Free Republic

Both Republican and Democratic candidates have been courting Jewish voters ahead of Tuesday’s New York primary vote, looking for an edge in competitive districts with large Jewish populations. Orthodox Jews, who make up a significant portion of New York’s Jewish population, have become an important bloc in the New York primary for both parties. […] While Orthodox Jews tend to lean more Republican than Democrat by a margin of 55% to 31%, some Hasidic sects, including the staunchly anti-Zionist Satmar, have lent their support in the past to Democratic candidates. Yiddish flyers distributed by a pro-Sanders group and bearing the...

Is the Israeli Mossad behind the Arab Spring? According to a play which recently aired on Egyptian television, the answer is yes. The anti-Semitic play, entitled "The Spy," recently aired on the Egyptian Al-Hayat TV channel. It was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The play displays anti-Semitic stereotypes and portrays Mossad officials preparing "for a huge operation of espionage and sowing disunity" which targets the entire Arab world. The play features a group of Mossad officials, five men and one women, and the men are all dressed up in hareidi attire. The males are all named...

A pact between Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid is causing serious consternation in Likud, and a senior source in the ruling party warns that new elections are a possibility. The improbable warning is a sign that Likud is feeling the pressure of the united front presented by Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid, each of whom is saying he will not enter the coalition without the other. "Bennett should not pull the rope too much," the senior source told Maariv. "In the end it will snap." "Netanyahu is ready to head for elections," the source said....

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Israel on Monday of potential economic instability, AFP reported. According to the report, the IMF said the instability was due to the high unemployment and deep poverty among Arab-Israelis as well as hareidi-religious Jews. The warning was made in an IMF report on the Israeli economy. “Severe poverty is concentrated in these groups,” the IMF report was quoted as having said, adding that only 40 percent of hareidi men have jobs, and only 20 percent of Arab-Israeli women are employed. The report noted that their wage levels are low compared to other Israeli groups....

(IsraelNN.com) Activist secular group 'The Jerusalemites' complains that the women's prayer area in front of the Kotel (Western Wall) was reduced in size, and that men and women are separated in the external courtyard, are signs of the 'haredization' of the Kotel. A local Jerusalem weekly reported Friday that the group, which is represented by one member (out of 31) on the City Council, said it was forming an action group for "returning the Kotel to the general public as part of the struggle for the character of Jerusalem.'"

Koogle is the name of a new Hebrew-language Internet search engine that allows surfing without getting drowned in sexually explicit and other offensive material. The brainchild of Yossi Altman, Koogle is a pun on the Jewish noodle pudding known as “kugel.” The new search engine maybe a boon to the hareidi religious community, whose rabbis often ban the use of the Internet because of the accessibility to pornography.

(IsraelNN.com) A class of 30 hareidi men scored overwhelmingly better than the national average on a recent psychometric exam - despite, or because of, their lack of general studies schooling. Facts Belie Editorial Haaretz newspaper editorialized angrily this week against the exemption of hareidi students "from acquiring knowledge such as English and math" - and just a few days later reported on the hareidi students' high scholastic achievements. The editorial was in response to a law passed the Knesset this week. The new law states that hareidi high schools - "yeshivot ktanot" - will continue to receive State funding, despite...

Education Minister (Labor) Yuli Tamir announced her decision on Monday to fund long school days at kindergartens in public schools – but not in the hareidi preschool system. Tamir told the Knesset Education Committee that the public school system would take priority over non-governmental education associations, most of which are hareidi Orthodox schools. United Torah Judaism (UTJ) Knesset member Rabbi Moshe Gafne responded angrily to the decision, accusing Tamir of declaring “war against the hareidi Orthodox education system.” “The former education minister didn’t do this, [Meretz education ministers Shulamit] Aloni and [Yossi] Sarid didn’t do this,” noted Gafne. He asked...

The IDF's Nachal Hareidi unit, contrary to press reports, will not be closed, but the army has decided to limit the number of non-Hareidi soldiers who are allowed to enlist in the program. The Nachal Hareidi Battalion was established in order to allow soldiers from the Hareidi-religious sector to serve in the IDF, while adapting the environment in which they serve to their specific needs. Though members of the Hareidi community have enlisted in the unit, it has also become a viable option for religious soldiers from various other communities, including volunteers from overseas. All food served to the...