Choosing between love and obligation

By Tom Tugend
Published on May 22, 2013

"Fill the Void,” which won Israel’s equivalent of the Academy Award last year, is a love story unlike any Hollywood fare and it is set in a Jewish community unfamiliar to most Jews.

Victory at the Wall?

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on April 10, 2013

There comes a time in any successful movement for change or reform for cashing in, and it is often a time of crisis. Getting so close to achieving a goal, one has to struggle with two challenges: the temptation to overreach — and pass on a deal that might be the best realistic one — and the difficulty of having to accept the less glorious (and more mundane) missions of a reformed reality.

Mezuzahs set ablaze in haredi Orthodox Brooklyn section

Published on April 9, 2013

Eleven mezuzahs were set afire in a residential building in Brooklyn in an incident that New York City police are treating as a hate crime.

Netanyahu threatens to turn to Charedi Orthodox parties for coalition

Published on March 13, 2013

The Likud party, citing what it called "excessive demands" from Yesh Atid, threatened to launch government coalition negotiations with the Charedi Orthodox parties.

London Orthodox, non-Jews face off over planning laws

Published on March 11, 2013

Non-Jewish residents of the heavily haredi Orthodox-populated London neighborhood of Hackney have launched a campaign to prevent Orthodox Jews from changing city planning regulations.

Charedi media personalities call for settlement boycott

Published on March 6, 2013

Israeli Charedi Orthodox media personalities are calling for a boycott of West Bank settlement products in response to the Jewish Home party's position on drafting yeshiva students.

With time running out to form a government, Netanyahu facing tough choices

Published on March 5, 2013

When he emerged bruised but unbeaten following the Jan. 22 elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced some tough choices.

Netanyahu sets meeting to request extension in forming government

Published on February 28, 2013

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Shimon Peres to request an extension in forming a government.

Frum women find a place

Published on November 15, 2012

When “Rivky,” a Charedi, or ultra-Orthodox, woman with “a very large family” — she declined to say how large, fearful of tempting fate — opened a woman’s clothing shop in the basement of her Jerusalem home 40 years ago, advertising her business was easy.

Bill would ban entrance of hostile foreign government officials

Published on August 23, 2012

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) has sponsored a bill designed to ban entry into the country by officials of any foreign government complicit in violating the rights of imprisoned Americans.

How Charedi draftees affect the military

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on August 22, 2012

Professor Yagil Levy of the Open University in Israel discusses the Charedi draft, and an alternative direction on Iran.

As Charedi draft begins, no problems

Published on August 15, 2012

The controversy had sparked a national debate, raucous protests in the streets and the collapse of a historic government. That came in the months after the Israeli Supreme Court had nullified a law exempting Charedi Orthodox Israelis from military service and giving the government until Aug. 1 to draft a replacement law.

Memorial service honors Lithuanian Charedi leader

Published on July 25, 2012

Several hundred men and women attended a memorial service at Congregation Shaarei Tefila on July 23 to honor Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, head of the Lithuanian Charedi communities in Israel. Attendees packed into Kanner Hall on Beverly Boulevard to hear eulogies and pay respects to the late leader, who died in Jerusalem at 102 on July 18.

Cartoon depicts haredi Orthodox Jews praying to Wall Street

Published on July 12, 2012

A cartoon depicting three stereotypically haredi Orthodox Jews praying in front of the Western Wall, which is labeled Wall Street, won an Iranian cartoon contest.

Israel’s fast, free and innovative way to save lives

Published on July 11, 2012

Minutes after the words “fainting in Mamilla Mall” appeared on his pager, paramedic Arie Jaffe was defibrillating the heart of a man lying on the floor of a Jerusalem pedestrian mall.

Dear Matisyahu

Published on July 5, 2012

Dear Matisyahu, Tonight you performed at the WinStar World Casino in Oklahoma, 70 miles from my Dallas home. The distance may seem far, but in Texas proportion, it is right around the corner.

Matisyahu: You disappointed me

Published on June 22, 2012

Dear Matisyahu, Tonight you performed at the Windstar World Casino in Oklahoma, seventy miles from my Dallas home. The distance may seem far, but in Texas proportion it is right around the corner.

Haredim fill N.Y. baseball stadium to decry error of Internet’s ways

Published on May 21, 2012

The sellout crowd that filled Citi Field on Sunday night wore black and white, not the New York Mets' blue and orange.

Time to expand dialogue and partnership with Israel

Published on May 15, 2012

This week, I traveled from Israel to engage in discussions with Jewish community leaders and activists in Southern California. As a proud Israeli Zionist, I work to promote the flourishing ties between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. I came here as an Israeli who celebrates the link between our proud history and a present filled with unmatched innovation and growth, the Israel of the City of David, King Solomon’s Mines and the “Start-Up Nation.” A state of pioneers and the warriors.

