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Are Conversions Really Going to be Compromised?
R' Chaim Druckman (Arutz Sheva)The controversy continues. Charedi leaders through their politicians are near apopleptic about the reforms Israel’s new government are about to implement under Prime...
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Agudah's Anti Mandate Policy
An antivax protest in 2020 (Washington Post)The harder I try to get out of the quicksand, the deeper I sink. That’s how I’ve been feeling lately about what seems to be becoming an endless pandemic....
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Chabad - The Ultimate Role Model for Outreach
Chabad Shiluchim at their 2016 annual convention (My Jewish Learning)I sometimes marvel how little attention Orthodox leadership pays to what may be the biggest tragedy to befall the Jewish people...
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Fighting For Change that Will Not Happen
Chochmat Nashim co-founder, Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll (TOI)I wish I could be optimistic. But I fear that any thoughts about changing the culture in Charedi circles about publishing pictures of women is a...
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Charedi Control of Smartphone Use Isn’t Working
Charedi use of smartphones is becoming a lot more common (JP)I often hear people from the Charedi world extolling the virtues of isolation from the so-called ‘outside world’. They believe that the...
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An Inexcusable but Avoidable Antisemitic Incident
Roberto and Elana Birman (Independent)I’m getting tired of stories like this. There is no reason that this needs to keep happening. And yet it exposes a level of antisemitism that is usually hidden...
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Church State Separation and the Free Exercise Clause
The 6 Conservative Supreme Court Justices (CNN)It’s hard to believe. But it’s quite possible that Yeshiva high schools and day schools may be getting some help with their financial problems. And in the...
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Observant OTDs
R’ Yechezkel Roth, ZTL (Hamodia)Lost among all the talk about going OTD is the fact that it means different things to different people. I have always looked at his phenomenon as Orthodox Jews choosing...
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Hugging 'Souls' of the Opposite Sex
Shlomo Carlebach and his daughter Neshama (TOI)I am not really a fan of Neshama Carlebach, the late Shlomo Carlebach’s very talented daughter for reasons beyond the scope of this post. But I have to...
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When Good People Support Bad Leaders
Netanyahu and Trump at the Abraham Accords signing ceremony (CTV News)I come not to bury Trump. But to strongly criticize his supporters who are salivating at the likelihood that he will run again for...
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Smearing Those You Don't Agree With
Matan Kahana (Arutz Sheva)I sympathize. Israel’s religious affairs minister, Matan Kahana has expressed outrage at the way his Religious Zionist Hashkafa is treated by Charedi politicians (and by...
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R' Chaim's Halachic Requirement to Get Vaccinated
Sar HaTorah - R Chaim KanievskyThe US has reached a milestone. Not a very happy one. Over 800,000 people in the US have died from COVID since the pandemic began. Last year at this time there were...
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Spirituality and Subterfuge Do Not Mix
Screenshot of extremist Jews praying illegally on the Temple Mount (JP)I am so sick of these extremist Religious Zionists. Jews like this are not much different than Neturei Karta Jews. They both...
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When Observant Jews Ignore the Rules
Depiction of a typical Charedi family from "Shtisel' (Jewish Unpacked)I don’t know why, but it always seems to be Charedim that ignore the pandemic restrictions the most. If this is indeed the case,...
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Why Orthodox Jews Are Shifting Political Allegiances
Image from CNN There has been a lot of discussion about the moribund future of heterodoxy in this country. It seems like an obvious if sad eventuality. In a few generations these movements will become...
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Idealism Delayed is not Idealism Denied
Yehuda Dimentman, HY'D (TOI)Those that question why Israel built a wall separating the West Bank territories from Israel’s pre 67 borders, need look no further than the brutal murder last Thursday of...
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An Inconvenient Ruling - of Daas Torah
R' Chaim Kanievsky (Haaretz)I have to wonder what justification antivaxxer Charedim have for their opposition to what their own Daas Torah has mandated. It would seem to go against the very essence...
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Should We be Buying Property from Jerusalem's Christians?
Church in the Christian Quarter in Jerusalem (Wikipedia)Where should one place their sympathies? I guess it depends on whose version you read. But either way it does not serve Israel well to be doing...
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Is There Such a Thing as Too Frum?
Image from Autz ShevaIf there was ever a city that can clearly be defined as Charedi, Beitar Illit is it. I don’t think there is a soul living there that is not Charedi. I have some relatives living...
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Deception for a Good Cause
Ads using rabbinic leaders to pitch their product (Tzarich Iyun)It seems to have only gotten worse. Selling one’s wares via deceptive advertising is now more ubiquitous than ever. One might think that...
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