Yair Lapid explained that the Likud is like North Korea. Are there primaries in the Likud? yes. Are there primaries in North Korea? No. Are there primaries in Yesh Atid? No. and they are talking about democracy? ... what hypocrisy

  -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Actualic is reporting (and I received it in a news alert, posted below) about a change in policy made by the "Spiritual Committee" of Modiin Ilit. This committee is made up, I believe, by a group of local rabbis. The change of policy seems to have upset many around town.

The new decision, the policy change, states two points:
1. local papers are not allowed to accept or print any advertisement for cosmeticians that are larger than 1/4 page.
2. that no advertisements for the company "Debbie Wolf" can be accepted at all.

No reason given, but presumably they are worried about tzniyus issues with too much publicity and lifestyle promotion for cosmetics and cosmeticians and beauty.

The second issue, why a specific company cannot advertise at all while others can, is even less understandable - what have they done more wrong than any other fashion company? They advertise without using pictures of girls and women, even though they are selling girls and womens clothes - in the ads I have seen they generally use pictures of little boys (I never understand how they sell girls clothing by showing pictures of boys dressed nicely, but that is their marketing strategy).

According to Actualic, many locals are upset about this, saying it will hurt their parnasa, the rabbonim did not hear them out and did not take any of their concerns into account, complaining about all sorts of ads that were rejected by the rabbonim because they mentioned body parts - such as eyebrows - and the body parts were even abbreviated and not said out fully, an ad using a picture of a watermelon rather than a woman, was rejected - I wonder what the advertisement was for that she felt appropriate to replace the woman with a watermelon, and more. They say the rabbonim are turning people into idiots and not taking their concerns and needs into consideration.

So they are upset that the rabbonim have gotten a little more extreme than they already were and that was considered acceptable. That's the way the community seems to work. As time goes on, one extreme limit just gets moved to a further extreme, little by little. If they don't like accept that the rabbonim will not change. So, either change the rabbonim or move out. Move elsewhere to a community you consider more normal or reasonable - each deciding for himself and herself what that is and how it is defined. It is sad, but I don't see how they can change anything in such a lifestyle. Everybody wants to be extreme, but everybody thinks this extreme is normal and anything more extreme than that is crazy.

Online I have seen many complaints that the rabbonim are dealing with these types of issues rather than dealing with sick cases of sexual and physical abuse - someone was arrested just today in Modiin Ilit for abuse, and a few weeks ago the rape of a 7 year old girl was publicized. I do not think they are mutually exclusive, but many people are not happy. They think the rabbonim are dealing with trivial matters rather than the important ones. They should stop talking anonymously and raise these issues in public in their town. Or else nothing is going to change. Yes, they will be chased out of town for doing so, and perhaps someone, a few people, planning on leaving anyway should be the ones to do it and make the waves, but nothing is going to change without it. Even that is unlikely to do anything. That is what most of the people there seem to want.

Haredi journalist Yisrael Cohen reported on Twitter the other day about a bag of lettuce sold in Osher Ad. TOI and Mako followed suit.

Seems mundane but what was interesting is that this bag of lettuce was officially a package of certified bug-free mehadrin lettuce. This lettuce has 5 different Badatz hechshers on it, as Cohen himself noted. And the lettuce included a nice little fro in the bag. At no extra charge. People are shocked. 5 hechshers and they missed this!!??

On the one hand, they the lettuce is said bug-free. They did not say frog-free. So they kept strictly to their mandate. And, as one of the consumers pointed out in the video, perhaps they kept it bug-free by putting the frog in there to eat all the bugs!

On the other hand, more seriously... mistakes happen. to the best and worst of hechshers. No hechsher is perfect. And obviously this isnt a bug that grew on lettuce that might indicate an infestation, but a frog that probably got in during the packaging of the lettuce.

And on the third hand, second of the serious hands, 5 hechshers? 5 sets of mashgiach eyes missed this? What are we paying so much money for? 1 guy missed it, no problem. Mistakes happen, nobody is perfect. 2 guys, ok, same. 5 guys missed it?
Sometimes multiple hechshers on a product do not mean each has its own mashgiach checking. Sometimes some of the hechshers rely on one mashgiach and certify base don what the one mashgiach for one of the organizations said. In general I don't like that policy, as it seems to somewhat be defrauding the consumer who wants to rely on Rabbi X and not Rabbi Y, but it is often what is in place.
I dont know if that so the case in the case of bug-free lettuce. Does each organization send their own inspectors to check and supervise or do they all rely on the word of the supervisor of one organizations. Either way There is a big problem here. Either nobody is really checking, because 1 guy can make a mistake and miss it but 5 sets of eyes wouldn't, or one guy made a mistake and 4 guys are defrauding their customers.

