Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

Israel can be likened these days to a country split in two, where one half of the country is watching one film in one movie theater, and the other half watching a different film in another.That is how Rabbi Amichai Gordin, of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, summed up the countrys present situation in an interview on Army Radio Thursday morning. In one cinema, the movie being screened is of a corrupt prime minister; while in the other, the state attorneys office and police are corrupt. What we are asking is to turn out the lights and bring the people out of both theaters, he said. And the way to do that, he maintained, is to have President Reuven Rivlin grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon, in return for Netanyahu leaving public office.Gordin was one of four national-religious rabbis who wrote a letter in this spirit to Rivlin earlier this week.The other signatories were: Yaakov Medan, one of the heads of the Har Etzion yeshiva; Amitai Porat, the secretary-general of the Religious Kibbutz Movement; and Haim Navon, who teaches Jewish thought and Talmud at various institutions and is a popular weekly columnist for Makor Rishon.The political system in Israel is in the middle of an unprecedented and dangerous political and legal crisis, the letter read. This crisis threatens the ability of the political system to provide answers to the difficult challenges facing Israel today.The letter urged Rivlin to grant a pardon to Netanyahu in return for his leaving office. This step, which does not determine guilt or innocence, seems to us the only exit to the situation we are in, the rabbis wrote.Gordin explained in the radio interview that the countrys basic fabric has become frayed over the last year, and we are losing the confidence of the public both in the political system, and also in the legal system.And the bad news, he added, is that it is only going to get worse.The appeal to Rivlin for a presidential pardon, therefore, is simply a way of putting an end to the entire saga, and enabling the country to move its focus on to other, more pressing, issues from passing a budget to confronting Iran.Rivlin, as the countrys president, has the power to pardon or commute sentences, and in the run up to the countrys 70th anniversary two years ago he used this power to pardon or commute the sentences of dozens of criminals.None of those cases, however, came anywhere near the magnitude of the Netanyahu case.Which does not mean there have not been high profile pardons in the past. There have been, with the most significant being President Chaim Herzogs 1986 pardon of Shin Bet head Avraham Shalom, four of his top deputies, and seven other Shin Bet agents involved in the killing of two Palestinian terrorists in the Bus 300 Affair, and in the ensuing cover-up that falsely implicated then brigadier-general and future defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai.Those pardons, before the cases were brought to trial, were justified on the ground that the public scrutiny that the Shin Bet would come under during a trial would damage its efficiency and harm the countrys security. In other words, the country could simply not afford a trial.Herzog defended his decision, highly controversial at the time, by saying that it would be recognized in the future as the right decision just as everyone in the United States now recognizes the rightness of President Fords decision to pardon President Nixon. He was referring to former US president Gerald Fords pardon of Richard Nixon in 1974 following the Watergate scandal.And it is that pardon which seems most similar to the one that the four rabbis are now asking of Rivlin for Netanyahu.In September 1974, Ford in a decision that defined his presidency and, some argue, doomed his reelection chances in 1976 granted a pardon to Nixon, who had resigned a few weeks earlier. Ford argued that this was necessary if the country was to get beyond Watergate and begin to heal the wounds the scandal had opened.Though contentious at the time, most historians, according to a New York Times article last year, now agree that Ford did the right thing for the country, which was reeling from the continuing war in Vietnam, economic stagnation, an energy crisis and the political turmoil left over from Watergate.Watergate had split America into warring camps, and Ford hoped that his action would allow the country to put the Nixon saga behind it and move on.According to the Times, even former senator Edward Kennedy, who opposed the pardon when Ford made the decision, softened as time passed. In an event in 2001 honoring Ford, Kennedy said that time has a way of clarifying past events, and that he had come to see that Ford acted correctly.His courage and dedication to our country has made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us, Kennedy said.Ford, in explaining his reasoning to the American people, said it would be many months and years before Nixons case would go through the courts.During this long period of delay and potential litigation, ugly passions would again be aroused. And our people would again be polarized in their opinions, he said. And the credibility of our free institutions of government would again be challenged at home and abroad.More than four decades later, and in a small country oceans away, that same reasoning echoed loudly in the letter the four rabbis sent Rivlin this week.

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Echoes of Fords pardon of Nixon appear in appeal to Rivlin - analysis - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

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The children agitated within her, and she said, If so, why am I like this? She went to inquire of Hashem who said to her, Two nations are in your womb; two regimes from your inside will be separated (Bereishis 25:22-23).

The Degel Machane Ephraim comments that the Torah is teaching a profound life lesson with these pesukim. We know that every individual has two inclinations the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara. Mans mission is to exert maximum effort to convert his yetzer hara into a yetzer tov, transforming negative energy into energy utilized to serve Hashem.

If a person does not effectively redirect his yetzer hara, G-d forbid, it may conquer his yetzer tov. If that happens, a person may rue his presence in the world as his spiritual growth has plummeted.

A person can only overcome his yetzer hara by following the advice of Tehillim (34:15): Turn away from evil and do good. A persons yetzer tov can be crushed if he capitulates to his yetzer hara, but he also can defeat his yetzer hara by concentrating on doing good.

