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As a member of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community, David wore a long black coat and a black hat covering his Jewish skullcap. He spent 10 hours a day studying the Torah, the Jewish holy book, and the Talmud, rabbinical discussions on Jewish law, ethics and customs. David says that he used to want to be a rabbi - but that was then. Now, David, 24, wears blue jeans and loose-fitting T-shirts. He no longer believes in religion, saying that he is completely secular. He is currently at university and hopes to become an engineer. David - who does not want...

Rabbi Wosner, one of the leading hassidic rabbis, publishes plea in Hamodia newspaper. This comes on the heels of the court’s ruling that a Jehovah’s Witness conference may take place at the Congress Center in Haifa The leading hassidic authority, Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, called through the “Hamodia” newspaper to pray on the Fast of Esther for success in the struggle against “the edict of destruction and the spreading of missionary activity in the holy land”. The Rabbi is responding to the court’s decision to allow the Congress Center in Haifa to host the Jehovah’s Witness group. Two weeks ago, the...

In a normal country, discussion of the issue would have immediately climbed to the top of the agenda. Here it is difficult to compete with the huge headlines generated by the Zeiler Committee and with the nerve-racking drama that ended with the security forces successfully preventing a terror attack in Tel Aviv. Thus two important decisions made by the Israeli government this week were pushed aside: The extension of the Tal Law and the establishment of a civilian national service authority... The simple and cruel truth must be told. The yeshivas serve as "cities of refuge" for those who don't...

Public funding for NGOs undergoing a quiet revolution By Moti Bassok According to an audit performed by the Accountant General, NGOs received billions of shekels illegally in 2006. The audit revealed that in a large number of elementary schools, nearly all in the ultra-Orthodox school system, students were held back a year - but only on record, which enabled the institutions to obtain extra budgeting. This practice continued for six years, and resulted in a hefty amount - NIS 50 million of ill-begotten funding. In another instance, the principal of a school was arrested one year ago, following a complaint...

It began as ...she boarded a city bus ...Moments later, an ultra-orthodox man ... started yelling and calling her names ..."morality squads" that patrol Jerusalem's orthodox streets to root out "immodest behavior" ... attacks by "bleach patrols" - groups of ultra-orthodox men who throw bleach ...a recent rabbinical ruling forbids Haredi women from pursuing post-secondary education

Yogi Berra's saying, "It's deja vu, all over again," best describes a gnawing sensation that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. In the 1970s, the State of Israel began to settle Jews within the heart of Arab populations in the West Bank and Gaza, even as it completely ignored relative differences in birth rates between the populations. During the past few years, we have been experiencing the consequences of that leadership blindness. It is still not clear how we will extricate ourselves from that trap - and yet, here we go again. The cost of ignorance this time may be...

NEW YORK -- They sent congratulatory telegrams to Hamas, their rabbis advised Yasser Arafat (and took a fee for their trouble), and they stood outside the White House wagging signs -- "Judaism Has No Right to Rule over ANY PART of the Holy Land" -- to protest a November visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. But even by the standards of Neturei Karta, these most ultra of ultra-orthodox Jewish Hasids took a step into the world of the very strange, if not the meshuga, or crazy, when they showed up as honored guests at a conference of Holocaust skeptics...

A week after the desecration of the Great Synagogue in Petah Tikva, nothing remains of the horror the worshipers encountered there last Thursday when they arrived for morning prayers. The walls, which had been sprayed with swastikas and blasphemy, have been newly painted, the floor polished and the curtain covering the holy ark replaced. However, the danger is far from over. For the past two years the ultra-Orthodox community there, which includes some 5,000 families and 300 synagogues, has been subjected to incessant attacks by street gangs from the former Soviet Union (FSU). The gangs have been beating ultra-Orthodox men,...

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...

Senior ultra-Orthodox figures in Jerusalem visit 19-year-old man charged with manslaughter over infant's death, say murder is out of question. Leading ultra-Orthodox judges who visited a 19-year-old Orthodox man charged with manslaughter over the death of his 3-month-old son say they are convinced Israel Valas is not guilty of murder. "It's impossible that the father would kill his son. If he indeed did it, it's a sign he's sick," Orthodox court vice president Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch told Ynet after visiting Valas. Jerusalem Riots Orthodox riot over arrest / Ilan Marciano Jerusalem riots: Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox hit streets Thursday evening, attempt...

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox residents of Jerusalem demonstrated Friday for the second consecutive day, to protest the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man suspected of killing his baby son. Protesters set trash cans ablaze Friday morning, blocking roads in the ultra-Orthodox Meah Shearim and Geula neighborhoods. They also threw garbage and rocks at passing cars and screamed "Nazis" at police officers. The protesters dispersed Friday afternoon, and demonstrations are expected to resume on Saturday evening, after the Sabbath. Five protesters were arrested Thursday. Jerusalem municipality said Friday that the protesters have caused NIS 140,000 worth of damage. Rabbinical sages issued a statement...

When Israel's most prominent Sephardic rabbi described Hurricane Katrina as America's punishment for supporting Israel's withdrawal from Gaza; and condemned its mainly black victims for failing to study Torah, many Jewish leaders here were appalled. But in Israel, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's view linking the worst natural disaster in American history to U.S. support for the Gaza withdrawal is not unique among rabbis. Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, the leader of the Lubavitch chasidic sect's center in central Tel-Aviv, among others, gave a sermon from his pulpit soon after the hurricane voicing the same theme. A popular radio rabbi echoed him. And a...

Zootorah.com Rabbi Nosson Slifkin runs Zoo Torah Tours, bringing zoology and religion together. It was early January when the posters went up in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem's largest ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, and they signaled the start of a bad year for Rabbi Nosson Slifkin. Twenty-three ultra-Orthodox rabbis had signed an open letter denouncing the books of Rabbi Slifkin, an ultra-Orthodox Israeli scholar and science writer. The letter read, in part: "He believes that the world is millions of years old - all nonsense! - and many other things that should not be heard and certainly not believed. His books must be kept...

Knesset rejects 3 no-confidence votes The Knesset rejected by wide majority three no-confidence votes issued by opposition parties. (Ilan Marciano) Peres blames Shinui for power of religious party Vice Premier Shimon Peres on Monday blamed the Shinui party for the power the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party has to demand changes in the state budget. "If Shinui would vote in favor of the budget, United Torah Judaism would not have bargaining power," Peres said. (Attila Somfalvi)(02.28.05, 15:27)

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz issued a strongly worded statement Tuesday against incidents of Jews spitting at Christian clergy in Jerusalem, saying he was "repulsed" by the repeated attacks."

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...