religion

The police interrogated Haifa’s chief rabbi who “expedited” conversion to Judaism in return for contributions to his yeshiva. Israeli government, too, wants to expedite conversions and simplify the rabbinical procedure.

Sorry, someone refresh my memory- what’s “Kiddush Hashem” mean, again? Something to do with bombs, apparently.

Bomb goes off near Beit Shemesh vineyard, injuring builder working at adjacent security fence construction site. Police uncover leaflets warning against upcoming pride parade in Jerusalem near scene of crime, gay activists blame strictly Orthodox extremists.

Oh yeah, you got to know God likes that.

And this, of course.

“Police stopped a 32-year-old religious Jew who was carrying a homemade explosive device,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said of the arrest before the annual Gay Pride march began.

Man, and I was wondering how they’d ever top the great 2005 knifing. Once again, the frummies have shown us the way. Who says haredim don’t like innovation?

Atheist members of the Jewish Agency (Sohnut) which flooded Israel with 500,000 non-Jews urged the government of Israel to accept Reformist conversions. The Reform Judaism sets no obligatory requirements for a Jew whatsoever. Islam, at least, requires the converts to say, Allah Akbar. The Reform conversions don’t ask for that much.

Israeli government will start implementing Tal law that allows ultra-Orthodox Jews civil substitute for army service. Civil service is long offered to pederasts and peaceniks.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose the IDF as assimilationist secularizing enterprise. The IDF scrapped religious units where the ultra-Orthodox Jews served with great distinction.
After completing one year of civil service, ultra-Orthodox Jews will be allowed to legally work in Israel. Jews who didn’t serve in the IDF are not allowed to work, though Israeli Arabs work freely without the burden of conscription or civil service.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews are anyway employed in black market economy and won’t jump on the opportunity offered by the Tal law.
Israelis generally decry the ultra-Orthodox exemption from the IDF service, though voice no opposition to similar exemption for Israeli Arabs.

Fringe of the ultra-Orthodox, extreme anti-Zionist Jews again proved they are the only large group of Israeli Jewish society not afraid of police. While the right wing from Kahane Chai to Moshe Feiglin is cowed down by police repressions, and even the mainstream ultra-Orthodox Jews refrain from anti-gay protests after the police’s pogrom in Jerusalem, the extreme religious groups fight for their right to live as they see fit. Overflowing the Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox communities, Neturei Karta, Satmar, Toldot Aharon and other group took over Ramat Beit Shemesh. They mandated the dress code, closing hours, and segregation rules to local shops and restaurants. The ultra-Orthodox didn’t cease protesting after the police arrested seven of them. The Jews from Neturei Karta, a sect whose leaders attended the Holocaust denial conference in Iran, accused Beit Shemesh police chief of Nazi-like attitude. Religious Jews participate in mass demonstrations, burn trash cans, and stone buses to substantiate their right to live according to the Orthodox Jewish law. Whether their goals are sensible or not, they are the only large Jewish group in Israel which has the guts to oppose the establishment.

The Army rabbis banned religious soldiers from listening to Jewish radio stations on Shabbat.

For the first time since the second century C.E., members of the clan of Levi, including Kohens, met in Jerusalem. Their credentials are supported with genetic research. 300-400 years ago, many Jewish families traced their roots back to Levites with certainty. The clan of Levi will minister in the Third Temple, to be built on the site now occupied by Muslim structures.
Kohanim declared priestly blessing over Israel.

HOT plans to take a missionary station off the air. Israeli broadcasters have no problem with streams of leftist propaganda.

While commemorating this date, remember that Israeli government gave the Temple Mount to Arabs, tolerates Arab shrines on the Temple remains, refuses to rebuild the Temple, and bans Jews from praying at the Temple Mount.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a spiritual leader of the renegade Shas party declared, “A woman’s knowledge is only in sewing.”

Vastly different birth rates among the atheist and religious Jews might soon make Jewish people predominantly religious again. Ultra-Orthodoxes are 17% in the UK, 10% in the US, and 14% in Israel. With atheist Jews assimilating and the older generation passing away, religious Jews will regain the scene.

in Netanya. Local municipality bans pork sale in city center.

Prof. Weiss, member of the newly reconstructed highest Jewish court, retracted his death curse of an IDF traitor who evicted religious Jews from Hebron.
Olmert was a rare public figure who didn’t join the chorus of condemnations against Prof. Weiss, ranging from the Peace Now to Netanyahu.

Israel grants the right of return to people with Jewish blood and to Jewish converts. Faced with Reformist conversions as easy as saying Allah Akbar, secular Israel has to choose on purely religious matters of conversion. The current preference given to Orthodox Judaism in unsupportable in secular framework.
Israeli Interior Ministry drafted its own rules of conversion: the study (of whatever quality) must be at least nine months long. The convert has to reside in the community the conversion takes place in. That should exclude the converts popping up to the more permissive rabbis. The draft rules sensibly try to limit conversion for the sake of Israeli citizenship. That would prevent a few hundred fake converts from entering Israel – a mere drop on the background of 1.4 million Arabs already here.

Three Christians arrested, one of them holding a wooden cross, at the Sukkot march in Jerusalem. Pretty intolerant, but hey, it’s a Jewish city.

Dershowitz lambastes Fata for setting morality squads which arrest Arabs publicly violating the fast of Ramadan. The leftist Dershowitz fails to understand that Fatah is correct here: religion deserves respect. But accepting the Muslims’ right to enforce their basic religious precepts begs the similar question in regard to Israel: should, for example, Shabbat observance be mandated in public? Dershowitz, like other leftists, deny religion and is ready to humiliate religious Jews and Arabs alike.

A group of ultra-Orthodox youth attacked an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman on an Israeli bus for refusing to move to the back seat - a women’s place. The young scum thought it okay to touch the woman indecently but not sit next to her. On a positive note, the gathered ultra-Orthodox crowd fearlessly engaged the police in prolonged fight and punctured tires of the police vehicle - something that moderate Israeli protesters shy from.

Breslav Chassids petitioned Ukrainian president over the fate of Rabbi Nahman’s grave in the Ukrainian town of Uman. Simple-minded chassids gave power of attorney to a Jewish crook who signed a contract with Ukrainian crook for development of the place. Now the Ukrainian crook, a minor businessman and an insignificant member of the Ukrainian parliament, blackmails the chassids by threatening to build over the grave.
Chassidim are notoriously brave when combating the nice Israeli government, but tremble before the Ukrainian anti-Semites. Tens of thousands of chassidim visit Uman every year, but they are unable even to guard their sanctuary against the Ukrainian barbarians.
It eludes chassidim that Ukrainian law positively prohibits building over the recognized historical monuments, such as Rabbi Nahman’s grave, and so the entire blackmail is moot.

And how about the status of the Most Favored Religion? Vatican also laments Israel confiscating some its lands. Vatican can try claiming its lands from Italy first. Why should Israel recognize that inherently anti-Semitic religion at all?

15,000 Jews prayed at the Western Wall for the failure of Annapolis peace show