Tag Archives: Judaism

And Pat Robertson knows a LOT about polishing diamonds.

The Times Of Israel reports: The widespread opposition to the draft poses a challenge to the country, which is grappling with a cultural war over the place of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society. The issue of army service is at the core of that struggle. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 8 percent of Israel’s …

Three months ago Family Research Council president Tony Perkins joined seven evangelical members of Congress, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, in a tour of Israel during which they met privately with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Perkins followed up that visit with more of his regular missives about how Americans need to support Israel above all other allies. Take it away, Southern …

From a petition launched by the American Jewish World Service: Dear President Museveni, I am writing to implore you, respectfully, to veto Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill that was recently passed by the Ugandan Parliament. As a rabbi, I honor the inherent dignity of each and every person. Jewish theology, tradition and history compel me to uphold the values of kavod habriyot, …

Details.

Because circumcision. Or something. This is the guy who two weeks ago declared that the Torah commands that all homosexuals be stoned to death.

From the about page for Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi: Kiruv Organization is a Non Profit Organization founded 16 years ago in 1995 by Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi in New York for the purpose of connecting Jews to Judaism and Torah. As of today there are more than 56,000 followers on Rabbi Mizrachi’s FaceBook page whom listen to lectures and read articles on …

Whoa.

Well, that seems encouraging. Rouhani was elected in May by a landslide vote that some foreign observers characterized as a rejection of the Iranian conservatism epitomized by Ahmadinejad.

Rosh Hashanah begins on Wednesday.

A group of rabbis in California have certified a line of lube as kosher for Orthodox Jews. The US-made Wet range of lubes now has eight lines that have been given a religious stamp of approval, including its “Ecstasy” product. This means that rabbis from the Rabbinical Council of California have inspected Wet’s 52,000 sq ft production plant and researched …

An estimated 30,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews rallied in downtown Manhattan this week to protest Israel’s proposed bill to phase out military exemptions based on religious grounds. Proponents of the new law have suggested that phasing out the exemption would encourage ultra-Orthodox Jews to “share the burden” of Israeli citizenship and eliminate a fundamental social inequality that has bred a strong resentment …

More on Yair Lapid can be found here.  The below statement was made on May 18th. (Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

Yesterday Rabbi Jason Klein was elected to head the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. He is the first openly gay man to head any such group in the United States.  Israel’s Haaretz reports: Reconstructionist and Reform seminaries have ordained gay rabbis for decades. The Conservative movement began to allow openly gay rabbis to attend their seminaries in 2006. Orthodox seminaries and rabbinic …

And he’s dating an ultra-Orthodox Jew. I smell a sitcom! (Tipped by JMG reader David)

Pink News reports today that the Rabbinical Council of America has denounced JONAH, the Jewish “ex-gay” group based in New Jersey which was just sued for fraud by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They also want JONAH to remove a letter from their website which claims that the Rabbinical Council has endorsed their work. Their statement: “As rabbis trained in …

Last month the New York City Department of Health issued a new ordinance requiring parents to sign a disclaimer avowing that they are aware of the risks regarding the “snip-n-suck” circumcisions performed by some Orthodox rabbis. Yesterday Jewish groups filed suit to block the new law. In the procedure, common among ultra-Orthodox Jews, the person performing the circumcision uses his …

After they finished approving Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on big sodas, yesterday the NYC Board of Health approved a new law requiring parents to sign a consent form before Orthodox rabbis can perform the bizarre ritual known as “snip-n-suck” circumcisions. The decision came as Orthodox Jews protested outside. Gothamist reports: “Metzitzah b’peh” is the practice of sucking the blood from a …

Gothamist helps out with your WTF: According to KosherDiapers.com their product’s Velcro fasteners have “no חשש, whatsoever – not when opening and not when closing the strips.” Thank goodness! See, and this was news to us (bad Jews that some of us are), the gist of the issue is that the adhesive in most diapers use glue, which is “similar …

“Homosexuality has long ceased to be a sexual deviation, belonging to individuals and their private lives, which no one wants to interfere with.They came out of the closet a long time ago and are now the spearhead of the ‘post-‘ culture. We are dealing with the undermining of the family unit, which is the basic building block of every national …