Uncensored News from Israel » religion

Hindus are Jews, too

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:58:07 +0000

For the first time in five years, the government has agreed to bring in hundreds of Hindus who claim Jewish descent as Bnei Menashe. Needless to say, their preceding generations had nothing to do with Judaism.

Jewish state develops Jesus tourism

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:35:01 +0000

Lieberman’s Ministry of Tourism has allocated a small amount to a major cause: developing the Gospel Trail, the area in the Galilee where, according to Christian beliefs, Jesus once walked.

We can understand the government’s reluctance to employ halachic measures against Christianity in Israel. In the current political climate, we cannot ban private investments in Christian tourism. But to sponsor Christian values with Jewish funds seems a bit too much.

Teens arrested for advocating tradition

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:40:16 +0000

Police arrested two teenagers and two haredi men for advocating gender segregation. The youngster stood near the bus stop at the Dung Gate in Jerusalem and used a loudspeaker to call on women to board the bus through the rear entrance. There was no coercion whatsoever.

Whether we agree with their views or not, the teens were exercising their freedom of expression. Unfortunately, no such thing exists in Israel.

Reform ‘rabbi’ supports African immigration into Israel

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 05:15:16 +0000

‘Rabbi’ Kariv, executive director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, described the problem of illegal migrants as the most important moral issue facing Jews today. More important than the fact that we are giving up our land and the Temple Mount to our Arab enemies, or that the Jewish state is evolving into an atheist ochlocracy.

Kariv also demanded a halt to the deportation of Sudanese illegals, despite their country’s new-found independence. Poor beings, their country is ‘not stable.’ The next thing we will be told is that they cannot go home because their country is not prosperous.

Kariv is not averse to slanting figures. He claimed there are 6.5 million Jews here in Israel and “a few thousand” Africans. The number of halachic Jews stands at 5.5 million at the most, and there are close to 100,000 Africans, a full 2% of the population.

Court gives boost to Jesus story

admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:44:15 +0000

The court acquitted an Israeli antiquities dealer of charges that he fabricated the most stunning discovery in Christian history: the ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus. Once again, expediency gave way to formal justice.

Though all serious experts agree that the writing on the ossuary was forged, some lesser authorities, especially those with agendas, submitted opinions to the court asserting its authenticity. The court was thus unable to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

There is a certain irony in a Jewish judge being unable to overcome doubt about a Christian artifact. Nationalist, if not religious reasoning, should have moved him to convict the dealer of forgery. Now the verdict will be used as a strong argument for the authenticity of the Jesus story.

Only in Israel: who cares about that religion?

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:24:44 +0000

It is normally not a problem in the US or Western Europe to reschedule exams because of religious holidays. Not so in Israel, where it took an intervention from MK Ben-Ari to reschedule the tests in Haifa Technion so that the students could listen to the Esther Scroll reading, as indeed is incumbent on every Jew.

So, is there objective immorality?

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:48:47 +0000

Beersheva labor court handed down a curious verdict. Two years ago, Eilat religious council fired a rabbi because of marital infidelity. The court upheld that decision on the grounds that rabbis, as community leaders, must lead exemplary lives, while infidelity is inherently immoral.

Well and good, but what about homosexual Reform ‘rabbis,’ or state approval for gay parades in the holy city? Or there is something that makes fidelity any different from other sexual transgressions as defined in the Torah?

Some labor strikes are commendable

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:54:08 +0000

Dozens of postal workers in Ramat Gan abandoned their work when instructed to deliver Christian missionary materiel to Jewish residents.

Histadrut stayed out of that particular strike.

Jew arrested for calling on compatriots to visit the Temple Mount

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:50:52 +0000

After the clashes with Arabs who protested a plan by a handful of Jews to ascend the Temple Mount, police arrested not the Arab instigators, but the Jew who actually committed that horrendous ‘crime.’

The arrest was obviously meant to pacify the Arabs by showing that Jewish police will protect their shrine even though that abomination stands on our holiest place. But the opposite will happen: the Arabs will take the arrest as a confirmation that the Jews indeed meant to raze the Aqsa mosque and were only prevented from doing so by Arab riots.

Only in Israel: residents protest presence of religious Jews

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:45:25 +0000

A committee which claims to represent the atheists of Beit Shemesh sued the municipality, asking it to shelve the plan for the Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel neighborhood because it is designed for haredim. Indeed, the planned neighborhood includes an unusually large number of synagogues. The committee claims that the presence of religious Jews changes the city’s demographic balance.

Religious Jews were denied control over the Land of Israel, then over religious neighborhoods; and now their right to build closed neighborhoods for themselves is contested, too.