Site Meter Yehudi Yerushalmi: October 2009

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Hoshana Rabbah is "Al Aqsa Day"

DEBKA says 'Yusuf Qardawi, spiritual leader of the international Muslim Brotherhood movement, urged all Muslims everywhere to mark Oct. 9 as Al Aqsa Day and fight against the shrine's takeover by "the Jews." His influence is enough to bring inflamed Muslims streaming to Jerusalem in the coming days.'

. . . 'In attempting to pour oil on troubled waters, police suppressed information about the extent and gravity of the unrest'

Thursday, October 01, 2009

The Religious Zionist left vs. The Jewish Character of Israel?

As any readers I have left may have noticed, I never have much time to post these days - with the responsibility of raising two Autistic toddlers.

However I read something this morning that I cannot ignore.

Arutz7 had an article today about how Barkat is supporting a lawsuit filed by the "Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah" movement with the Supreme Court "against a committee that selects rabbis in Jerusalem, charging that it is biased in favor of the hareidi-religious."

My immediate reaction was:

  1. How can an "Orthodox" Jewish organization file suit in a secular court against the Rabbanut. Moreover, not just any secular court, but the "bastion" of the Eirev Rav


  2. Doesn't the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel have enough trouble with the Supreme Court trying to help the reform and conservatives from undermining and breaking the monopoly of the Rabbanut.
    Now we have an "Orthodox Jewish" organization actively helping the Supreme Court to interfere with the inner workings of the Rabbanut.


  3. Imagine the repercussions if the "Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah" movement succeed in helping the Supreme Court get involved in deciding what "type" of Rabbis may or may not be appointed by the Rabbanut.


  4. Who says that the Rabbanut appointments should be democratic. Democracy is NOT a Jewish value. If there happened to be more reform Jews in Jerusalem, does that mean that a reform "rabbi" should be appointed


  5. This also reminded me a little of how the sons of Shlomtzion HaMalkah approached the Romans to arbitrate between them about who should be her rightful successor. This set the ball in motion for Roman rule over Am Yisrael


The "Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah" movement and the New Israel Fund

However a quick view of the "Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah's" Website shows that they are hardly "Ne'emanei Torah" - Faithful to the Torah.

I guess it should have come as no surprise to find that the "Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah" movement, that is undermining the Rabbanut, is funded by the Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic New Israel Fund


It seems that the "Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah" movement gets more funding ($50,000) from the New Israel Fund than the Israel Masorti (Conservative) Movement ($39,000)

I was a little shocked therefore to see that Rabbi Shlomo Riskin sits on the Board of Governors of an organization that is funded by the New Israel Fund and by extension, the Anti-Semitic Ford Foundation.

Any regular reader of Arutz7 or Jewish pro-Israel blogs know exactly who the New Israel Fund is.

As a reminder, here are some results of a random search of articles from Arutz7 on NIF: