Free Republic

Unfazed by the bombs, undeterred by the warnings, and in the face of the raging conflict, more than 35,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews from across the world have journeyed to Uman, Ukraine, to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. “Going to celebrate in a war zone en masse is crazy,” said Azoulay Ruben, a 22-year-old trainee dentist from Paris. “But at the same time, it’s a beautiful thing.” Rosh Hashanah is a two-day holiday that falls in September or October, marking the beginning of the high holy days. In Israel, it is usually celebrated with family visits and food: traditionally, pomegranates...

A protest and counter-protest held in Bnai Brak on Tuesday evening turned ugly after one person allegedly pepper spray at a police officer, and police used force in an attempt to disperse haredi protesters from the scene. On Monday, organizers of the anti-government protests against judicial reform announced that they would be demonstration outside the home of MK Moshe Gafni, a member of the United Torah Judaism party (UTJ). "The demonstration will be the opening salvo in a broad process against the involvement of haredi Knesset members in advancing laws to create a coup d'état, and we will first be...

My tablet won't copy this page, which I've seen happen once before, but I wanted to post this. I read once that Israel would reach 50% Orthodox Jews in population by 2040. Looks likely.

Haredi, religious Jews pay respects to Christian Arab policeman who gave his life to stop Bnei Brak terrorist attack ...the image I had in front of my eyes was that of haredi and religious Jews attending the funeral of a Christian Arab, who gave his life...

Some 100 people staged a peaceful protest outside the Washington State Capitol in Olympia in opposition to public access being closed off to the building. The protesters citing Washington's State Constitutional which states that the public must be allowed to attend legislative meeting. Two people arrested today one man said by police to have been involved in a protest last week. The other a woman who was the driver of an RV that blocked a roadway. "You'all didn't show up in Seattle" is shouted at the beginning of this video that shows the massive police and military presence with a...

Comment And Analysis Before the news summary lets consider the situaton and try to consider the way it really is tonight... President Trump ordering US flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of law enforcement including those members of law enforcement who died in connection with events at the US Capitol... Fences erected in Olympia, Washington outside the State Capitol building ahead of tomorrow's legislative session... "There will be 400-750 National Guard present as well as 200 police and 100 other deputies..." That's the scene people were told to expect at Washington's State Capitol Monday as the legislature goes...

Coronavirus restrictions in the USA regarding business occupancy are not being made more strict in the days ahead of the election but there are some exceptions in three localities...... The Facebook censorship picking up steam with the banning of Peoples Rights and activists like Ammon Bundy reported to number in the hundreds... Peoples Rights supporting students at the middle and high schools in Sandpoint, Idaho who are walking out or planning to walk out over mandates to wear masks-muzzles... A protest against Twitter censorship by President Trump's supporters in San Francisco came under attack from left-wing groups with injuries reported.......

A bill which would outlaw gay conversion therapy passed its preliminary hearing in the Knesset Wednesday afternoon. The bill, which was drafted by MK Nissan Horowitz (Meretz), would ban the controversial practice of treating homosexuals with the aim of reversing same-sex attraction. In its preliminary vote, the 120-member Knesset backed the bill by a margin of 42 to 36, after the coalition split, with Blue and White backing the proposed law, while haredi lawmakers and the Likud opposed it - with the exception of Likud minister Amir Ohana. After the vote, haredi lawmakers fumed at Blue and White chief and...

It looks like Israel will be heading to a third election. It seems both sides, Netanyahu’s right and Gantz’s left-center cannot get the 61 votes needed to get a majority in the Knesset. There is one villain in this, and one victor.The reason Netanyahu could not get a victory is that Avigdor Lieberman refuses to throw his weight behind a Netanyahu coalition, unless the special privileges tendered to the religious right are done away with. For years, the religious right have wrested a lot of concessions from the Israeli state, such as draft exemptions and control of marriage. Secular...

Israel has tried a variety of methods to disperse its periodic protests by Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews: rows of policemen, officers on horseback, even a foul-smelling spray known as "Skunk." But during last weekend’s protests in Jerusalem over the Eurovision Song Contest being held on the Sabbath, a handful of Israeli women tried a more peaceful, more innovative, and theoretically more effective tactic: they took their shirts off. Haredi men are forbidden to view erotic images of women other than their wives, and in some cases to view women at all.

