Religion and State in Israel - June 6, 2013

2013-06-06T14:19:00.000+02:00

Religion and State in Israel

June 6, 2013

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Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.

State-salaries for non-Orthodox rabbis

Israel to fund non-Orthodox rabbis in reform victory

http://www.jpost.com/

The Religious Services Ministry has said that it is moving toward a system in which the serving rabbi of any congregation, whether Orthodox or non-Orthodox, will be financially supported by the ministry.

…The Jerusalem Post, however, understands that it is doubtful such measures will be implemented because of opposition to them from elements within the ministry.

Opinion: Israel to Recognize Reform Rabbis

http://blogs.rj.org/

By Anat Hoffman

There are still many questions we need answered from Minister Bennett. When will this plan become reality? When will these new community appointed rabbis be given the same status as their Orthodox counterparts? We need to see the results of his words.

In victory for Reform Judaism, non-Orthodox rabbis to be funded by state

http://www.timesofisrael.com/

Important differences will remain between Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis. Salaries for the Reform and Conservative rabbis will come from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, rather than the Ministry of Religious Services. Also, the rabbis will not be government employees, but will instead receive stipends from the state. The new regulations cover only rural communities, not cities.

Still, this is the first time that the term “rabbi” will be used by the government to refer to a female religious leader.

Israel's Religious Services Ministry to allow non-Orthodox, state-funded community rabbis

http://www.haaretz.com/

The ministry is working on drafting criteria for awarding this funding, the brief said, and these criteria will be "independent of which Jewish denomination the relevant community belongs to."

Miri Gold, the trailblazing Reform rabbi still waiting for a paycheck

http://www.haaretz.com/

Miri Gold, 63, rabbi of Kibbutz Gezer’s Birkat Shalom congregation, is taking this latest hurdle in stride. “I spent seven years fighting for this – what’s a few more years?” she shrugs. “After all, I didn’t do this for the money, but the principle,” she adds. “It was always a symbolic issue for me.”

…To date though, only two non-Orthodox Israelis have drawn state salaries as a result of the ruling, and one of them is not even a rabbi. (In comparison, some 4,000 rabbis of Orthodox congregations receive state salaries.)

The rest have, like Gold, faced a series of hurdles from the Ministry of Culture in the form of unclear, rapidly changing and seemingly discriminatory criteria, says Orly Erez Likhovski, the Israel Religious Action Center lawyer behind the petition.

Non-Orthodox hopeful but wary on rabbinic equality

http://www.timesofisrael.com/

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, who leads a 300-family Reform synagogue in Jerusalem. “We’re a long way from it happening. I’m certainly not going to put in additional spending money yet.”

“The big question is if this will be implemented in a way that’s really equal,” said Yizhar Hess, CEO of the Israeli Conservative movement. “It’s too early to say what the criteria will be, when they will come up or whether they will be equal.”

The Religious Services Ministry offered no information about the criteria being formulated, or even when the standards would be decided.

Breaking Down Israel’s Orthodox Monopoly, One Rabbi at a Time

http://www.thedailybeast.com/

Opinion: Jewish communities without rabbis deserve state funding too

http://www.haaretz.com/

Women of the Wall (Special issue coming soon)

Women of the Wall to read from Torah at Kotel for first time

http://www.jpost.com/

The Women of the Wall campaign group met with Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett and Deputy Minister Eli Ben-Dahan on Wednesday afternoon as part of efforts to reduce tensions over the combustible issue of prayer rights at the Western Wall.

WoW will hold their monthly prayer service at the women’s section of the Wall on Sunday, which marks the start of the Jewish month of Tamuz, and the group has said that it will read from a Torah scroll during the service.

“Women of the Wall won’t back down in the face of bullying; the people who should be punished for disturbing the peace are the people who disturb the peace, not the Women of the Wall who are just seeking to conduct their prayer service.”

Opinion: Separating state and religion at the Western Wall

http://www.jpost.com/

By Susan Weiss

[A]ny solution at the Wall must acknowledge the fact that the Wall is, first and foremost, a national and historic site, with religious significance to all Jews, whatever their denomination.

Right now it has been transformed into an exclusive haredi shteible – an ultra-Orthodox synagogue in which the rabbi in charge is constantly raising the divisional barrier and shrinking the women’s section.

