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Haredim are set to account for a majority of Jews in the UK and US by the second half of the century, according to new research by a British academic. University of Manchester historian Dr. Yaakov Wise says the increase in Britain's ultra-religious Jewry has now reversed the decline in the overall Jewish population, which he says has been shrinking by 1 to 2 percent per year since the 1950s. According to Wise, Europe's haredi population is growing more rapidly than at any time since before WWII. Almost three out of every four British Jewish births, he says, are ultra-Orthodox,...

May. 17, 2006 0:44 | Updated May. 17, 2006 5:48 Olmert promises UTJ 5-year extension of Tal Law By ANSHEL PFEFFER Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised United Torah Judaism that the coalition will support a five-year extension of the Tal Law. Although the law, which allows yeshiva students to defer their army service, was not canceled by the Supreme Court in its ruling last Thursday, the court stressed that the law ran against civil equality and may be considered unconstitutional in the future. While official coalition talks between UTJ and Kadima are to resume only in a couple of...

Some hundred haredim were demonstrating outside the Jerusalem police headquarters on Passover eve against the arrest of Yisrael Asher Valis, who was accused of beating his three-month-old son to death. According to the demonstrators, Valis is innocent and has been "humiliated" by the police and the press. The death of the baby on Monday led a leading haredi rabbi to accuse the police and the justice authorities of concocting a Pessah eve blood libel. Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss, halachic authority and spiritual leader for Jerusalem's virulently anti-Zionist Eda Haredit community, said the indictment of the yeshiva student was "identical to the...

Jan. 5, 2005 17:43 | Updated Jan. 5, 2005 18:51 Rabbi Elyashiv gives UTJ green light to join coalition By GIL HOFFMAN United Torah Judaism spiritual mentor Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv on Wednesday bestowed his approval for the haredi party to join the coalition, allowing a Likud-Labor-UTJ government to be formed, UTJ MK Avraham Ravitz said. The Ultra-Orthodox party's inclusion into the coalition is conditional however on a three-month "wait-and-see" approach relating to the Likud negotiating team's promise to provide funding to haredi educational institutions. UTJ MKs Avraham Ravitz and Moshe Gafni will not fill any positions in the government...

In the weeks before the first Gulf War, Noah Efron, a young American graduate student at Tel Aviv University, was standing in the cafeteria line when he overheard two female students in front of him. One said to her friend: "The best thing for the country would be if there was a chemical attack in Bnei Brak now, before they get new gas masks." Her friend replied that it would be "amusing" to forcibly shave the beards of all the "little Jews." That conversation inspired Efron, today a Bar-Ilan University professor of history and philosophy, to conduct a decade-long inquiry...

The population in settlements in the West Bank grew three times as fast as in Israel overall in 2002, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. The population of West Bank settlements grew by 5.7 percent in 2002, while the overall population of Israel and Jewish areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip grew by 1.9 percent, the bureau said. Bureau spokeswoman Yael Nathan said the West Bank growth was a jump from the 5 percent level in 2001, and was concentrated in settlements dominated by ultra-Orthodox Jews. The settlements, which are fiercely opposed by the Palestinians, were expected...

Katzav Worried About Hareidi Parties And Aliyah IMG SRC="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/data/images//2003/03/13/katzav.jpg">President Moshe Katzav fears that the fact that the hareidi parties have no part in the government will mar the process of "Zionization" that they had been undergoing in the past decades. The President also expressed his view on the state of Aliyah [immigration to Israel], and said that potential immigrants must be presented with a "vision and challenge." Katzav, visiting the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem today, said that the hareidim had tried to integrate into Israeli life over the past 20 years and that the latest developments may cause...

Mar. 10, 2003 Ultra-Orthodox factions fail to win opposition support, call off no-confidence vote By NINA GILBERT The ultra-Orthodox factions failed to rally the Knesset opposition to back the first no confidence motion against the Sharon government on Monday, causing them to withdraw the measure just before the planned vote. United Torah Judaism MK Ya'acov Litzman was named as an alternative prime minister in the motion, as required by the new method of "constructive no confidence." But as more than 100 MKs were ready to vote at the conclusion of a three-hour debate, Litzman suddenly withdrew his candidacy. Knesset Speaker...

Feb. 24, 2003 Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef calls PM Sharon "Prime Minister of Garbage" By GIL HOFFMAN Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef has called Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, "the prime minister of garbage" for leaving the Shas party out of the coalition. The Likud signed coalition deals with Shinui and the National Religious Party on Sunday, giving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the 61 MKs needed to form a coalition. Talks began late last night with the seven-member National Union faction in an effort to widen the coalition. The faction was expected to be offered the Transportation and...