Free Republic

A Tel Aviv court on Wednesday struck down dozens of restraining orders Israeli police had issued against opponents of this Friday’s planned gay pride parade. The orders, which would have barred the individuals from approaching the route of the parade in Tel Aviv, were issued against dozens of haredi and national religious activists. Police had called the individuals in question, requesting that they report to local police stations to sign the orders, agreeing to voluntary temporary restraining orders. …

John Kasich bantered with Haredi Orthodox Jews about which biblical figure was most significant and other lessons from the Jewish Bible. […] “The story of the people are Abraham and God made a covenant with Abraham — not Moses!” Kasich told Ezra Friedlander, a Haredi lobbyist who was escorting Kasich through the heavily Haredi neighborhood. Friedlander had tried to explain that for Jews, Moses is considered the most important biblical figure, and more important than the patriarchs, because he brought the law to the Jews. “Moses is up there,” Friedlander said, as Kasich, an Anglican who was born Roman Catholic,...

Recently, The New York Times Magazine had an article entitled “The Beggars Of Lakewood”, which I found to be a distorted depiction of the Hareidi-religious Jewish community of Lakewood, New Jersey. The article describes how the people of Lakewood do not turn anyone vetted as needy away. It could—and should—have been called “The Generous Givers of Lakewood.” Because this is a community of Torah scholars who, barring a few, are far from wealthy. Instead, it focuses on those asking for funds. The piece uses the hackneyed stereotype of Jews as money-grubbing beggars—replete with a picture of a black hat surrounded...

Thousands of hareidim protested Thursday at the entrance to Jerusalem and in Bnei Brak over the sudden freezing of funding for all yeshivas, which was ordered retroactively by Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday. […] Hareidi MKs have responded with fury to the ruling and freeze; MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) accused the High Court Wednesday of “declaring war” on the hareidim, while MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) decried the “ongoing campaign of persecution. The government is attacking everything connected to religion or to the Torah world.” …

A high-ranking official in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bureau met with representatives of the radical, anti-Zionist Neturei Karta haredi group on International Holocaust Day last week. The official met with four members of the group in Berlin when they were protesting the existence of the State of Israel and the Zionist exploitation of the Holocaust for political reasons. Ynet revealed that the official is a department head in the chancellor’s bureau, and against convention met with them openly. Members of Neturei Karta confirmed that the purpose of the meeting was to make it clear to the Germans that Zionism doesn’t...

Dozens of copies of a booklet calling on ultra-Orthodox Jews to emigrate from Israel were handed out last week near the main synagogue in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, on the backdrop of the battle between Israel’s haredi and secular publics over the attempt to draft yeshiva students to the Israel Defense Forces and introduce core subjects into haredi schools’ curriculum. Although the booklet was written about 15 years ago by Rabbi Moshe Dov Beck of the extreme Eda Haredit faction, it was handed out once again this week in light of the haredi draft issue, which has reached the High...

MK Uri Ariel, the head of Bayit Yehudi's coalition negotiations team, said in an interview published Friday that the hareidi leadership is sowing unnecessary panic regarding the plans to enlist hareidi men to the military and national service. Ariel told hareidi newspaper Hamevaser that Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid – Bayit Yehudi's prospective partner in the coalition, which insists on toughening up laws regarding hareidi enlistment – is not against allowing Torah students to be exempted from service. "He is not trying to close down the yeshivas," explained Ariel. "He recognizes the Torah students. There is an argument about numbers,...

“Equal share in the burden” of army enlistment is meaningless if it does not include Arab citizens, representatives from the hareidi-religious Yahadut Hatorah (United Torah Judaism) party argued Tuesday evening in a meeting with Likud Beytenu. “If there is ‘equality’ – then let it be true equality. Why is the hareidi population under pressure while the Arabs are outside the debate completely?” challenged MK Moshe Gafni, who was quoted by the hareidi paper Hamevaser. MK Meir Porush argued that the state has not historically been eager to enlist even those hareidi men who were eligible for mandatory service. “According to...

A disturbing video began circulating on Facebook Saturday evening. It shows a group of about 20 Arabs ganging up on two helpless Hareidi Jews, kicking one of them, hurling snowballs in their faces and humiliating them. At one point, one of the Jews falls to the ground, apparently slipping on the ice as he is chased up some steps. Video The attack apparently took place near Shechem Gate. The Jews were most likely on their way back from praying at the Kotel. Border Police who are usually stationed in the area are nowhere to be seen. ..... More video Arab...

The Plesner Committee for Equality in National Service may only discuss ways of making hareidim serve in the IDF – but not Arab citizens, MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu) disclosed Thursday. "The Attorney General and Legal Advisor to the Government informed the committee uner MK Yohanan Plesner that deals with enlisting everyone, that enlistment of Arabs is not within its purview," Rotem told reservist protesters in the "Suckers' Tent," which is currently visiting Efrat. The Legal Advisor's decision was communicated to the committee by his deputy, Attorney Mike Blass, who explained that the Tal Law that was struck down by...

Former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy, known for his penchant for provocative statements, attacked Israel’s hareidi-religious Jews on Thursday, saying they are “a bigger existential threat to Israel than Iran and Ahmadinejad.” It turned out that his main problem was that boys and girls do not dance together in hareida-religious circles. Speaking a reunion of military academy graduates, Halevy said, “The existential danger to Israel, more than Iran’s nuclear program, is the radicalization of the hareidi Jews which is getting worse.” He added, “The hareidi extremism is a greater danger than Ahmadinejad. I was educated in Bnei Akiva, and there we...

The government took another step toward solving the housing crisis on Sunday, as Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai signed off on a building plan for the city of Harish that will include 8,800 new housing units, which are to be marketed to young couples in the hareidi-religious community. Construction on some housing units will begin within weeks. The plan also includes space for businesses, public buildings and schools. One Member of Knesset was not pleased with the new plan. MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) accused the government of “widening the city of Harish and suffocating Arab towns in Wadi Ara.”...

Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat By Daphna Berman A woman who reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc "modesty patrol" on a Jerusalem bus last month is now lining up support for her case and may be included in a petition to the High Court of Justice over the legality of sex-segregated buses. Miriam Shear says she was traveling to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City early on November 24 when a group of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men attacked her for refusing to move to the back of the Egged No....