Inside Bangkoks Chabad house

CNN

Free Internet, free dinner with red wine on Friday nights and help arranging a hotel in Thailand are some of the delights available in Bangkok’s Chabad House near the backpacker-thronged neighborhood of Khao San Road.

But first, the hosts want to know if you are Jewish.

A stout Israeli security guard will demand to examine your passport -- "do you have an Israeli visa?" -- scoff at any plastic identification you may offer and interrogate you in English and Hebrew.[...]

Lashon harah against troublemakers and whistleblowers

It is important to remember that lashon harah is a two edged sword. On the one hand it has the ability to destroy the innocent and kill society. But on the other hand it is a legitimate weapon for society to use to destroy and delegitimitize those who are designated trouble makers or deviants or bad influences. The obvious problem is who decides that it is permitted to destroy another person's reputation for the well being of society? What safeguards and what recourse does a person  have who has been designated for destruction? Is a person who reports child abuse to the police a legitimate target for destruction by lashon harah? Are authorities who conceal child abuse legitimate targets?

Most don't think Obama deserves Nobel Prize

YNET

No support at home or abroad. As US President Barack Obama boards a plane from Washington for the Nobel Prize ceremony that will be held on Thursday in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, some two thirds of Americans believe their president is not deserving of the prize. [...]

Abuse:Family Abductions

CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• More than 200,000 incidents of family abductions occur in the U.S. each year
  
• Christine Belford's three daughters were kidnapped by their father in 2007
  
• Authorities launched a search that spanned at least four countries and several states
  
• The children were found in Nicaragua, living in a trailer with their father and grandmother [...]
  

Shavei Israel:The "Hidden Jews" in Poland

Haaretz

The Shavei Israel organization released on Monday the first Polish-language guide to the holiday of Hannukah geared toward Poles who have only recently discovered their Jewish roots.

Lights for Polish Jewry will be circulated for free during the week of the Jewish holiday throughout Poland.

According to Michael Freund, chairman and founder of the outreach organization,the reason for the sudden publication of the guide is due to the fact that many Poles have of late leared that they are "hidden Jews" and wish to reconnect with the traditions they know little about.

"In recent years, an increasing number of Poles have rediscovered their Jewish ancestry, seeking to reclaim the precious heritage that was so brutally taken from them and their forebears," he said.[...]

EJF's backer's legal battles

OSUN.org

Chareidi leaders challenge conversion policy of Chief Rabbi

JPost

Rabbis representing the Ashkenazi haredi rabbinical leadership were poised on Tuesday to send a letter to Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger demanding that he "clarify" his stance on city rabbis who refuse to recognize conversions performed by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

"We want nothing less than a written statement from the chief rabbi detailing his position regarding conversions that a city rabbi deems to be invalid because the convert did not embrace an Orthodox lifestyle," said Rabbi Nahum Eisenstein, who has close ties with Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the preeminent halachic authority for Ashkenazi haredim.

"The chief rabbi needs to clarify that in no way was the letter [sent to the Knesset Immigration and Absorption committee] meant to convey a message that contradicts Halacha."[...]

Israeli journalist ordered to pay for slander

YNet

Veteran journalist Ilana Dayan and Telad Television, a former Channel 2 franchisee, were ordered to pay NIS 300,000 (about $79,000) in damages to IDF Captain R. Tuesday, some five years after airing a show which he was the focus of.
 
In 2004, R. was charged with obstruction of justice and dead-checking in a case involving his brigade killing 13-year-old Iman al-Hams during an operation which took place near Gaza Strip's Philadelphi Route.
 
About six weeks after the incident, on the same day R. was indicted, Ilana Dayan's show, "Uvda" ("Fact") aired a special featuring evidence related to the case. R. was acquitted of all charges a year later and then-IDF Spokesperson Ruth Yaron accused Dayan of doctoring the tape heard on the show.[...]

Bank holds men-only business conference

JPost

Bank Poalei Agudat Israel, which caters primarily to the haredi community, has prohibited women from attending a business conference it is sponsoring Tuesday in Ramat Gan that will deal with a wide range of economic issues including employment, construction, investments and haredi institutions.

An invitation that was sent to the bank's customers states that attendance at the economic conference will be permitted to men only, due to customer demand.

Several women from the haredi sector have expressed anger over the decision, according to Army Radio which first broke the story, saying that it constitutes gender discrimination and perpetuates the inferior status of women in haredi society. [...]

Battle of European rabbis concerning conversion

Haredim

מלחמת הרבנים האירופית: הגראי"ל תומך ברב ערנטרוי

בועידת רבני אירופה הביע המנכ"ל הרב אבא דונר את הסתייגותו מהסמינרים למתגיירים של "נצח משפחת ישראל". בארגון טוענים: מדובר בהתנכלות על רקע חשיפת שחיתות. הרב שטיינמן הביע תמיכה בארגון

Religious vs gay rights:Supreme Court takes appeal

NYTImes

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from a Christian student group that had been denied recognition by a public law school in California for excluding homosexuals and nonbelievers. The case pits anti-discrimination principles against religious freedom.

The group, the Christian Legal Society, says it welcomes all students to participate in its activities. But it does not allow students to become voting members or to assume leadership positions unless they affirm what the group calls orthodox Christian beliefs and disavow "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle." Such a lifestyle, the group says, includes "sexual conduct outside of marriage between a man and a woman."

The law school, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, part of the University of California, allows some 60 recognized student groups to use meeting space, bulletin boards and the like so long as they agree to a policy that forbids discrimination on various grounds, including religion and sexual orientation. The school withdrew recognition from the Christian group after it refused to comply with the policy.[...]

Minchas Yitzchok Shidduch for former sinner 6 139

Justice Minister:Halacha shoud be law of Israel

Haaretz

Justice Minister Ya'akov Ne'eman on Monday said he believes Halakha (Jewish law) should be the binding law in Israel, Army Radio reported.

"Step by step, we will bestow upon the citizens of Israel the laws of the Torah and we will turn Halakha into the binding law of the nation," said Ne'eman at a Jewish law convention at the Regency hotel in Jerusalem, in the presence of many rabbis and rabbinical judges. [...]

YNet Clarification of what was meant

R Moshe Shapiro addresses kiruv organizations

Matzav

Nearly 50 participants from such organizations as Arachim, Lev L'achim, Nefesh Yehudi, and Hidabroot participated in the 2-day event (December 1-3) that included an electrifying address by Hagaon Harav Moshe Schapiro. Following his one-hour address that was a call to action to intensify efforts to be "mekarev levavos," Harav Schapiro fielded questions on kiruv for nearly two hours. Menachem Lubinsky, who represented Horizons/EJF called the conference "an unprecedented show of unity amongst all the major kiruv organizations." Prior to Dr. Abdi's address, the group saw a riveting video on a woman saved from a brutal life in an Arab village by Lev L'Achim. The woman, whose child was also saved, was taken to a shelter operated by the organization and she is now well on the way towards becoming an Orthodox Jewess. Thanks to a grant from EJF, Lev L'Achim has stepped up its efforts to extricate the Jewish women from a horrific life with their Arab husbands. Dozens of women have already been rescued.[...]