Free Republic

Orthodox teaching on the practice is more complex than some media suggest. People magazine recently published its pro-abortion issue, “Women’s Choices, Women’s Voices.” In it you’ll find the misleading story of an Orthodox Jewish mother and wife in the suburbs of New York City who once traveled to Colorado to abort a distressed baby in the 31st week of pregnancy. The woman chose to tell her traumatic story, relayed to a People staffer, anonymously because she fears her community and friends will stigmatize her for ending a life, “even for medical and religious reasons.” And she ends her story on...

The abortion business Planned Parenthood managed to find a few clergy to help promote its pro-abortion agenda in a new video. Planned Parenthood is desperate for support after Americans elected a large group of pro-life leaders to the United States Congress last fall. Efforts to cut off millions of taxpayer funds to the abortion chain are under way. In an appeal to religious individuals, Planned Parenthood produced a new video this week where four pro-abortion clergy members – two Baptist pastors, a Unitarian Universalist pastor and a Jewish rabbi — urged people to support the abortion business, according to the...

Chip Cantor told his story .... On June 4, he told KMBC he was traveling to Britain to visit and gain summer work experience, and to participate in a fundraiser for a child who has cancer. He left Kansas City on Wednesday, May 29, landed in Britain after 10 p.m. London time and waited in line to go through customs. .... Chip’s father, Chuck Cantor, said .... the customs agent was very pleasant .... until she saw the Israel stamps in his passport. Then she simply walked away with his passport without speaking a word to him. Chip told his...

In 1889, an Italian librarian's faulty identification sentenced to archival obscurity an antique Torah scroll that has turned out to be the oldest complete such scroll in existence. This week, University of Bologna Professor Mauro Perani announced the results of carbon-14 tests authenticating the scroll's age as roughly 800 years old. The scroll dates to between 1155 and 1225, making it the oldest complete Torah scroll on record. Like all Torah scrolls, this one contains the full text of the five Books of Moses in Hebrew and is prepared according to strict standards for use during religious services. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------snip------------------ At...

Israel has many enemies, but few have been deadlier than the terrorist group in its own back yard. Armed with the Koran and the gun, the people of Hamas are trained to hate Israel beginning at early childhood. For more than two decades, Hamas has terrorized Israelis through suicide bombings to thousands of rocket attacks.While Hamas military leaders were planning attacks on Israeli restaurants and buses, Mosab Hassan Yousef was growing up as the son of a respected Hamas founder.From Hamas to Shin BetFrom an early age, he was groomed to be a Hamas "prince," to succeed his highly respected...

POLAND Several violent antisemitic incidents were recorded in 2003/4 and the trend of violence against Jewish institutions in Wroclaw continued. Widespread disillusionment with the Social Democratic government was exploited by extreme right and nationalistic parties. the jewish community There are some 5,000–10,000 Jews in Poland out of a total population of close to 40 million. The majority live in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow and Lodz, but there are smaller communities in several other cities. There are virtually no Jews in the eastern part of Poland where once large, important communities existed, such as those of Lublin and Bialystok. The Union of...

On February 24, Estonia celebrated 88th anniversary of its Declaration on Independence. A military parade was held in Tallin, the capital of Estonia. The parade was received by Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, Commander of the Defense Forces Tarmo Kouts ran the parade, Chief Chaplain of the Defense Forces Col. Tonis Nõmmik held a public worship. On the photo published by REGNUM one of the parade participators, a member of people's volunteer corps is pictured. According to REGNUM information, officials have given no commentaries, whether a swastika-shaped earring is an obligatory part of the Estonian volunteer corps uniform.

Prosecution has finished investigation of armed assault on people of the Moscow synagogue in January 11. The accused, Alexander Koptsev, confessed in the crime, so case will be transferred to the court in near future, stated Moscow Prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev. The crime has been investigated for around three weeks. During the investigation, one discovered the circumstances of the attack and reasons of Koptsev’s actions. The investigators questioned his relatives, classmates, teachers, and found “nothing abnormal”. The investigation also found that Koptsev had no accomplices, and that he was sane in the moment of the attack disregarding his present schizophrenic disorder,...

