Jewish News

Israeli Jews Becoming More Religious

Israeli Jews are becoming more religious, according to a study published Thursday by the Israel Democracy Institute in conjunction with the Avi Chai Foundation. The survey, entitled “A Portrait of Israeli Jews: Beliefs, Observance, and Values of Israeli Jews,” examined levels of religiosity of Israeli Jews in comparison with levels of the past twenty years.According to the study, conducted in ...

Israeli Jews at odds with liberal US brethren

When Hillary Rubin immigrated from the United States to Israel, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and descendant of a famed Zionist visionary felt that she had finally arrived in her true home. But now that religious authorities are questioning the 29-year-old Michigan native’s Jewish pedigree and refusing to recognize her marriage, she’s having second thoughts.Rubin is at the center of ...

Israeli Jewish Population Set to Pass 6 Million

The Jewish population in Israel numbers about 5,978,600 – just 21,400 short of the symbolic six million mark, which it is expected to pass by the end of 2012.According to census stats released for the Jewish New Year, the total population of Israel, not including illegal immigrants, stands at about 7,933,200 people. Of these, 1,636,600 are Arabs and 318,000 are ...

Israeli Jewish Congress to Hold Inaugural Event

The Israeli Jewish Congress – a new initiative – will hold its inaugural conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday.The project is the brainchild of Vladimir Moshe Sloutsker, a businessman, politician and Jewish community activist from Russia who immigrated to Israel last year.According to Sloutsker, who served as the chairman of the Russian Jewish Congress and the deputy chairman of the European ...

Israeli Government Rebuilding Kohanim Pathway After Pressure from Hassidic Jews

Only three and a half months after demolishing a pathway for kohanim (priests) at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Mount Meron, the government is rebuilding it at a high cost, despite the fact that the local rabbi believes it to be completely unnecessary.The Tourism Ministry has apparently succumbed to pressure by an extremist Hassidic group, Toldot Avraham ...

Israeli government committee backs ‘Tzohar rabbis bill’

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation Sunday decided to support legislation that would facilitate marriage among Jews who wish to avoid dealing with certain Orthodox rabbinical institutions, by allowing couples to register to marry in the rabbinical court of their choice.The bill, sponsored by Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beiteinu ), would, in effect, enable Israelis who converted to Judaism in the army, ...

Israeli families being evicted from yeshiva housing in Ramapo

Sixteen Israeli families are being evicted from yeshiva-owned housing on Grandview Avenue based on a state justice’s decision after the yeshiva failed to follow his orders, officials said Wednesday. A lawyer representing four Ramapo villages said the eviction letters were mailed Wednesday after Mosdos Chofetz Chaim refused to follow the justice’s order to put up a $75,000 surety bond.Read More: @ ...

Israeli Court To Rule On Legality of Ultra-Orthodox Cult ‘Lev Tahor’

In a precedent-setting move, an Israeli court is expected to decide next week whether it is legal to belong to the extreme ultra-Orthodox group Lev Tahor, known as “the Taliban sect.” A decision reached this week by a family court in Rishon Letzion indicates that a ruling on Lev Tahor’s legality is imminent.The decision follows what appears to be the ...

Israeli Consul Celebrates Shalit’s Release with Chabad

As word of Gilad Shalt’s release from Gaza broke Tuesday afternoon in Israel, Rabbis Yosef Lipsker, Elazar Kenig and Rabbi Yaakov Fridman, Chabad’s emissaries to the Russian Federation, joined members of the Israeli embassy in celebration. Arriving at the courtyard of the embassy in Moscow, they set up a portable sukkah.Members of Israel’s diplomatic corps took their turn with the ...

Israeli Conservative Movement Approves Ordination of Gay Rabbis

Israel’s Masorti (Conservative) Movement decided to approve the ordination of homosexual rabbis, in a dramatic vote on Thursday.The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with the movement, will admit gay and lesbian students for training as spiritual leaders as of the upcoming school year.In doing so the Israeli Conservative Movement is joining the American branch of the movement, whose rabbinical seminaries have ...

Israeli companies to help build first modern Palestinian city

About 20 Israeli suppliers will help build the first modern Palestinian city in the West Bank but only after promising they will not use products or services from Israeli settlements, the project’s developer said Tuesday.The announcement angered Israeli residents of the West Bank, who accused the suppliers of caving in to an international boycott of settlement goods and businesses.Read More: ...

Israeli Boarding Flight to New York Arrested for Threatening to Detonate an Explosive

An Israeli citizen who threatened to detonate an explosive he allegedly carried in his hand luggage was arrested by Las Americas International Airport (AILA) security agents on Monday. Kreh David, 27, said an American Airlines jet would explode, which panicked the passengers, employees and agents in the terminal, though the authorities didn’t find anything suspicious in the luggage.Read More: @ vidyid.comYou ...