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Wrong Answer!
Israeli MK, Rabbi Yisroel EichlerI sometimes wonder if common sense died and went to heaven.The issue at hand is whether reasonable requests for a seat change on an aircraft should be accommodated if...
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Charedi Poverty in Israel is Endemic
Beitar children - 60-70% of their families are tens of thousands of shekels in debtIs ignorance really bliss? Is it true that what people don’t know may not actually hurt them? Those 2 cliché based...
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Bringing Jews Home
Image from Project InspireKiruv. That is the term used by Orthodox Jews involved in trying to reach out to non observant Jews to help them become observant. This is based on a biblical command of...
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The Three Categories of Kiruv
By ‘Just a Guest’Image for illustration purposes only (Forward)As a followup to yesterday’s post I received the following submission from a prominent Charedi Rav who is knowledgeable on the subject of...
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Growth and Divisiveness in the Charedi World
R' Chaim Kanievsky (VIN)Once upon a time - I would have never thought it possible. There was a time where I actually thought that the religious Jewish world was united on virtually every issue. I...
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Power Trip? I Don't Think So
The rabbis of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate. (Jerusalem Post)I have never been reticent to criticize the Charedi world when I believe it is warranted. That has earned me continuous accusations of...
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A Message From God
MK Yinon Azoulay speaking fro the Knesset podium (TOI)There are few things that upset me more than people who think they can read God’s mind when there is an agenda attached. Even if it is one that I...
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Defending the Indefensible
Voter in Kiryas Joel casting ballot in 2010 (Ha'aretz)Frimet Goldberger is an unusual expatriate Chasid. (Chasidah?) She left her former community of Satmar’s Kiryas Joel but has remained observant....
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The Triumph of Evil
The look of street gangs in Jerusalem (Ynet)What is the matter with these people?! I know we’ve seen this many times before in a variety of different incarnations. But it still upsets me every time it...
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The 'Frumkeit Train"
Men in front; women in back - bus ride between Wlliamsburg and Boro ParkLike it or not, the ‘Frumkeit Train’ has left the station.I have long lamented the fact that Orthodox Judaism has moved – and...
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The Good, Bad, and Grey of Feminism
Typical 70s ad for Virginia SlimsWe’ve come a long way, baby! That was the slogan created by the tobacco industry’s product for women, Virginia Slims cigarettes. It was the acknowledgement that women...
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Never Happened! (Or Did It?)
OK. I’ll talk about it. Not because I think it what happened a couple of days ago makes much of a difference. But because so many people think it does. There was a story widely reported in the media a...
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Liberals, Conservatives, and Orthodox Judaism
Democratic Party nominee for Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Axios)It’s becoming increasingly difficult to be both a political liberal and an Orthodox Jew these days. Not because of the ideal...
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The Best/Worst Technological Advance of Our Time
An increasingly ubiquitous sight A few years ago at the height of the anti internet campaign by the right, I asked a young Charedi Avreich why he didn’t have the internet in his home. I knew this...
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Can Israel be a Jewish State and a Democracy?
Is recognition of Reform Judaism in Israel's future? (Arutz Sheva)Israel is a Jewish State. Israel is a democracy. Are these two statements contradictory? I don’t think there can be any real question...
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The Trump Derangement Syndrome.
US Senator from Kentucky, Republican Rand Paul (VIN) ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’. This famous line from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ occurred to me yesterday after a barrage of criticism...
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The Right Education for My Child
Is the Charedi school in Israel the new model for American schools? (Reuters)What kind of Jewish education do you want for your children? This is a question every parent should ask him or herself...
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When Elu V'Eu Does Not Apply
Mob scene in Bet Shemesh (JTA)People accuse me all the time of rejecting anyone to the religious right or left of me. They think I believe that only my own Centrist Hashkafa is the only acceptable one...
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The Right Goal -The Wrong Method
Conservative Rabbi Dov Haiyun (Times of Israel)It did seem a bit like Gestapo tactics. The arrest of Conservative Rabbi Dov Haiyun at 5 O’clock in the morning was clearly not necessary. The optics...
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Why?
I will surely consume them, says the Lord; there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will fade; and what I gave them will pass away from them. (Yirmiyahu - 8:13)Eicha? How...
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