October 10, 2008
October 6, 2008
‘Modesty patrols’ sow fear
Jewish ‘modesty patrols’ sow fear in Israel
Some terrified that mere perception of impropriety could ruin their lives
JERUSALEM – In Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behaviour they consider unchaste.
- They hurl stones at women for such “sins” as wearing a red blouse and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.
- In recent weeks, self-styled “modesty patrols” have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men.
- They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.
“These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community,” said 38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed zealots. “If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it.”
October 5, 2008
Honour, haredi-style
Religious Affairs: Honour, haredi-style
Which restaurants and food products are kosher and which are not? Who is allowed to get married and who is not? Who can be a rabbi and who cannot?
Last week, elections took place to choose the state-empowered body – the Chief Rabbinate Council – that is supposed to answer these questions. The elections were an upset. The non-hassidic, Lithuanian-haredi rabbinic leadership, which gradually has been gaining more power within the Chief Rabbinate, suffered a major setback. Two of its veteran members, Rabbi of Rehovot Simcha Hakohen Kook and chairman of the Neighbourhood Rabbis Council Moshe Rauchverger, who is also a neighbourhood rabbi in the Haifa area, were voted out of the council.
Ashkenazi haredim lose majority
Ashkenazi haredim lose majority in Chief Rabbinate membership vote
The leaders of Ashkenazi haredim suffered a blow to their hegemony in the Chief Rabbinate on Tuesday night while Shas and the national religious camp scored significant victories.
In a vote for 10 new members of the Chief Rabbinate’s Rabbinical Council, a large number of religious Zionist and Shas-backed rabbis were voted in. Rabbis Ya’acov Shapira, head of Jerusalem’s Zionist flagship Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, was chosen along with Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, chief rabbi of Safed. Both Eliyahu and Shapira are sons of former chief rabbis and both are considered national religious.
September 28, 2008
Violence against non-Jews
US report: Rise in violence against Messianic Jews and Christians
Violence against Christian evangelical and Messianic Jewish communities in Israel increased significantly during the period between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, according to the US State Department’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.
The report, released last week, put blame for the “tensions” on “certain Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.”
But except in one case, the report, which noted numerous incidents of discrimination or violence against Christian or Messianic Jewish communities or individuals, failed to prove that the perpetrators were Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox.
According to the US State Department, Jehovah’s Witnesses representatives reported a significant increase in assaults and other crimes against their members over the past 12-month period. Violent incidents were up from one to two a month in early 2007 to eight to nine a month in early 2008.
On October 23, 2007, suspected arsonists set fire to the Narkiss Street Baptist Church in Jerusalem. The pastor of a Russian Messianic Jewish congregation that meets in the church said that Yad L’Achim , a haredi anti-missionary organization, had threatened him and his congregation over the few years leading up to the attack.
Rabbis & Crime
FailedMessiah.com Covering Orthodox Judaism Since 2004
Rabbis & Crime. There are over almost 700 hundred posts on religious criminals on this index page.
Here is a summary of the Brooklyn haredi community’s attempts to deal with alleged serial child molester Rabbi Yehuda Kolko. Haredi leaders were unable to deal with Rabbi Kolko and, at the same time, refused to turn him over to police. The end result was almost 40 years of child molestation.
Posts on alleged haredi child rapist Avrohom Mondrowitz are here.
Mondrowitz fled the US for Israel at the urging of haredi leaders as he was being indicted for raping young boys. He lived safely in Jerusalem for over 20 years, under the protection of the Ger hasidic community and its rebbes, the latest of whom, Rabbi Ya’akov Aryeh Alter, is pictured at right.
At this writing, there are over almost 700 hundred posts on religious criminals on this index page. It is quite large and may take a few minutes to completely load. The posts are chronological, newest at the top of the page, oldest at the bottom.
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Silencing dissent, hushing up scandal.
Silencing dissent, hushing up scandal Rabbi Benzion Twerski had resigned from a task force in formation being brought together to deal with sexual abuse in the Orthodox community
Two items recently crossed my desk. The first was an article that appeared in The Jerusalem Post written by Matthew Wagner entitled “Haredim move to silence ‘treif’ music”. It was about a movement to ban musicians who produce or perform any music which the Guardians of Sanctity and Education deem inappropriate. Musicians playing such music would be banned from playing in wedding halls, their CDs would be banned and their concerts disallowed.
The other item was a breaking news piece from JTA indicating that Rabbi Benzion Twerski had resigned from a task force in formation being brought together to deal with sexual abuse in the Orthodox community. New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, also an Orthodox Jew, is establishing the task force to deal with this scourge. Twerski resigned because of the many threats against him and his family made by several individuals from his community.