The Degel Machane Ephraim explains the pesukim above as follows:

The children agitated within her There is a struggle within man between his yetzer hara and yetzer tov. Mans goal is to make sure his yetzer tov is victorious.

Why am I like this? When a person feels he is losing his battle, he thinks to himself: I came into the world to serve Hashem, but how can I do so when this is happening within me?

She went to inquire of Hashem A person must seek the proper road that will bring him closer to Hashem once again.

Two nations are in your womb A person has a yetzer hara and yetzer tov; thats why theres an upheaval in him.

Two regimeswill be separated Man spends his life trying to separate the two forces. Man must distinguish between good and bad, between mitzvos and aveiros, and between right and wrong in matters of ethics and morals.

Our sages tell us (Kiddushin 30b) that the yetzer hara renews itself and tries to overpower man every day. In other words, the challenges presented by the yetzer hara differ every day. Today the yetzer hara may be dormant; tomorrow it may wage war. But the yetzer hara is persistent and uses various arguments why the individual can or should commit a transgression or stray from the directives of the Torah.

The Talmud (Shabbos 105b) states that the yetzer hara is actually very crafty. Today it tells the person to do one thing and tomorrow it tells him do another until eventually it convinces him to worship idols.

The Satmar Rav notes that initially the yetzer hara seems harmless. It knows that every Jew truly wants to do mitzvos, so to discourage resistance, the yetzer hara assures the individual that the deed it presents before him isnt a sin. We must, therefore, be extremely vigilant to avoid the smallest breach in halacha that could, chas vshalom, culminate in doing the most severe aveiros.

The yetzer hara is relentless, and man must battle it his entire lifetime, as Pirkei Avos (2:5) says, Dont be sure about yourself until the day of your death. The Talmud (Berachos 29a) notes that Yochanan served as kohen gadol for 80 years but then became a member of the Sadducee sect, which denied the authority of the Torah Shebal Peh.

Many who lived in Poland in the 1800s were poverty-stricken, surviving on the barest minimum. In order to drum up business, merchants would display a table of wares outside their store to lure in customers.

A thief, seeing a relatively easy mark, walked up and down a block, calculating how he could grab the products of one of these merchants. But the particular merchant he was eyeing remained seated the entire time next to the table, keeping watch over his products. There was no way the thief would gain access to them.

Finally, he had a brilliant idea. Seeing some teenagers roaming the streets, he offered to pay any one of them who would steal a small item from the table. One of the boys agreed. He ran over to the table and stole a few cubes of sugar. He then quickly took off and ran for his life.

The agitated storeowner immediately began to pursue him. That was when the thief, who had been waiting patiently on the corner, rushed over to the table and swept all the contents of the table into his sack.

The great R Yechezkel of Kuzmir compared this thiefs thinking to the strategy of the yetzer hara. It distracts the individual from its true intentions by convincing him that he merely wants him to do a very small misdeed, like stealing one or two sugar cubes. Then the yetzer hara comes in for the kill revealing his true motives and the person commits a major transgression.

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Never Stop Fighting - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

Faculty from across Touro's schools celebrated at the university's ninth annual author luncheon on November 14.

Each guest was offered a Touro emblazoned metal water bottle along with a dense compendium listing the hundreds of works published by Touro faculty members this year.

Bashe Simon, director of the Touro Libraries, opened the event.

"The library has become the nexus of sharing knowledge and research, she began. Since 2009 when the library initiated the Faculty Publications Database, the number of publications has grown tremendously. Presently, all submissions are archived in Touro Scholar, Touro's institutional repository. Touro Scholar provides the world with access to our faculty's research and scholarly achievements. The annual Faculty Publications book is the final product of a year's worth of teamwork, including Sara Tabaei, Library Information Literacy Director, Donneer Missouri, Scholarly Communication Librarian, and Esther Greenfield, Director of Publications. We thank Dr. Alan Kadish for his continuous support of the library and its initiatives.

Touro College and University System President Dr. Alan Kadish discussed the Jewish tradition of scholarship and the codification of the Jewish oral tradition into the Talmud.

Those texts have had a profound effect on Jewish history, and, in some cases, world history as well, Dr. Kadish stated. No one in this room can say at this moment how what they publish will impact the future. But we know for certain that not recording our scholarly activities is a mistake. Perpetuating and transmitting knowledge on all topics and all subjects is an integral part of the Touro College and University Systems mission.

Touro College Provost Patricia Salkin spoke about one of her earliest research experiences.

Still to this day, more than 20 years later, I remember where my research took me, recalled Provost Salkin. Touro is not a publish-or-perish institution, yet we know that it is critical to our mission and existence as an institution of higher education to contribute to the body of knowledge so society in all disciplines can advance. You, in this room, are the leaders and you set an example for your colleagues.

Provost Salkin also spoke about Touro Scholar, the online repository of Touro-authored research. Our online scholarly archive has been around for three years and has already amassed 5,559 publications. People in 189 countries have downloaded these publications 64,260 times. Further, since the inception of Touro Scholar, 4891 institutions world-wide have accessed our publications. Truly, this shows what Touro has to offer to the academic community at large.

