Free Republic

Whereas many feminists obscure the plight of women and girls in the Islamic world, a haredi group is rescuing Jewish women and children. Every few months, we are presented with media reports about Jewish women rescued from their Muslim husbands in the Palestinian Authority or within Israel. The stories are always similar. The women were tortured by their husbands, often locked in their homes or under constant guard by members of their husbands’ families. Either with or without the help of their Jewish families, they reached out to Yad L’Achim which rescues Jewish women and their children from Muslim husbands....

The Jerusalem Magistrates' Court on Monday extended by a day the remand of an ultra-Orthodox man who is the main suspect in the snatching of the body of 25-year-old woman whose death was apparently drug-related. During the incident in question, which occurred in Jerusalem's Geula neighborhood in early February, dozens of haredim snatched the woman's body from the hands of a police officer to prevent it from being transported to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for an autopsy. The officer was allegedly attacked by a group of ultra-Orthodox men headed by the prime suspect in the case, Shmuel Bezalel. The...

For nearly 50 years it has been an article of faith among American conservatives that liberty and tradition are mutually reinforcing.  Not only is there no inherent conflict between the two, the argument goes, but each works to the other’s benefit.  As a corollary, religious observance, or at least cultural traits acquired through it, provides the moral basis for capitalist success.  George Gilder, Irving Kristol, Daniel Lapin, the late Frank Meyer (the original “fusionist”), Michael Novak – these and other conservative authors have advanced this now-familiar view.  A rapidly growing and incendiary divide among Israeli Jews, however, is putting this...

Desecrating the Sabbath to protest desecrating the Sabbath. Scenes of rioting, rock throwing, and violence have rocked a Jerusalem district. No, this time it's not crazy jihad supporting Arabs acting on cue from Arafat or the Mufti for the jihad supporting media. This time it is misguided anti-zionist, anti-Israel Jews! Some of these misguided Jews have even spit in the faces of Israeli police and called them "Nazis". They are so upset about the opening of a parking lot on the Sabbath to alieviate real problems caused by a severe parking shortage in the city. Hmm... "What man is there...

Koogle is the name of a new Hebrew-language Internet search engine that allows surfing without getting drowned in sexually explicit and other offensive material. The brainchild of Yossi Altman, Koogle is a pun on the Jewish noodle pudding known as “kugel.” The new search engine maybe a boon to the hareidi religious community, whose rabbis often ban the use of the Internet because of the accessibility to pornography.

Three religious teen girls beaten up by ultra-Orthodox mob while passing through haredi neighborhood. Religious residents report escalating violence on haredim's behalf, latter cite promiscuity as trigger for clashes. Growing tensions between ultra-Orthodox and religious residents in the town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, have recently escalated into violence as three teen girls were beaten up by haredim who claimed they were "immodestly" dressed. The incident was the last in a series of reported attacks by members of the Haredi Community faction on their religious neighbors, prompted by the latter's' alleged "promiscuity" and negative influence on haredi children. According to...

They are trained by the IDF's best instructors and are expert marksmen, scouts and urban warfare fighters. In contrast to their counterparts in the elite units belonging to the Golani or Paratrooper Brigades, these soldiers sport large black velvet yarmulkes and sidelocks, making up the first glatt kosher Sayeret - elite reconnaissance squad - in IDF history. The squad is part of Nahal Haredi, which was established nine years ago as a single company. Today it is a full battalion - called Netzah Yehuda - with three companies and the newly-established elite counter-terror squad which is under the direct command...

(IsraelNN.com) Hareidi religious Jews living in the capital vented their rage in a demonstration Wednesday evening against the specter of hundreds of homosexuals parading down the streets of Jerusalem one week from now. The Jerusalem police department issued its final approval on Wednesday for the parade, which is expected to make its way through the center of the city, from Independence Park along King David St. to Liberty Bell Park. The police said they are also continuing to assess and make plans to deal with security threats associated with the event. Activists with the Eida Hareidit organization drove through the...

