court? It's pretty straightforward: You keep it pinned on with a hair clip or bobby pin, and you wash it like any other accessory. Or at least that's the usual routine -- but not for Steinmetz when he played.
"We won our league championship when I was in 11th grade, and I kept wearing the same yarmulke, even when it got kind of sweaty and gross," he recalls. "It was a superstitious thing, like a baseball player who wears the same cap all season long. Believe it or not, I still have it, this cruddy, disgusting yarmulke, along with the trophy and my jersey and some other mementos from that season."
Yarmulke sightings in other sports are rare but not unheard of. One example came on May 9, 2010, when Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen removed his cap while walking around in the dugout, revealing a Mets yarmulke. That led to some surreal banter in the Mets' broadcast booth between play-by-play man Gary Cohen (who is Jewish) and color commentator Keith Hernandez (who most assuredly is not):
Hernandez: Was that a Met yarmulke right there?
Cohen: That’s exactly what that looked like.
Hernandez: How about that.
Cohen: It’s a bit of a surprise.
Hernandez: Well, it’s Sunday. [Painfully awkward pause follows.]
Cohen: Yeah?
Hernandez: Did you, did you go to temple today?
Cohen: Not on Sunday, Keith. Saturday.
Hernandez: Oh! Excuse me, I’ve got it wrong, don’t I. I’ve gotta get my facts straight.
Cohen [laughing]: We’ll have the course in comparative religion right after the game.
Hernandez: No no no, we don’t have to. I had my catechism when I was young, please.
ESPN New York reporter Adam Rubin filled in the particulars on Warthen's headwear the following day (it's toward the bottom of this post):
"Yes, that was Dan Warthen spotted wearing a yarmulke in the dugout when he removed his Mets cap during Sunday’s game. The pitching coach explained that [first baseman] Ike Davis had received Mets yarmulkes from a rabbi, and gave one to Warthen. Warthen, who is Jewish, forgot he had it on when he placed his cap on and went out for the game, he indicated."
The thing is, baseball players spend most of their time wearing caps, and football and hockey players wear helmets. So even if a player in these sports chose to wear a yarmulke, we'd rarely get a peek at it. (And besides, Steinmetz says, "Jews don't play football -- our moms don't let us.")
That brings us back to basketball. Although the sport was once dominated by Jews, and a Jew scored the first basket in NBA history, there's never been a yarmulke-clad player in the NBA. Would Liberman, the freshman at Northwestern, like to be the first?
"If I can get there, why not?" he says. "But I'm just taking it one step at a time for now."
Fair enough. For his part, Steinmetz says observant Jewish players have a tough mountain to climb. "You have to remember, when these Orthodox kids are in high school, like the ones I coach, they love basketball and some of them have real ability, but it's not the focus of their lives," he says. "They're mostly focused on their SATs and getting into a good college."
In other words, they're nice Jewish boys -- probably too nice to make it to the NBA. Oy, such a pity. 

Did you know there isn't a single Haredi doctor in Israel... not a single one. Why? Because if you dont learn mathematics and physics you don't have matriculation exams and you don't learn English, you cannot study medicine.

  -- financial journalist Nehemia Strahsler

This idiotic statement by Strahsler has upset many haredim.

Actually, I think, the first part of his statement and the second are not really connected, and that was Strahsler's mistake. The first part is not true, in any shape or form. There are plenty of haredi doctors - walk into any hospital in the Jerusalem area and you will see a significant number of haredi doctors. Walk into any of the many medical clinics in religious neighborhoods, and you will see a significant number of haredi doctors. In other locations as well, such as in the hospitals in Bnei Braq and Netanya as well as in other places, you will surely see haredi doctors, but that is probably where the highest concentration is.

The second part of what Strahsler said has some truth to it. If the education system does not educate in secular studies and if the society discourages higher learning in secular studies, they will not produce doctors. How could they without providing or encouraging the education? Even this is not accurate, as there are always exceptions to the general rule, exceptions even in significant numbers. There are plenty of haredi families who send a child to a school that provides secular education, and they personally, for whatever reason, may encourage higher studies despite what the general society normally does or does not do. But as a general rule, Israeli haredi society does not produce all that many doctors.

That does not mean there are not any such doctors, as many doctors have made aliyah from western countries such as the USA, the UK, France and others, and they live haredi lives in Israel and work as doctors. Many other haredi doctors are baalei tshuva - they too are haredi doctors. So, while his first statement is clearly wrong, his second statement has some truth.