Religious Pluralism

VIDEO: Talking Israel - Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein in conversation with Rachel Azaria

Opinion: Religious tolerance and mutual respect

http://www.jpost.com/

By Isi Leibler

Opinion: Storming the Bastille of Israel’s religious bureaucracy

http://www.jpost.com/

Justice Minister Suspends Religious Affairs Reforms

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Ruth Calderon: Secular Talmudist

http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/

Jewish character of the State of Israel

Opinion: Israel's Jewish identity card

http://www.haaretz.com/

Opinion: Modern Jewish identity is not racist or nationalist: A letter to Shlomo Sand

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/

Opinion: On Israeli identity, Jewish democracy and oxymorons - A response to Carlo Strenger

http://www.haaretz.com/

Coalition partners split on bill to prioritize Israel's Jewish identity

http://www.haaretz.com/

MK Lipman, Nefesh B'Nefesh push bill to boost aliya

http://www.jpost.com/

Chief Rabbinate

'Amar bill' passes preliminary reading

http://www.jpost.com/

Son of former chief rabbi seeks Netanyahu's backing to run for dad's old job

http://www.haaretz.com/

VIDEO: Rav Stav Speaks to the Media: There Should be Only 1 Chief Rabbi (English translation)

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/

Bennett: We're ready to fight for the chief rabbi

http://www.israelhayom.com/

Hatnua, Bayit Yehudi tussle over chief rabbi bills

http://www.jpost.com/

Rabbi David Stav vows to revolutionize Chief Rabbinate

http://www.israelhayom.com/

Stav: Crisis over chief rabbinate caused damage

http://www.jpost.com/

Opinion: The rabbis go to war

http://www.israelhayom.com/

Habayit Hayehudi backs liberal Orthodox candidate for chief rabbi

http://www.israelhayom.com/

Jewish Home votes to back moderate Stav for chief rabbi

http://www.timesofisrael.com/

VIDEO: Rabbi David Stav

Editorial: Balancing Judaism and democracy

http://www.jpost.com/

Bayit Yehudi endorses Stav as chief rabbi candidate

http://www.jpost.com/

Habayit Hayehudi to support Tzohar Rabbi David Stav in chief rabbi race

http://www.haaretz.com/

Lapid and Bennett wasting their time on trifles while storm clouds gather

http://www.haaretz.com/

Opinion: The Case for the Israeli Chief Rabbinate

http://forum.tikvahfund.org/

By Yedidya Schwartz

MK Muallem endorses Stav for Ashkenazi chief rabbi

http://www.jpost.com/

Opinion: What about the public's well being?

http://www.israelhayom.com/

Rabbinate

Bill promoting women on rabbinical judges c'tee advances

http://www.jpost.com/

MKs Shuli Muallem (Bayit Yehudi) & Eli Yishai (Shas) elected to committee for appointing rabbinical judges

http://www.jpost.com/

Chief rabbi election may hinge on women vote as bill nears passage

http://www.israelhayom.com/

Women's NGOs demand say in religious courts

http://www.jpost.com/

By Dan Margalit

Bennett Proposes Bill: One Chief Rabbi, not Two

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Rabbinical courts name first ever secular ombudswoman

http://www.israelhayom.com/

IDF Haredi Draft

State seeks to postpone legislation of ultra-Orthodox draft bill

http://www.haaretz.com/

Opinion: How not to draft the ultra-Orthodox

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/

Haredi leaders decry Peri committee

http://www.jpost.com/

Opinion: Culture War Widening

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/gary-rosenblatt/

Lapid may have outflanked Ya'alon on Haredi IDF draft, but Netanyahu is keeping both men in his sights

http://www.haaretz.com/

Haredim: 'We won't enlist anyway, so why do well on induction tests?'

http://www.ynetnews.com/

Opinion: Keep the discourse civilized

http://www.israelhayom.com/

Dueling Satmars Unite for Huge Anti-Draft Rally

http://blogs.forward.com/

Youth becomes first haredi to enlist in flying school

http://www.ynetnews.com/

Haredim

Steeped in tradition, Israel's ultra-Orthodox face reform drive

http://uk.reuters.com/

Israel Police welcome first haredi officer

http://www.ynetnews.com/

Israel's surprising poverty

http://www.newyorker.com/

Crisis squeezes income and puts pressure on inequality and poverty

http://www.oecd.org/

Jerusalem's Dormition Church suffers suspected 'price tag' attack

http://www.haaretz.com/

Gestures of peace from a synagogue in Jerusalem

http://www.focolare.org/

Fragments of biblical treasure up for sale

http://www.ynetnews.com/

Religion and State in Israel

June 6, 2013

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.

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