Keynote speaker Dr. Sonu Sahni, of TouroCOM Harlem, spoke about his success working with students and encouraging them to engage in research and publish their finding. Informally known as Sahnis gang, the loose collective of Dr. Sahnis students has published more than 35 abstracts in reputable journals as well as 20 full-length manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, students in the group have delivered presentations at conferences throughout the US including at events held by the American Thoracic Society, The American College of Cardiology, the American Osteopathic Associations, and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

Explaining his strategies, Dr. Sahni elaborated: You cant force a student to do research, but you can reach out to them. The most important thing is to create a nurturing environment that makes students comfortable. We have to be approachable to students.

He recalled an instance where he guided a student who had never done research. The student was interested in cardiology and the two worked to find a suitable topic.

Each week, we met one-on-one, he said. We took baby-steps and I encouraged her each step of the way. Eventually, the student and Dr. Sahni co-authored an article that was published by the American Journal of Cardiology. We cant have our students conform to us, said Dr. Sahni. We have to be able to dynamically adapt to what they want.

Dr. Soloman Amar, Touros Provost for Biomedical Research and Chief Biomedical Research Officer of Touro College and University System, concluded the event with a few brief remarks.

Being an author can seem like a thankless job, said Dr. Amar. Most of the time youre sitting by a computer and you rarely see the reward. But I can tell you there is nothing more rewarding than seeing a students name on pub-med.

After the presentation concluded, the faculty authors mingled with each other and discussed their work.

Events like this are opportunities for us to meet people, said TouroCOM Middletowns Dr. Joyce Brown who spoke to Dr. Sahni about the research her students were performing. It also creates more opportunities for our students as well.

The more we network, the more we see what our colleagues are working on, said Zvi Kaplan, department chair of history and social studies at Lander College for Womenthe Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School and a professor at the Graduate School for Jewish Studies. It creates a community of scholars.

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A Community of Scholars | The Touro College and University System - Touro College News

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

The unprecedented indictment of a sitting Prime Minister and the stalemate in the political system have combined to create a constitutional crisis in Israel. Political tensions are high and many fear the risk of political violence. The countrys most prestigious think tank, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), said that there is no doubt that a sitting Prime Minister under the shadow of indictment harms the publics trust in the countrys institutions and Israels character as a Jewish and democratic state. Moreover they said that public norms demand that the Prime Minister must resign. People who care about Israel have a responsibility to make their voices heard and stand up to any attempt to delegitimize the legal system. In particular the IDI noted that the decision raises questions about the Presidents authority to grant the mandate to form a government to Netanyahu. Decisions about the political future of the Prime Minister should not be left only to the legal system. The President has some discretion and a key role to play in a solution. Rumors abound in Jerusalem that the President may veto Netanyahu being able to be asked to even form a government and/or pardon him before his trials even begin in a Nixon style deal that will spare the nation from a third election that is shaping up as an attack on the Justice system and the Supreme Court.

According to Yoav Dotan, Professor of Public Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the President is entitled to rely on a legal opinion of the Attorney General that Netanyahu is unfit to be asked to form a government and that such an opinion would be unlikely to be overturned by the Supreme Court. If the Prime Minister, Likud, Knesset, Attorney General and President cant solve this problem quickly, which seems unlikely, then the Supreme Court will be asked to. How will it decide ?

There are actually two trials being conducted. One is the formal indictment against the Prime Minister for fraud, breach of trust and corruption. If he doesnt step down because of these charges the matter will very likely end up in the Supreme Court. According to the existing legal principle of good character and public trust described below, Netanyahu will likely be forced by the Supreme Court to step down. The second trial is being waged by Netanyahu in the court of public opinion. Here his henchman attack and incite against the Justice System and what his supporters call a too powerful Attorney General and State Prosecutor and an overly activist Supreme Court. One cannot help but regret how far Netanyahus Likud has moved from Menachem Beginss Likud and its respect for the rule of law and the independence of the Supreme Court as reflected in his often quoted remark that in Jerusalem the Judges decide.

Professor Dotan says that a majority of the public sees through the attempts to delegitimize the Supreme Court and Justice system. The Courts decisions in the area of good character enjoy massive public support. The court appears to the public as an unbiased and brave combatant against governmental corruption. The decisions of the Court in this area highlight the unsatisfactory behavior and corruption of senior public servants and politicians and bolsters the image and power of the Court as a protector of the publics rights, and against the abuses of power by its leaders.

Returning to a possible Sureme Court hearing concerning the indictment, Professor Dotan explains that the Supreme Court, in a series of decisions over nearly 30 years, has ended the tenures and/or stopped the appointment of ministers, senior bureaucrats and military officers and other public officials on the basis of the principles of good character and public trust. Early decisions of the Court were based on allegations of serious criminal offences by the appointees. The Court extended this to include cases in which the candidates behavior was viewed as morally reprehensible even if not strictly criminal such as sexual harassment and discrimination. In a number of more recent cases, senior appointments in the IDF were challenged before the Court on the basis of expressions made by the candidate in the media, which the petitioners found to be offensive to the ideals of human rights or to other fundamental constitutional rights. While most of these petitions ultimately failed, in all of them the Court reiterated its role in ensuring that senior appointees meet its requirements for high moral standards in the public service. In 2011, leading candidates for the three top positions of IDF Chief of Staff, Chief Commissioner of Police and Chief Commissioner of the Prison Service were forced to withdraw their candidacy after allegations of financial or sexual misbehavior were published in the media, and after the AG announced that he would find it difficult to defend these appointments in Court.