A haredi journalist explains what it’s like to cover her hair with a so-called custom wig “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” – that’s what I like to call secular-haredi discussions. I meet all kinds of people on a regular basis, but as far as I’m concerned, secular-haredi dialogues are about as strange as they get. Because when it comes down to it, we can be neighbors; we can drive on the same streets; and we can listen to the same newscasts. But - no matter what - the culture divide continues to loom mightily. Whenever I meet secular Israelis,...

A group of Israeli women are fighting back against what one called "Taliban-like" Jewish fundamentalists who order women to sit in the back of the bus and to abstain from wearing "immodest" clothing on public bus lines. The women have filed a lawsuit in Israel's high court aimed at reforming bus lines used primarily by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Some of the women see the bus dispute as part of a larger struggle against the growing influence and radicalization of the ultra-Orthodox in Israel. Writer Naomi Ragen says she did not want to start a revolution from her bus seat or become...

Retired New York Police Department Det. Pat Kehoe still remembers a phone call she got more than 20 years ago, from a person making allegations that a rabbi was sexually abusing children in his neighborhood. "I never received a call like that in my whole career in the New York City Police Department. Never," Kehoe told Cynthia McFadden in a recent interview. "I'll never forget it because unfortunately it was my birthday, November 21 1984. I was working in the Brooklyn Sex Crimes squad and I received an anonymous call from a male who started to say that there was...

Haredi families moving into previously secular neighborhoods in capital, pushing border between religious and non-religious areas further south; secular architect: This is natural process whereby haredi population is growing at rate ten times higher than secular population Most Israeli citizens are well-aware of the division between east and West Jerusalem, but there exists another border in the capital, that which runs from north to south and separates the secular part of the city (south) and the ultra-Orthodox. Even some northern neighborhoods previously considered to be secular enclaves are becoming more and more religious. “On Mishmar Hagvul Street, near the religious...

An Arab teen stabbed two Jews in Jerusalem's Old City Wednesday night, seriously wounding one of them, in a terror-related attack, police said. The assailant then fled the scene. The two victims of the stabbing attack were rushed by Magen David Adom paramedics to Hadassah University Hospital at Ein Kerem. The 8:30 p.m. attack took place on David Street in the Jewish Quarter. According to an initial police investigation of the incident, a Jewish teen who was stabbed while walking outside made his way to a nearby police station to report the attack. Police officers who rushed to the scene...

Until the 18th century, there was basically only one kind of Judaism, that which is now called Orthodox. It meant living by the religion's 613 laws, and doing so suffused Jews' lives with their faith. Then, starting with the thinker Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) and moving briskly during the Haskala, or "enlightenment," from the late 18th century, Jews developed a wide variety of alternate interpretations of their religion, most of which diminished the role of faith in their lives and led to a concomitant reduction in Jewish affiliation.These alternatives and other developments, in particular the Holocaust, caused the ranks of the...

A hesder soldier - one who combines yeshiva studies and military service in a five-year program - is currently imprisoned for a week in a tough military jail for refusing to take part in a mixed dance. The punishment came after a week of strife between some 25 hesder soldiers and their battalion commander regarding how they should spend a few days of semi-vacation. Although it is generally accepted in the army that hesder students are permitted to return to their yeshivot during these "social" weeks, the commanders in this particular case felt differently. They originally demanded that the soldier-students...

With votes from 581 of 605 polling stations already counted early Wednesday morning, incumbent Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky was confirmed as its next mayor, leading over runner-up Nir Barkat by some 10 percent. Lupoliansky's election campaign has made history in electing the capital's first haredi mayor in 55 years of Israeli history. Lupolianski, who took over as the city's first haredi mayor four months ago following Ehud Olmert's decision to reenter national politics, received more than 48% of the ballot in these stations. His close forerunner, entrepreneur Barkat, received less than 40 of the ballot. Likud candidate Yigal Amedi received...