Chareidim and Their Critics

As a mechanech, he will have no replacement or imitators. His unique personality and incredibly wide-range of talents ensure that we will not again see his like.

The battering administered to our bag of stereotypes is one of the greatest benefits of meeting those outside one's normal social circle

Shmita is our test of faith

The issues of how we relate to our non-religious neighbors and to Israeli democracy in general are not trivial. and they will not go away. They require the attention of our finest Torah scholars.

There is a battle being waged for the soul of the chareidi community between those who concern themselves with the general image of Torah and Torah-observant Jews and those who think only of their own subgroup, the more narrowly defined the better,

No Jewish concept has aroused such animosity over the millenia or creates such discomfort among modern Jews as that of chosenness, a chosenness predicated on the Jewish nationhood.

Developing a positive identity in our children, as Torah Jews

IF ONE assumes that there no longer exists one Jewish people but two - one defined by its fealty to halachic observance and the other pluralistic and adverse to all boundaries- then the absence of haredim from the JPPPI conference makes perfect sense.

The failure to invite chareidim to last week's conference had nothing to do with the community's lack of suitable representatives or its lack of relevance. Rather it reflects a continuing unwillingness to confront the message of the chareidi community.

RABBI ANGEL IS an ardent proponent of rabbinic autonomy: Let every congregational rav do what is straight in his eyes. But that system has proven a disaster.

The recent Parade in Jerusalem provides an example of the danger.

In short, chareidi and progressive critiques of Israel start at diametrically opposite points and will never meet.

There is a growing tendency in our community to attempt to impose our halachic standards, even chumrot, whenever we have a momentary majority, such as on the early morning bus to the Kotel.

Losing the Connection

Shmuley Boteach doesn't get it

It’s Not Just Demographics

Those who provided aid and comfort last week to a madman who has repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel and its five million Jewish citizens off the map demonstrated thereby that they have no place in the camp of Torah.

What I decried was the implicit assumption by some in our community that once any phenomenon is classified as evil that any means are permissible to stop it.

We can learn a lot about childrearing from those handful of idealists willing to live outside such a community, in order to bring closer their Jewish brothers and sisters.

Before Bielski and other Israeli leaders lecture Diaspora Jews on their lack of a Jewish future, they would be well advised to attend to our own house, where the lack of Jewish identity threatens our very existence.

And for the Torah community, it is no less a tragedy that concepts like Kiddush Hashem and Klal Yisrael never entered the minds of last week's rioters. They are not even on their radar screen.

Perhaps it is about time to recognize that we have no choice but to rely on Hashem to protect us, and to call out to Him in this eis tzara.

The Torah provides the answers sought. But because of the actions of last week's rioters the likelihood of secular Jews looking to the Torah, rather than an ashram in India, for the antidote to their spiritual malaise has declined sharply.

INDEED THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH AGENCY and the State of Israel is that of one concerted effort to destroy the Yiddishkeit of children from Torah homes.

Ever notice how many ridiculous assertions, many of them touching on matters of religion, are printed in serious journals weekly?

Identification with the suffering of our fellow Jews is not automatic. It requires work. One of the great tragedies of modern Jewish life is how cut off Jews are from one another.

Saving Tommy

In Praise of Erlichkeit

The awareness that we are constantly broadcasting a message about Hashem’s Torah in everything that we do forces us, at one level, to look outwards. But, ironically, it also forces us to develop ourselves from within at the same time.

The hidden costs of rampant poverty on the quality of our marriages and our children may turn out to be even greater than the more obvious consequences of poverty.

Peretz’s economic prescriptions would be ruinous to the Israeli economy; nor would their overall impact on the chareidi community be salutary.

The good we do for others returns to us – certainly in the World to Come, and usually in this world as well. As the wisest of all men advised: "Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days, you will find it" (Koheles 11:1).

We in the chareidi world often imagine that we are unaffected by events taking place around the world, and sometimes even in our backyard. Our community, however, is not an island unto itself.

Instead of creating a massive disincentive for Bais Yaakov graduates to pursue a teaching career, the Education Ministry should be trying to find out what the Bais Yaakov teachers are doing right.

Good folks

The outcome of the struggle currently taking place at Machon Lev will have consequences for virtually every segment of Israeli religious society. Machon Lev stands as an all too rare example of the unifying power of the Torah.

Acertain gene pool is often the least important thing we contribute to our children

Ba'alei teshuva have played an important role as defenders and expositors of the Torah world to the broader Jewish and secular society.

By virtue of their ability to convey the deepest Torah ideas in a modern idiom ba'alei teshuva have proven to be some of the most successful expositors of Torah in our time.

Rabbi Wolbe shaped the lives of thousands of his students, and through their families and students will continue to shape thousands more. His influence will also be felt, however, by many Israelis who never even heard of him.

The ba'alei mussar tell us that any regimen of spiritual improvement requires small, incremental steps. In the gym, one quickly sees how great a distance can be traversed in a short time through small, but constant improvements.