Professor Dotan says that three cases in particular bode very badly for Netanyahu. In the Eisenberg case (1992), the Court ruled that a former senior member of the domestic security services (Yossi Ginosar), who had been implicated in the cover up and killing of 2 terrorists after their capture, and had been pardoned before trial by the President, could not be appointed to the position of General Manager of the Housing Ministry because his past tarnished his good character. Here it was the new appointment that was denied thereby supporting the legal argument that the President must refrain from appointing someone to try and form a government if their good character has been tarnished by an indictment for serious criminal offence involving moral turpitude. If Netanyahu was to be pardoned before his trials this law may also preclude him from being able to seek higher office in the future.

Dotan explains that in the Deri case (1993), the Court ruled that Prime Minister Rabin was obliged to fire the then Housing Minister Aryeh Deri after he was indicted for corruption. The Court held that a Minister indicted for a serious criminal offence involving moral turpitude breached the requirement of good character and public trust. Since 1993 this has been the law for Ministers who are indicted and is the precedent most likely to result in Netanyahu stepping down. Interestingly, the defense in the Deri case argued, just as Netanyahu will, that there was/is a written law that says the Minister doesnt have to step down until his trials are completed. Dotan says the Court in the Deri case had no qualms about subordinating the express written law to the overriding principle of good character and the importance of public trust. At the very least public trust demands that a person indicted for a serious crime cannot assume the highest office in the Land.

The third case with relevance is that of the three mayors of prominent cities (Rochberger, 2013). Less than one month before municipal elections, the AG announced that he intended to indict them for corruption. Mayors are elected in direct personal elections but the Court said that the Representative Democracy argument, which Netanyahu will also argue, did not constitute a good enough reason for the Court to exempt the mayors from the application of the good character doctrine. The court did not have the power to stop the mayors from running in an election but the indictment could still prevent the new appointment of an elected official after the election should they win.

Dotan argues that these laws when applied to the Prime Minister amount to impeachment. Impeachment is old English Common Law from the 1300s that allowed the Parliament to accuse the Kings Ministers of serious crimes and remove them from office and jail them. At the time Parliament was trying to assert and take power from the King who was still all powerful. Impeachment was a way of challenging the Kings authority. The House of Lords (the Parliamentary upper chamber in United Kingdom) sitting as a court, would try and punish the accused. The practice was challenged by Kings and Queens who would fight back by not calling up the Parliament. Ministers could only be impeached if parliament sat. After the English Parliament triumphed over the King the practice died out but was revived in the US Constitution where it was regarded as an integral part of the separation of powers and checks and balances between the US President, Congress and the Supreme Court. Historically impeachment has led to more accountability and greater transparency.

Some argue that the Supreme Court of Israel has usurped power from the Legislature and has gone beyond its exclusive mandate to interpret the laws made by the Knesset. However, from its inception under the British, the Court was given a very broad jurisdiction to hear and determine matters necessary to be decided for the administration of justice. Courts were instructed to apply English Common Law and Principles of Equity when faced with problems not solved by Ottoman law or by new legislation. The filling the gap Lacuna concept encouraged comparative judicial creativity and scholarship in the best traditions of Anglo-American Common law. In 1980, when all links to the English Common Law were formally abolished a new, unique and distinct Israeli type Common Law was born. The Foundation Law Act (1980) said that in the case of a question not answered by legislation, precedent or analogy, the court is called upon to apply the principles of freedom, justice, equity and peace as envisaged by Israels heritage.

The potential dismissal of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu by the Supreme Court of Israel is the culmination of decades of legislative neglect to raise the ethical standards of political leaders in Israel. Even after the convictions of former Prime Minister Olmert and President Moshe Katsav, and a long list of other senior politicians for criminal offences, the Knesset failed to act or follow the recommendations of the Shamgar Committee (2008). The committee prepared a code of ethics for Ministers intended to nurture appropriate conduct by cabinet members, who are the publics trustees, in order to promote the general welfare, transparency and good government. The proposed code of ethics requires cabinet members to uphold, amongst other values, those of honesty, leadership, loyalty to the States values, and teamwork. The Knesset did nothing. It is within the context of this legislative apathy to raise leadership standards that the Supreme Court was forced to act because the Knesset did not. The Knessets inaction created a vacuum in which the Court developed a set of high ethical and professional standard for senior public servants and politicians intended to improve the quality of leadership and public trust of the citizens of Israel in the State and its institutions.

Should we expect anything less from our political leaders ? The Court is doing the right thing by setting high ethical standards for our leaders. The public has a right to demand this. The court has been given the authority to interpret the laws and this should be done in a way that fosters better leadership that respects good character and public trust. Setting high moral and ethical standards for our leaders is the foundation of good character, public trust and better governance in Israel.

The much wanted and needed unity government should commit to implementing the code of ethics for Ministers recommended by the Shamgar Committee (2008) immediately. Until then the Judges in Jerusalem will decide.

For a full discussion of the case law discussed see: Yoav Dotan, Impeachment by Judicial Review: Israels Odd System of Checks and Balances, 19 Theoretical inquiries L. 705 (2018).

