Israel

Lessons From Beit Shemesh: Some Slow Progress

But ceding religion-state issues to ultra-Orthodox parties has been a disaster.

02/07/2012
Natan Sharansky
Special To The Jewish Week

In recent weeks my head has been full of the angry voices of my friends and partners in the United States — leaders of the American Jewish community, allies and comrades-in-arms in the great task of strengthening the bonds between Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. They are angry about the same things I am angry about.

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The Spit Felt ’Round The World

Haredi-secular tensions flared after Beit Shemesh incident. getty images

In wake of Beit Shemesh, haredim here wrestle with introspection, and what they see as unfair criticism.

01/31/2012
Jonathan Mark
Associate Editor

It was as if the spit cut into Ezra Friedlander’s cheek, from half a world away.

Friedlander, the son of the Liska rebbe and CEO of the Friedlander Group, a public affairs organization here, says, “We absolutely have the obligation to condemn even the actions of a rogue group. I want people to know that they don’t speak for me.”

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Amid Attack Talk, Israelis Split On Iran Tack

Prime Minister Netanyahu, left, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are said to be weighing a strike on Iran’s nuclear program.

Weighing a preemptive strike or sanctions squeeze.

01/31/2012
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent

Tel Aviv — Before leaving with a carton of milk or a popsicle, customers at Eyal Monarov’s Tel Aviv convenience store usually pause to glance at the latest front-page headlines.

Lately newspapers have been chock-full of headlines about the threat of a nuclear Iran, and Monarov says his customers aren’t shy about sharing their opinions with him.

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Likud Voters Electing Party Chairman

01/31/2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Members of Israel's Likud Party went to the polls to elect a party chairman and a new Central Committee, more than a year before scheduled national elections.

Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday is expected to be elected party chairman for the fifth time in 18 years.

He is being challenged by party hardliner Moshe Feiglin of the Jewish Leadership faction of the party.

Feiglin is working to garner more than 24 percent of the vote, which is what he polled in the 2007 contest.

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Poll: Most Israeli Jews Keep Kosher, Practice Some Sabbath Rituals

01/30/2012

(JTA) – More than four of every five Israeli Jews believe in God and three-quarters of Israeli Jews keep kosher, according to a survey.

The study, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Guttman Center and paid for by the Avi Chai Foundation, also found that 51 percent of Israeli Jews favor instituting civil marriage; in Israel, marriage is controlled by the religious authorities.

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Hackers Hit Websites of Israeli Hospitals

01/26/2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The websites of two Israeli medical centers as well as several other public Israeli websites, were hacked.

The websites for Tel Hashomer and Assuta medical centers, among the largest in central Israel, were down Wednesday morning.

The hospitals' security systems held back the assaults and patient information was not compromised, according to the hospitals.

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Has The ‘Tough Love’ Rebbe Gone Too Far?

Rav Aharon Bina has headed a popular Jerusalem yeshiva for diaspora students for many years. But charges of emotional abuse continue to dog him.

01/24/2012
Yedidya Gorsetman and Gary Rosenblatt

For those in the Modern Orthodox community who send their sons to yeshivas in Israel for a year or two of post-high school study, it’s long been an open secret that Rav Aharon Bina, rosh hayeshiva of Netiv Aryeh in the Old City of Jerusalem, has a unique — many say bizarre — pedagogical style.

Supporters call it “tough love”; critics call it abuse.

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Israeli Planes Attack Gaza Sites

01/24/2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's Air Force attacked terrorist sites in the Gaza Strip.

The targets hit after midnight on Monday night included a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza, two terror tunnels in northern Gaza, and a third terror tunnel in southern Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The attacks were in response to several rockets fired at southern Israeli communities in recent days, the IDF said. Six rockets have been fired into southern Israel from Gaza in the last week.

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The Mossad Vs. Ahmadinejad?

Assassinated nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan.

While most Israelis see covert war as the preferred method for stopping Iranian nukes, some question its effectiveness.

01/17/2012
Joshua Mitnick
Israel Correspondent

Tel Aviv — “Everyone knows that we’re behind this and we should be proud!”

The comment appeared on the Facebook page of the Israeli Defense Forces’ chief spokesperson following the assassination last week of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Despite the usual silence from Israeli officials, the quip reflected the widely held consensus that Israel’s Mossad was responsible for the hit.

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U.S. Artists Confront Israel’s Complexities

Donald Byrd’s “Maybe a Genesis,” about the biblical Abraham, Sarah and Hagar. Michal Fattal

First cohort at American Academy in Jerusalem gets lessons in Jewish state’s culture and tensions.

01/10/2012
Michele Chabin
Israel Correspondent

Jerusalem — When Donald Byrd, a Tony-nominated choreographer (“The Color Purple,” “Harlem Nutcracker”) worked with Jewish and Arab dancers in Israel four years ago, he learned that relations between Israelis and Palestinians are a lot more complicated than they seem from the outside.

But it wasn’t until last fall, during Byrd’s most recent sojourn here, that he learned just how charged relations within the country’s Jewish community could be. 

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