By honoring the lomdei haDaf, we also acknowledge our own need to create a similar island in time, completely removed from anything else happening in our lives, to immerse ourselves in the sea of Talmud.

Why do works filled with villainous or shallow haredim speak to non-haredi readers?

What can be done about the high rate of unemployment among chareidi job seekers?

Not all of us have to face the constant pressure of staring at a blank screen waiting to be filled. But there are plenty of other incentives to remain alive to the many the lessons the world around us has to teach.

All in all, Mrs. Schmidt provides a remarkable example of how much each of us could do if we only set our minds to it and did not leave the task for others.

The existence of a chareidi community passionate about Torah study and observance is crucial to Israel’s long-range survival.

Brutal attempts to force changes in haredi education or to expedite natural changes already taking place will encounter stiff resistance, and only reinforce the community's most conservative impulses.

No technology is so invasive as the cellphone. Its small size and mobility provide the user with complete privacy and the ability to access any material he wants without fear of being found out by either teachers or friends.

The ban on cell phones will not be fully enforced, but neither will it be, as the skeptics think, honored more in the breach than the observance.

Tommy Lapid has thrown down the gauntlet to the chareidi world.

Why did a Keness devoted to the dangers of cell phones so inspire me?

. If Shinui voted against the budget, the Prime Minister told Lapid, he would fire all the Shinui ministers. The next day Shinui’s participation in the coalition was history.

So the next time you read some deep thinking about the chareidi community, take it with a grain of salt.

The most persistent stereotype of haredim is that they could not care less about any Jew outside their narrow community. Yet that stereotype is easily refuted by evidence known to most secular Israeli.

One of the most familiar such stereotypes is of the bloodsucking chareidi, who shows absolutely no concern with the fate of his fellow Jews.

The scope and variety of chareidi organizations serving the entire Israeli population is nothing short of remarkable.

The lack of discipline and an environment conducive to learning in the secular system have opened many secular parents to considering the option of a Torah education

The greatest danger from showing too great concern with what the neighbors will say is that our children may become cynical about the lessons we try to instill and come to question the depth of our own commitment.

Reading Rav Elyashiv

A disease in search of a cure

Knowledge of sports or Hollywood trivia can be a useful conversation starter, but ultimately only those who can convey a passion for Torah will ever be able to help searching Jews find the way home.

Since the focus of chareidim continues to be on strengthening the Torah community, it is hardly surprising that such a large percentage of the energies of that community are directed to initiatives benefiting Orthodox Jews.

IF TUMARKIN REPRESENTS the worst in Israeli society, Rabbi Yitzchok David Grossman, this year’s Israel Prize winner for life achievement, represents the best.

Israel Prize winners need not be paragons of virtue in every aspect of their private lives. But neither should they be best known for their offensive language and crude behavior.

A timely reminder

Hatred of chareidim is one more expression of the lack of self-identity and self-loathing.

New learning framework for the frum baalebos

If only Naftali and Mikey were the images of Jewish youth shown to the world

"The Torah doesn't need any salesman. The Torah is its own best salesman."

An Israel prize for Jew hatred?

One suspects that had Tumarkin’s primary offenses been against any group other than religious Jews, even the Israel Prize committee would have recognized that he is unworthy of emulation and honor by the State of Israel.

Figures who have made careers of gratuitously insulting religious Jews and expressing their disdain for the Jewish religion in the most egregious fashion possible are fit recipients of the Israel Prize.

Haredi schools work

Not being prophets, we can never know with certainty the answer to these questions. But before we act, we must at least understand the issues.

Impure intentions

An odd villain

The ludicrous attempts to discredit chareidi parenting derive from secular parent’s suspicion that we still possess parental resources that they have lost.

A surprising school survey

A surprising survey

Observing the manner in which the haredi community comes to grips with tragedy, secular Israelis learned more about the lives of haredi Jews than they had ever known.

Tough response to Zuroff's insulting responsa regarding the Haredim's selfish rescue activities during the war.

For once, secular Israelis were viewing the Haredim with awe and admiration for their stoicism in the face of such tragedy.

Refutation of Ephraim Zuroff's accusations that the haredim saved only their own during the Holocaust.

Comparing the negative attitude of the public towards religious councils with their indifference towards superfluous local authorities reveals, once again, the irrational hatred of haredim.

Refutation to Efraim Zuroff's accusation that haredim only saved their own during the Holocaust.

Why the charedim are despised so much by the secular

PM Sharon bashes rabbis for being too strict in converting new immigrants

Not a passing phenomenon

Nir can't read or do math

Dialogue can help

Mayor Lupolianski must work together with the mainstream haredi community and the police to ensure that the Shabbat violence comes to a halt. He must do so not just to save his mayoralty, but, far more importantly, to preserve the honor of the Torah.

Reach out and help someone

Lupolianski's challenge

Despite the mutual interest of both the general Israeli society and the haredi community in increased haredi economic participation, such participation is by no means a given

The exploitation of hatred of haredim has long been a staple of Israel elections. Now Levi’s exploits disgust with haredim to sell jeans.