Simon Fink lives in Israel and is originally from Melbourne, Australia. He studied Law Politics and Economics and is interested in public policy. He has worked for governments in Israel and Australia and currently works for a Bank in Israel.

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The impeachment of Netanyahu and how the Supreme Court could decide his fate - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

The visit to Israel of Zalman Teitelbaum, one of the two men claiming the title of third "Satmar Rebbe," the other being his older brother Aaron, has stirred much attention.

He was greeted by throngs of his ultra-Orthodox followers as he entered Jerusalem, the city from which the first Satmar Rebbe, Yoelish Teitelbaum, his granduncle, ignominiously left in 1946. He had left Jerusalem only a year after he had arrived, having failed to build and sustain a small yeshiva in the ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim quarter.

Intense anti-Zionism characterized Yoelish Teitelbaum, despite having been saved from the Nazi death camps by the efforts of pre-state Jewish Agencys Rudolf Kastner). The fact that so many of his Hasidim were trapped in Nazi-occupied Hungary and sent to die meant his efforts to rebuild a following in the Zionist yishuv were a failure. Instead, he went to New York - and in Brooklyn managed to build what would become the largest Hasidic group in America.

That first Satmar Rebbe refused to compromise on his opposition to Zionism, and not only thrived in America but even founded his own shtetl in a New York suburb, which he named after himself: Kiryas Yoel. Although his three daughters had all married, by the time he died in 1979 at the age of 92, he had outlived all his possible son-in-law successors and his Hasidim were forced to turn to his nephew, Moshe Teitelbaum, crowning him the second Satmar Rebbe.

That led to tensions within the Hasidic court. Not all the Hasidim endorse this choice, and the most prominent opponent was Yoelishs surviving second wife, Feige, who had effectively headed the group during her husbands last years during which he was in declining health. She wanted to retain her leadership role even after her husband's demise.

But despite amassing supporters, she was ultimately supplanted by Moshe, the new rebbe, and his oldest son and apparent heir, Aaron, who took over the leadership of Kiryas Yoel, where the widow was headquartered. The dowager rebbetzin tried to use her control of Satmar's by now ample funds, which she dispensed to needy organizations and individual Hasidim, to buttress her position. But in the end, Moshe Teitelbaum inherited the leadership and full control of its resources.

Moshe held fast to the anti-Zionism of his uncle. Despite his initially contested reign, under him Satmar grew in numbers, expanding in its Williamsburg, Brooklyn capitol and also in Kiryas Yoel. The latter's population grew by about 25 percent every ten years. In Williamsburg alone, the Satmar yeshiva now has close to 60,000 students, up from a mere 800 in 1959.

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Yet ironically, despite the movement's institutional wealth, and as the number of his Hasidim grew, the per capita income of those Hasidim has not. In Williamsburg, large numbers lived in state subsidized housing, many relied on welfare benefits. The U.S. census revealed Kiryas Yoel (in many ways just a smaller version of Satmar Brooklyn, with a population just above 25,000) revealed that for the 50 percent of residents subsisting below the poverty level in 1999 their economic situation had not improved by 2018.

By Moshes closing years, two of his sons were vying for the crown. Aaron had for many years been the heir apparent; Zalman, brought in to Brooklyn to help his ailing father, had managed to attract a growing following who saw him as the preferred heir. Upon Moshes death in 2006, at the age of 91, the growing and often bitter contest between the followers of each man, became institutionalized. That contest actually abetted Satmar growth as the Aaronis and Zalis (as the followers were called) competed to show they were the true Satmar Hasidim.

Defying the community members' own persistent poverty, each group eagerly built more institutions and gathered more resources for their rebbe - growing, overall, the Satmar brand. And for their part, the competing Rebbes, like Feige, the late dowager rebbetzin, used their financial control to dispense funds to those in need, thus drawing admirers and dependents to their side.

All this brings us to the appearance of Rebbe Zalman in Jerusalem just now.

One key part of his visit to Jerusalem, Ramat Beit Shemesh and Bnei Brak, was to distribute $5 million in Satmar largesse. That was a practice adopted by previous Rebbes as well. That act was not only to demonstrate Satmar's liquidity and benevolence, but a public act to show they can support those who turn their backs on the Zionist states coffers. Satmar is promoting the idea that they represent an alternate power center to which the haredi population can turn, rather than the Israeli state.

This formalized almsgiving provides other benefits to the Satmar brand, as well. It helps to undo Satmar's initial failure to thrive in pre-state Palestine, marked by Yoelishs humiliating departure in 1946. And for Zalman, temporarily at least, the coverage eclipses his brother, Aarons, claim to be the genuine and only legitimate heir to the Satmar throne. Undoubtedly, Israel can expect a similar visit by Aaron in the foreseeable future to erase the Zalis' advantage.

Of course, there is a built-in dissonance to distributing money to followers in such a theatrical staging. That giving charity is transformed into such a performative act is intended to hide the poverty of the overwhelming majority of their own followers; moreover, neither leader is transparent at all about the sources of this financial bounty, except to say they have some rich supporters.

Moreover, as some observers have noted, the throngs who have greeted Zalman Teitelbaum in Israel have not really come to share in his wisdom or bask in his charisma but are attracted purely by his monetary handouts. The apparently triumphal arrival of the Satmar Rebbe in Jerusalem, his "vanquishing" of the need to engage with the Zionist state, is not really a triumph at all; its just a rush for the money.

Samuel Heilman holds the Harold Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center and is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York

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Why the most fiercely anti-Zionist rabbi in the world just visited Israel - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

(RNS) Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This weeks gallery includes the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries in New York, convictions in an Argentine clergy abuse case, and more.

Hasidic leaders gather for an annual group photo of about 5,800 rabbis outside of the Chabad-Yubavitch Worldwide headquarters as a part of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries in New York on Nov. 24, 2019. The conference includes seminars, a class photo of those in attendance and an evening dinner. (AP Photo/Emily Leshner)

Hasidic leaders read personal notes and prayers at the resting place of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, while attending the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries at Montefiore Cemetery in New York, on Nov. 22, 2019. The annual conference included seminars, a class photo of about 5,800 rabbis in attendance and an evening dinner. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Exile Tibetan Buddhist monks stand next to a ceremonial fire as they wait to welcome their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on the last day of a three-day religious conference in Dharmsala, India, Friday, Nov. 29, 2019. Representatives of Tibetan Buddhist schools and the ancient Bon religion attended the conference. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Victims of abuse at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children embrace after hearing a guilty verdict for their abusers, in Mendoza, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 25, 2019. Two priests were each sentenced to more than 40 years in prison. (AP Photo/Marcelo Ruiz Mendoza)

The Rev. Nicola Corradi, in wheelchair, Armando Gomez and the Rev. Horacio Corbacho are escorted out of a courtroom after being found guilty of sexual abuse of deaf children at a Catholic-run school, in Mendoza, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 26, 2019. The court sentenced Corradi to 42 years in prison, and Corbacho to 45 years for acts that occurred at the institute in Lujan de Cuyo, a municipality in the northwestern province of Mendoza. The court also sentenced gardener Armando Gmez to 18 years in prison. (AP Photo/Marcelo Ruiz Mendoza)

People read the Quran , in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019 at a gathering to condemn the desecration of the Quran in the Norwegian city of Kristiansand. Pakistans foreign ministry said that it had summoned Norways ambassador to convey the deep concern of the government and Pakistani people over the recent burning of the Quran by a Norwegian man that was caught on video. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Locals , in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, Nov. 25, 2019 condemn the desecration of the Quran in the Norwegian city of Kristiansand. Pakistans foreign ministry said Saturday it had summoned Norways ambassador to convey the deep concern of the government and Pakistani people over the recent burning of the Quran by a Norwegian man that was caught on video. (AP Photo/K.M.Chaudary)

People light candles to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust as they mark the 75th anniversary of the setting up of the Jewish ghetto during WWII in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019. (Marton Monus/MTI via AP)

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Photos of the Week - Religion News Service

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

The Town of Palm Tree appears to have its first elected judges: two lawyers from outside the Hasidic community whose names were written in at the Nov. 5 election with the endorsement of the Anash political party.

Richard Croughan received 683 votes and Stephen Hunter 676, according to the Orange County Board of Elections unofficial results.

Neither lives in Palm Tree the town formed this year by separating the Village of Kiryas Joel from the Town of Monroe but were eligible to run because Palm Tree passed a law waiving the usual legal requirement that justices live in the towns that elect them to preside over municipal court. That law came too late for Croughan and Hunter to petition to get on the ballot, but Kiryas Joels main political faction put their names as write-in candidates on sample ballots that were distributed to voters outside polling stations on Nov. 5.

Town officials opened the field to non-residents because no one from Palm Tree petitioned last year or this year to be a judge, forcing the Orange County District Attorneys Office to distribute Palm Tree traffic tickets and other local court matters to neighboring towns and villages. State law requires towns to have two elected justices.

Croughan and Hunter will serve four-year terms. Palm Tree still has no courtroom for them, but town officials are considering building a small courthouse on land that Kiryas Joel owns off Larkin Drive in Monroe and uses for a park. They say it could take until next summer for Palm Tree Court to come to order if that plan comes to fruition.

Metzger bill shielding workers reproductive choices now law

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill sponsored by Sen. Jen Metzger that prohibits employers from discriminating against workers or prospective employees for their beliefs and decisions regarding contraception and abortion.

The Assembly had passed the Boss Bill in five previous years, but the Senate had taken no vote on it while Republicans controlled that chamber. That changed in January after Democrats won a large majority in the Senate: now sponsored by the newly elected Metzger, the proposal sailed through with most Republicans in support in a 56-6 vote in the opening weeks of the legislative session. The Assembly passed it again the same day.

No one should have to fear that they will lose their job or be demoted because of their own, private reproductive health decisions, Metzger, a Rosendale Democrat, said in a statement after the bill signing on Nov. 8. Choosing if and when to have children, what prescription drugs to take or medical services to access, are decisions for individuals and their families and not their employers. With threats to basic reproductive healthcare looming at the federal level, protecting New Yorkers with this legislation is more vital than ever.

Her statement noted that while employees medical records are confidential under federal law, employers can glean information from insurance summaries and other human resources documents.