Haredi Orthodox burn Israeli flag in Antwerp

Published on May 14, 2012

Dozens of haredi Orthodox schoolchildren participated in a Lag b'Omer bonfire in Antwerp that featured the burning of an Israeli flag.

Report: N.Y. mohel apparently tested postive for herpes

Published on April 9, 2012

A New York mohel tied to the death from herpes of one newborn and to three others who contracted the disease, apparently tested positive for herpes, The Jewish Week reported.

Israel: More Reform, Conservative than Charedi Jews

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on February 29, 2012

Eight percent of Israeli Jews define themselves as Conservative or Reform Jews, compared to just 7 percent of Israelis who define themselves as “Charedi” (ultra-Orthodox). Amazing?

Jessica Fishman’s Sad Story and the Threat to Israel’s Civil Society

By Rabbi John Rosove
Published on February 10, 2012

Opinion: The back of the bus

By Susan Freudenheim
Published on January 11, 2012

If Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy teaches us one thing, it’s that the fight for civil rights is not particular to a time, a place, a people or a gender. It’s still shocking to watch vintage 1960s TV footage and see moms and dads yelling at someone else’s children for simply walking up the steps of a high school.

Opinion: Judaism's walking billboards

By David Suissa
Published on January 4, 2012

It never occurred to me that I’d have to visit the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail to get a deeper understanding of the Charedi crisis in Israel. I call it a crisis because, in my mind, anything that makes the Jewish religion look really bad is a crisis.

Why are Jewish leaders not standing up for the “Charedi Rebel”?

By David Suissa
Published on November 26, 2010

Where is Abraham Foxman when we really need him? Where is Malcolm Hoenlein, David Harris, the American Jewish media, the leaders of Jewish Federations and other prominent Jewish machers who have complained for years about the hijacking of Judaism and Israeli politics by the intolerant and power-hungry Haredim?

Obama's cousin-in-law Rabbi Capers Funnye battles to open the gates of Judaism [VIDEO]

By Julie G Fax
Published on November 26, 2008

Funnye, 56, has dedicated his life to chiseling away at the conventional, but increasingly inaccurate, conception of who is a Jew.

Angeleno pushes effort on recognizing conversions

By Julie G Fax
Published on November 26, 2008

When Lorin Fife converted to Judaism some 30 years ago, his experience with the Orthodox rabbis who presided over his year of study and conversion ceremony was one of warmth and acceptance.

Jewish Agency wants changes in Israel conversion policy

Published on November 20, 2008

It calls on the government to establish Jewish religious courts that "will base themselves on appropriate moderate and tolerant prior halachic decisions to allow the conversion process to move forward.

A long time ago, in a kibbutz far away . . .

Published on November 19, 2008

Yoav was my kibbutz brother, secular and an ardent Zionist. He had an encyclopedic mind that could recite in detail kibbutz history, lore and socialist ideology. Today, Yoav is an equally intense, knowledgeable and ideological Charedi guy living in the Midwest. He recently offered to pay me money for introducing him to the woman he married more than 25 years ago.

Why don’t U.S. groups condemn Jewish terrorists in Israel?

Published on October 29, 2008

The leaflet calls for the deaths of Israelis who belong to Peace Now and offers a quarter of a million dollars for the killing of each and every one. And threats against Peace Now are proliferating. Three weeks after the Sternhell bombing, police were investigating graffiti found in Tel Aviv threatening the life of Yariv Oppenheimer, Peace Now's director general.

Diverse trio running for mayor in troubled Jerusalem

By Dina Kraft
Published on October 23, 2008

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: A rabbi, a Russian oligarch and a high-tech millionaire are running for mayor of Jerusalem. Except there's no punch line, just each of them offering up himself as salvation for the hallowed capital's many troubles.

Israeli film ‘My Father My Lord’—Abraham’s binding of Isaac redux

By Tom Tugend
Published on July 9, 2008

In the Israeli film "My Father My Lord," the secular or casually religious Jew encounters a world whose mindset and lifestyle might as well be thousands of miles and centuries away. It is the world of the charedi, or ultra-Orthodox, community, in which every action, every thought, is determined by God's law, as elucidated by the sages.

The Married Charedi and Me

By Orit Arfa
Published on December 22, 2005

I met Oren after watching "Kol Nidrei," a new play by Israeli playwright Yehoshua Sobol. The play is about Charedi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews who lead double lives -- as Bnei Brak yeshiva bochers by day and Tel Aviv bar-hoppers by Friday night.