October 10, 2008
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.
September 28, 2008
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.