Anyways, had I been there I would have taken the frog home as a pet. Win Win. The best deals are at Osher Ad!

that's ARod and J-Lo...

Eichler is always fun to listen to

People dream big. People get ideas in their heads, sometimes good ideas, sometime bombastic ideas, sometimes ridiculous ideas, and sometimes they even think the only, or maybe the best, way to move their idea forward, to advance the idea, is to run for Knesset and do it from a position of national leadership. A person might even think that there are tens or hundreds of thousands of people who think that idea is great, even if just because a few people around him (or her) said it is an amazing idea.

Let's remember - to get into the Knesset, one needs to garner the votes of about 130,000 to 150,000 people, with some variance, depending on voter turnout. That is a lot of people.

So many one-issue parties try to get into the Knesset, and they [almost] always fail. (I cannot think of any that has gotten in, but it might have happened.) Yet in every election we see more people opening parties to run in the elections on a one-issue platform. Such parties are counting on people to not just support that one-issue and think it is important enough to support and vote for but that it is more important than all other issues on the table and vote for it despite all the other issues that are definitely important and that most people have opinions about.

It is a bit of a conundrum how people see what happens in each election but then go and open more one-issue parties each and every time.

Some people are now opening such a party, with its one issue being the release form prison of Yigal Amir. The party says it wants to bring about his release by exposing the truth about the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin.

Amir's family says they are not connected to this party yet his brother Chaggai and hsi wife Larisa Trimbobler have been seen involved in a recent conference for the establishment of the party.

MK Amir Peretz, now chairman of the Labor Party, has appealed to the electoral board to reject their application and prevent them from running in the upcoming elections.
(source: Kipa)

We should not be a police state. I have no problem banning Yigal Amir from running in elections. These other people, whomever they are, did nothing wrong. If they think they can get 140,000 or so people to support this idea, let them try. Let the people tell them they are being ridiculous or let the people support them. They are a one issue party that thinks there are at least 140000 people who think getting Yigal Amir out of jail is more important than any of the other issues Israel is facing. Let them  run and let them fail on their own.

We will condition our entry into an upcoming government coalition on requiring Core Curriculum studies in the Haredi school systems.... We will pass a law making voting compulsory. Why? Because in the Haredi neighborhoods there is surprisingly 100% voter turnout. Whoever does not vote, without a reason that is justified, will be obligated to pay a fine.

  -- MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beyteynu)

This is interesting. It is also a change of direction. While some like to say Lieberman is anti-haredi, until now he has not really said or done anything that is truly anti-haredi. The draft law he refused to compromise on is not anti-haredi, even if the policy is one that the Haredi parties did not agree with. Just supporting a policy the Haredim don't support does not make on anti-haredi. We never really heard Lieberman say anti-haredi statements, definitely not the way Lapid sometimes does, and he never really promoted an anti-haredi agenda. Just the opposite - for 30 years in government he worked side by side in complete harmony with the haredi parties. I personally have rejected the calling of Lieberman as anti-haredi, despite his stance on the Draft Law and preventing the formation of a government that would have been wonderful for the Haredi community.

Yet with the statement above, Lieberman s moving far more into that territory of deserving the title of being anti-haredi. He never before required the core curriculum implementation, so doing so now is not a matter of consistent policy demands like the draft law was. This is a new demand, directly to oppose the Haredi parties. And the accusation about voting, is an age old anti-haredi accusation - with the implication of voting fraud, and an attempt to change election law just to counter the haredi vote.

The Daughter of Ivanka Left for Hassidic Summer Camp

  -- Kipa

This is funny. The other day, a picture of Ivanka (Trump) Kushner seeing her daughter off to camp went viral. I am not sure why, but people seemed excited and surprised that Ivanka and Jared, Jews, Orthodox Jews, would send their child to an Orthodox Jewish camp. I did not post it, after considering it, as it seemed like a private rather than public moment. So, according to Kipa, Camp Morasha is a "Hassidic" summer camp.

Camp Morasha is somewhat affiliated with YU - Yeshiva University. Not exactly the bastion of Hassidic Judaism. More like the bastion of Modern Orthodox Judaism. On the Camp Morasha website, the camp is described as "The complete, traditional co-ed camping experience"   - not too many Hassidic camps out there are co-ed....

interesting project these two, Michael Lobovikov and Chaim Autmazgin, have initiated..