MOSCOW, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) and Moscow's Main Interior Department decided to set up a working group to monitor the propaganda of anti-Semitism and xenophobia and coordinate efforts against neo-Nazism, a FEOR spokesman said Thursday. The move follows Wednesday's knife attack in a Moscow synagogue that left eight people injured. "We have decided to establish a working group to monitor anti-Semitic publications, mainly in the press, electronic media and on the Internet," Borukh Gorin said after a meeting between Russia's Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar and Vladimir Pronin, head of Moscow's Main...

Last week, U.S. Department of State published International Religious Report. It compilers listed Russia among the countries that treat non-traditional religions with prejudice. In his interview to Interfax-Religion Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar spoke on correspondence of the conclusions of the Report to reality. - How does the image of the situation regarding freedom of religion in Russia, as presented in the report, reflect reality? How true is this report? - I have become thoroughly acquainted with this report and I have to say that, although its conclusions raise serious doubts for me, I believe the analytic part of...

Many people have written many books, treatises and articles for the purpose of defining the role jihad is supposed to play in the lives of the Muslims. Most writers have tried, in their own ways, to come up with the [true] meaning of the Arabic word [Jihad,] others took circuitous routes to emphasize on what they believed was the purpose for which Allah has purportedly made the launching of jihad by Muslims an integral part of their lives. Until recently, my mind had remained in a state of dichotomy; it being the result of the inadequate attention, I admit, I...

Moscow, September 27, Interfax - A non-guilty sentence handed down to border-guard Indrek Kytt who had been charged with anti-Semitism is equivalent to attempts by the Estonian leadership to rehabilitate Nazi criminals, the Federation of Jewish Communities in the CIS and Baltic states said. Last week, a court in the Estonian city of Narva handed down a verdict of not guilty to Kytt, who had written 'Jews - into the oven!' as a comment on an article on the Delfi Internet portal. The court said that Kytt's statement inflicted no significant damage to the border guard service or to the...

MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar has urged all believers "to go to Shabbat services at a synagogue and add their voice to those who ask God to defend innocent people, to help the victims, and to console the families of terrorism victims," according to a statement released Friday. Lazar will lead a commemoration service at the Maryina Roshcha synagogue in Moscow Saturday. The rabbi called on the Russian people to reject all forms of terrorism and extremism and to confront "the atrocious terrorists" in "solidarity, mutual assistance, and humanity." He said the victims...

BIROBIDJAN, Russia – Members of the 'Chaverim' Youth Club, run by the 'Freud' Jewish Community of Birobidjan, has marked the club's fifth anniversary by launching a unique exhibition comprising photos taken by numerous previous guests of the community. "Practically all travelers include the Jewish community in their list of sites to visit in Birobidjan," explained Eduard Tiraspolsky, the Chairman of the Youth Club. "My friends and I always ask them to share their impressions from their visit in our guest book". Their pictures and words, some of which are humorous, constituted the major part of this exhibition. Another section of...

S.PETERSBURG, Russia – Jewish leaders of S. Petersburg held a meeting with the region's Governor Valentina Matviyenko. The city's Chief Rabbi, Menachem Mendel Pewzner, and community Chairman Mark Grubarg successfully represented the community's agenda, with the meeting ending in the decision to return a historical building, located at 42 Dekabristov Street, to the Jewish community. The Governor ordered the return of this building in accordance with the city law on redeeming the property of religious organizations. This building was one of many owned by the Jewish community prior to being confiscated and nationalized by Soviet authorities. From 1880 until the...

SAMARA, Russia – The Jewish Community of Samara has celebrated the coming of age for numerous Jewish children, each of whom are students at the city's Ohr Avner Chabad Day School. Masha Krayeva, Anya Chernyagina, Lana Vaksman and Yana Melikhova were very happy to welcome their friends, teachers, parents and the city's Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Deutch and his wife Dina, to their long-awaited Bat Mitzva. These young Jewish ladies delivered the opening words at this festivity, each giving a brief speech about the duties that a Jewish girl must take on upon experiencing her Bat Mitzva. The schoolchildren easily found...

64% say government should encourage them to leave -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: June 22, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Aaron Klein © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A majority of the Jewish public in Israel – 63.7 percent – believes the Israeli government should encourage Israeli Arabs to emigrate from Israel, according to a University of Haifa poll released yesterday. The survey, conducted by the university's National Security Study Center, also found 48.6 percent of the Israeli Jews polled said the government was too sympathetic to the Arab population. The majority of Jewish respondents, 55.3 percent, said Israeli Arabs endangered national security, while 45.3 percent...