In every generation there rises up against us . . .

When "more Judaism" is worrisome

The incitement double-standard

Shinui’s Trojan Horse

Keeping our eye on the ball

It is the season of broken illusions for the chareidi world, including the illusion that there exists some natural affinity between the Likud and the chareidi world

Haredi politicians have extorted every available shekel in the country, they don’t work, they pay no taxes, and they produce nothing. So goes the charge sheet. Yet each one of these claims is a gross distortion.

The political, security and economic situations don't bode well for the chareidi world

A Chareidi mayor for Jerusalem

Even if a secular coalition including Shinui does not materialize, Shinui's impact will continue to be felt

Tommy Lapid has provided us with a chilling snapshot of our national psyche

Shinui's popularity, especially among the educated young, reflect the degree to which our young are cut off from any sense of themselves as Jews.

A hatred that cuts one way

Mikveh revisited

Those who talk the talk of concern for the weaker elements of society, don’t walk the walk.

A good cause, can never justify using methods forbidden by the Torah. And nothing will taint a just cause more fatally than employing immoral means.

Ethical Bloopers

But is it journalism?

Passage of the Tal Commision recommendations into law may reflect a new maturity in Israeli society - recognition that perfection is the enemy of the good.

Yossi Paritzky and Tommy Lapid have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Shinui is based on pure, unadulterated loathing of Torah and all those who observe its commandments.

Shinui leader Tommy Lapid and his faithful henchman MK Yossi Paritzky have each recently provided recently classic demonstrations of the principle that hatred maddens a person to the point of losing all balance, self-control, and rationality.

Response to Itamar Marcus: Torah study is paramount

How the Large Family Law became the Law of Unintended Consequences

With chareidi political power in decline, they will have to stop looking at the government to alleviate widespread poverty in the community.

The firing of Shas ministers highlights the vulnerability of the chareidi community.

Court bars SHUVU from renting youth center in Holon

Chareidim assume that nothing is random, and that whatever happens to us, whether good or bad, has a reason.

1,200 students study in pre-army yeshivot

Yes, there is a limit to the secular public's credulity

Analysis of the effects of the Supreme Court decision to approve Reform and Conservative conversions

Surprising statistics show the many benefits of a religious lifestyle

Why Chareidim will vote no to the Shabbat law

Who is being selfish

Why Charedim can't vote for the Shabbos law

Why neither the virulently anti-religious nor the religious will support the Shabbos law

In Israel, everything is judged on a basis of whose ox is gored

Who is the real pro-Israel lobby?

Obscene Comparison

Criticism of "Trembling Before God"

The furor over the religious-Zionists' reaction to mixed combat units has taught them some harsh lessons

The integration of women into combat units need to be re-examined

EU allocations to move Israeli opinion to the left; Tzvia Greenfield's attempts to discredit Judaism

Some background and facts on the hevra kadisha and burial of non-Jews

To say that mixed dancing caused the Versailles tragedy is idiotic

On the media coverage of the hevra kadisha following the Dolphinarium bombing

On the educational standards of the Shuvu and Shas institutions

Orthodoxy is good for you

No other group is as devoted to Israel as the Orthodox

A true picture of baalei teshuva and their relationships with their families

Expose of Morgenstern's agunah beit din and his cronies

Women at the wall

The doctors at Laniado never strike due to the philosophy of the hospital and its founder

Arson in Ramot

Condemnation of arson of Conservative synagogue, and on synagogue arsons in general

Response to Orit Shohat's article on haredi women's emotional misery

Refutation of Naomi Ragen's report on the agunah problem

Refutation of Ephraim Zuroff's accusations that the haredim only saved their own during the Holocaust

On allegations that the haredim are preparing a hostile reception for the pope

The movie Kadosh wrongly protrays the lives of Orthodox women

On the mass haredi prayer rally

On the haredi internet ban

No grinch here

What Happened?

Response to Time Magazine article claiming haredi parents cannot adequately raise their large families

Haredi charity outreach

Transporting the turbine on Shabbat broadcasts the message that Israel has no regard at all for Halacha

Just what was sacrificed by transporting the turbine on Shabbat

Possible advantages of declining political power

On haredi misbehavior at the Western Wall

Response to Naomi Ragen's portrayal of haredim

On the haredim's concern for their fellow Jews

Comparison of secular and Torah leaders

On the haredi community's devotion to Torah learning

On Seffi Rachlevsky's characterization of haredim

Haredi concerns have caused them to become rightists

A portrait of Rabbi Moshe Sherer

Why haredim should stand in public on Israel Remembrance Day

Teaching our children ahavat Israel

Long after memory of the fraudulent story of the raped haredi woman has faded, the impression of the cruel Halacha will remain

Haredim ruin the game by devaluing the prize

Talmud study is the most intellectually stimulating of all academic pursuits

The adverse consequences of attacks on haredim

Comparison of Torah and secular lifestyles

On violence directed at haredim

Izenberg takes a dim view of the haredi community's refusal to confine its efforts to potential Talmud scholars alone.