The Likud is projected to gain one mandate over the initial post-election vote count, pushing it from 35 to 36 seats, after the counting of special ballots was completed Thursday, Israeli media outlets reported Thursday afternoon. Special ballots, which make up some five percent of the nearly 4.3 million votes cast in Tuesday’s election, include the votes of Israeli soldiers stationed at bases across the country, prisoners in jails and detention facilities, voters in Israeli hospitals, and members of the Foreign Ministry overseas service. The preliminary results of the full county of all ballots cast in the election show the...

On Sunday, Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid led a demonstration at Tel Aviv's Center train station against proposed amendments to the Draft Law proposed by haredi lawmakers. Together with dozens of Yesh Atid activists, Lapid castigated efforts by haredi MKs to extend army deferments for yeshiva students. "Nowhere in the Torah does it say that other people can die for you. Nowhere in the Torah does it exempt you from meaningful national service," said Lapid. Flanking Lapid was a demonstrator in haredi garb, who held a sign reading "Real believers (in God) do not dodge the draft". However, sharp-eyed...

A bus driver attempted to close the bus doors on a haredi woman and her baby to "help her die," in a shocking incident reported by haredi radio station Kol Hai this week. The Kiryat Sefer woman had been on her way home from Bnei Brak at about 11:00 pm last month when the incident occurred. "I entered the 230 bus line from the back door with my 1 year-old," the woman recounted. "The driver closed the door on us. I stayed there with my baby - we were half in, half out of the bus." "I knocked and yelled...

This is a documentary that follows a variety of people in the Ultra orthodox community in Israel, and tells different stories. First of is the Israeli election, in a feud between the sides in the community whether they should vote or not vote, second issue is the issue regarding education and poverty, where two women try to change the enviroment regarding haredi education and family planning, and the third part is about the controversy surrounding the internet in the Haredi world. Should internet be allowed or not? Part 1 - https://youtu.be/FGJg1lHPPZw Part 2 - https://youtu.be/6MAN8gF1mvY Part 3 - https://youtu.be/ypZE4XJY-cI Part...

After experiencing numerous terror attacks on its roads in the past weeks – the most recent one on Sunday morning – officials of the Gush Etzion Regional Council were demanding full cellphone coverage on all roads, in order to enable victims of terror attacks and those threatened with violence to call for help, without having to search for a signal. Earlier Sunday, an Israeli man was stabbed by an Arab terrorist near the haredi community of Metzad in Gush Etzion. Security forces and Magen David Adom teams were immediately dispatched to the scene. The injured victim was taken to hospital...

Haredi Orthodox Jews will soon account for half of the British Jewish population, according to a study of the kingdom’s Jewis

At least six people were stabbed at Jerusalem's annual Gay Pride Parade on Thursday. Two of the wounded were seriously injured, Magen David Adom emergency services reported, adding that another person sustained moderate injuries and two others were lightly to moderately wounded. Magen David Adom emergency services treated the victims on the scene, and then rushed them to three different hospitals in Jerusalem. According to witnesses, the assailant, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, emerged behind the marchers and began stabbing them while screaming. A police officer then managed to tackle him to the ground and arrest him. The attack took place on Keren Hayesod Street in Jerusalem. Afterward,...

The 2012 Israeli film “Fill the Void,” now being released in the U.S., is almost unique in being about haredi Jews and directed by a member of that sector. Haredi Jews are that sector of orthodox Jews who isolate themselves as much as possible from gentile, and indeed from all non-haredi society. The English term that is used is ultra orthodox but this, I think, is misleading. What distinguishes them from non-haredi orthodox Jews (known as modern orthodox) is not greater religious observance but the aforementioned isolationism. Put it this way, a modern orthodox Jew is more likely than a...

The haredi Netzach Yehuda battalion in the Kfir Brigade held an intensive training exercise in the Golan Heights during the Hanukkah holiday – its first ever in the Golan. video ......

A 70-year-old ultra-Orthodox woman found herself the target of a brutal religious hate crime on Monday night, when four thugs broke into her home and beat her up before leaving her handcuffed and bleeding.