The law prevents employers from looking at records about the employees or a dependents use of a drug, device or medical service without the workers prior written consent; from using that information to retaliate against the employee with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment; or from making a worker sign a waiver forsaking the right to make reproductive decisions.

A coalition of groups immediately filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the law as a violation of their religious rights, arguing it would force pro-life pregnancy centers, Catholic hospitals and religious schools to employ workers who dont share their opposition to abortion.

No government has the right to tell pro-life or religious organizations they must hire someone who doesnt agree with their core mission, said Ken Connelly, general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, the group that brought the case on behalf of a Rochester pregnancy care center and other aggrieved parties.

Delgado: Ban campaign donations from opioid makers

Rep. Antonio Delgado announced a new bill in November to prohibit campaign contributions to federal candidates from the political arms of any pharmaceutical companies that make opioids.

The Rhinebeck Democrat said he was co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. Max Rose, a Staten Island Democrat, and argued it would blunt the influence of drug manufacturers as policymakers in Washington grapple with ways to combat an opioid addiction and overdose crisis.

Addressing the opioid crisis must also include rooting out the corrupting influences that perpetuate it, Delgado said in a statement. The opioid crisis is deeply prevalent in New York, especially in our rural communities, and yet pharmaceutical companies and special interests continue to have free rein to advance their agenda by lining the pockets of lawmakers in Washington.

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The Fray: Write-in count confirms election of first Palm Tree judges - Times Herald-Record

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

Four privately owned companies that have won Health Ministry contracts in recent years also contributed to the Ger Hasidic court, to which Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman belongs.

The companies deny there is any connection between their contributions and the awarding of the contracts, but an investigation by TheMarker shows that they were made close to or at the same time they were doing business with the ministry.

Femi Premium, a company that provides services to health insurers and public institutions, donated 50,000 shekels ($14,400) in 2015 to the nonprofit group Refuah VYeshuah, which is affiliated with the Ger sect.

In May the same year, Avi Dejdak community coordinator for the company, whose responsibilities included encouraging vaccinations in the Haredi community was named an adviser for Litzman, who is the effective head of the ministry despite holding the formal title of deputy minister.

Femi Premium had previously won contracts awarded through competitive bidding from the Health Ministry. In 2016 it was awarded another one, this time for telemedical services worth 6 million shekels, of which 5.3 million has already been paid out. The ministry confirmed that the company was the only bidder.

The ministry says it had sought bids to develop the technological infrastructure for a nationwide system of telemedical services. At the time there werent vendors that could offer systems like these, so we thought that the ministrys involvement would encourage the creation of a vendors market in Israel, it said, explaining why there was only a single bidder.

Since then Femi Premium has participated in other Health Ministry tenders: In 2016 it won a 2.5 million shekel contract for services to the Bedouin sector, in 2017 a 4 million contract for rehabilitating the mentally handicapped and another worth 2 million to operate a healthcare rights center.

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Every year we contribute money and volunteers to aid the sick, disabled and needy, responded Femi Premium, which also provides services to the education and culture ministries.

When a request for a donation and/or volunteers comes in, whether it is a direct request from a nonprofit or a recommendation from one of the companys employees, we evaluate it by only two criteria: whether it is within the social framework of Femi Premium and its employees that year, and whether we can be sure the funds will be used as designated.], the company said.

Tiferet Hair, which deals in real estate management and upkeep, donated 254,000 shekels in 2017 and 208,000 in 2016 to the Union of Ger Institutions.

Starting in 2015, a year before its first donation, the company won a 173,000-shekel contract to lease and buy parking facilities in places that included the Tiferet HaIr Mall in Petah Tikva. The mall mainly serves as doctors offices for the Maccabee health maintenance organization as well as for Health Ministry and as an emergency medicine center.

Tiferet Hair is owned by two companies, one of which is called Lev Romema. In the years 2014-17 Lev Romema contributed to the Ger Union about 600,000 shekels, bringing the groups total contributions to more than 1 million shekels.

A. Barazani Transport, a bus operator, gave a one-time donation to the union of 105,000 shekels in 2017. A year later it won a Health Ministry contract to deliver samples of fresh produce from border crossings to public health laboratories to check for dangerous bacteria.

Two other bidders participated in the tender, but no other transportation company made a contribution to the Ger Union that year or before in excess of 20,000 shekels.

The contract was worth 63,000 shekels, of which 54,000 has already been paid out. Starting in 2017 Barzani won other contract from other ministries, including one to transport immigrants arriving at Ben-Gurion International Airport.

We have no connection with Ger or Litzman, said Alon Barzani, the companys owner, in response.

Its a small contract of a few thousand shekels. He said the donation was the first ever made to the Ger sect. We [donate to] a lot of institutions special education, yeshivot, everyone not just Ger. Barzani said he wasnt aware of Litzmans Ger affiliation and described the contract win a year after his contribution as a coincidence.

Genius Systems, which is a vendor to many ministries and is exempt from competitive bidding because it provides a unique software package for statistical analysis, gave 30,000 shekels to the Ger World Center, a nonprofit that runs the giant sects beit midrash in Jerusalem.

Were involved with Ger hasidism, said Jacky Lipskier, co-CEO and co-owner of Genuis. We contribute to them privately and through the company. Were a private company and we can contribute to whom we want.

The four are among a long list of companies, among them drinks company Tempo and food importer Neto, that are regulated by the Health Ministry and that TheMarker revealed in September had made donations to Ger institutions.

In response to TheMarkers newest report, the ministry said the contracts were awarded through regular procedures managed by the tenders committee.

This is a recycled list of baseless allegations whose sole purpose is to defame the ministry and the person who leads it. There is not and was not any connection between donations from commercial businesses to Ger institutions and the deputy minister of health or contracts with the Health Ministry.

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Companies giving to health minister's ultra-Orthodox sect won lucrative Health Ministry business - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

Jewish Teens Attacked By Group Of Men In Brooklyn The Forward

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A gang of five men attacked two identifiably Jewish teens on the street in Brooklyn.

The boys were not injured in the Nov. 11 attack in the Crown Heights neighborhood. Police reported the incident on Wednesday, according to the New York Post.

The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

Crown Heights and other Brooklyn neighborhoods have seen a spate of attacks on identifiable Jews in recent weeks.

In this incident, the group approached one boy, 14, who was dressed in traditional Hasidic garb, and smacked him in the head, knocking off his kippah. They then snatched the hat off the head of the other boy, a 15-year-old.

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Jewish Teens Attacked By Group Of Men In Brooklyn - Forward

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Posted By admin on December 1, 2019

The End of Babies.

That was the arresting headline on a hefty and significant lead article in The New York Times Sunday Review section for Nov. 17 about spreading international reproductive malaise, a.k.a what some are now calling the Baby Bust.

This is big stuff. Yes, there are religious implications here.

The Guy is old enough to remember apocalyptic journalism about a lethal population explosion heading our way. Now social analysts are issuing the opposite warning for some countries. Among other ills, when average ages rise this causes labor shortages, lack of children to care for aged parents and deficits in public and private pension funds with fewer younger wage-earners to carry the oldsters.

Government interventions to skew population can cause trouble.

China feared increasing hordes and long forced couples to have only one child. Combined with open abortion and gender favoritism, that has produced a dire shortage of marriageable women. David French of thedispatch.com notes the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Californias paid family leave, which youd think would encourage more births, apparently reduced childbearing.

To keep the population from shrinking, a nation needs an average of 2.1 births per woman resident. Numbers fall well below that in e.g. Taiwan (1.13), Japan (1.42), Thailand (1.52), China (1.6), the United States (an all-time low of 1.7) and numerous well-off European nations like Denmark (also 1.7).

Denmark is a major puzzle in the Times piece by Anna Louie Sussman, working in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Affluent Danes are better able to cover the costs of child-rearing than parents in many countries. Denmarks welfare state makes it as easy as possible to have children, with 12 months of family leave after birth, government funding for in vitrofertilization, and heavily subsidized day care.

So what gives?

Better career opportunities for women are one factor. A culture in which legalized abortion is a given is another.

Reflecting the socio-political Left, Sussman thinks the climate crisis and income inequality make many couples reluctant to bring children into this world. She says capitalist economies are the big driver, providing wealth that makes many prefer recreation to bothering with kids, and turning employees into workaholics who feel they lack the time and energy for parenting.

Journalists will consider that theres a major religious angle to focus on, as usually with societal trends. Couples without children feel less incentive to be active in religious congregations, which dwindle as a result. On the other hand, Sussman observes, declining religiosity generally means fewer births. Secularism fosters materialism fosters childlessness.

Some faiths are notably invested in producing children, for instance the Amish, Hasidic Jews and Latter-day Saints. Healthy birth rates are a major reason some demographers predict Islam will surpass Christianity as the worlds largest religion later this century. Growing religious flocks tend to make converts, retain their young people and encourage families with multiple children. Do the math.

Fortunately for religion writers, the Times feature appears simultaneously with a vigorous pro-reproduction religious proclamation titled The Gift of Children. It was issued by 24 American thinkers in the Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) project, which has produced a series of joint statements since 1994 expressing traditional Christian teachings on cultural and religious issues.

Some journalists will want to report how these Catholics and Protestants jointly treat news topics like birth control, abortion, same-sex marriage and artificial methods of human reproduction. But here The Guy will note only their slant on the birth dearth.

In the Bibles view, the statement notes, God says to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), Moses admonishes Israelites to choose life that you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:19), and children are a heritage from the Lord and a reward (Psalm 127:3). ECT says that to have a child is to have a future through committing ourselves to renewing and caring for the forward-flowing stream of life.

ECT asserts that being a parent is natural and an act of faith even for non-believers, and fundamental to what it means to be human. For believers, it is nothing less than a divine commandment where possible. Deliberately to refuse the gift of children implicates us in a turn away from the living God, so much so that were told clergy should not perform weddings of couples that intend to be childless.

Yes, Christianity does uphold those who are single or who enter celibate church vocations. But for ECT that does not endorse the sterility of the present age. The chaste single life does not refuse the gift of children for the sake of present pleasures or out of anxieties about a future we cannot control. Singles can function as parents for the children in their families, churches and communities.

Much generation-shaping material here for writers and their sources to examine.

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Big-think story: What does religion have to do with slumping global birth rates? - GetReligion

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