Shavei Israel's "miraculous" 2 month conversions for Bnei Menashe

Israel National News   Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, along with members of his staff, paid a special visit to Shavei Israel’s Absorption Center in Givat Haviva to congratulate the 274 Bnei Menashe immigrants from India who arrived in the Jewish state in recent months as part of a renewed wave of aliyah (immigration).[...]

The organizers say that it was a fitting message for the arrival of a community that traces its roots back 2,700 years to the expulsion of the Ten Lost Tribes by the Assyrians, and that has nevertheless managed to survive – and flourish – in some very distant lands. For Haokip, it was particularly emotional: he has only now been reunited with his parents, who made aliyah from India with Shavei Israel’s help in 2007. [...]

There were also more formal presentations during the meeting with the Chief Rabbi, which lasted an hour and a half. Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund surveyed the various activities Shavei is running to enable both the physical and spiritual absorption of the Bnei Menashe, including classes in Hebrew and Judaism, assistance with Israeli bureaucracy, housing, meals, prayer services and more. He also described the successful pace of the conversion progress. Indeed, just a few days after Rabbi Amar’s visit, the final group of Bnei Menashe completed their formal return to Judaism.

Shavei Israel’s Director of Bnei Menashe Aliyah, Rabbi Hanoch Avitzedek, who was in Givat Haviva last week for the meeting, says that the speed in which the conversions have taken place is nothing short of a “miracle. We finished everything in under two months,” he says. “Normally this can take at least two years.” Rabbi Avitzedek attributes the quick movement to several factors, chief among them that “the Bnei Menashe were already living a religious Jewish life in India and came here very well-prepared..”

Rav Hershel Schacter's views on reporting child abuse

Forward   A top rabbinic dean of Yeshiva University has warned rabbis about the dangers of reporting child sex abuse allegations to the police because it could result in a Jew being jailed with a black inmate, or as he put it, “a schvartze,” who might want to kill him.

Rabbi Hershel Schachter, one of the most respected faculty members of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, also said that children can lie and ruin an innocent man’s life.

“It could be that the whole thing is a bubbe-mayse [tall tale],” Schachter said.

Schachter said Jewish communities should establish panels of rabbis who are also psychologists to first hear such allegations and decide if law authorities should be informed.[...]

Schachter told his audience that reporting abuse to the police or family service agency does not constitute mesirah — the traditional Jewish prohibition against informing on a fellow Jew to the secular authorities.

But Schachter emphasized that Jewish communities nevertheless had to first make sure children were telling the truth before going to law enforcement authorities. He cited several instances in America and in Israel in which he said false accusations were made.

Every community, said Schachter, needs a board of “talmida chachamim” —Torah scholars — who are also qualified psychologists who could interview victims to see if there is “raglayim la’davar” — or reasonable suspicion — of abuse.

He added: “Before you go to the police and before you got to family services, every community should have a board…to investigate whether there’s any raglayim la’davar or not.”[...]

Muslim Brotherhood objects to protecting wife from abusive husband

NYTimes

“A woman needs to be confined within a framework that is controlled by the man of the house,” Osama Yehia Abu Salama, a Brotherhood family expert, said of the group’s general approach, speaking in a recent seminar for women training to become marriage counselors. Even if a wife were beaten by her husband, he advised, “Show her how she had a role in what happened to her.”

“If he is to blame,” Mr. Abu Salama added, “she shares 30 percent or 40 percent of the fault.”[...]

In a statement Wednesday on a proposed United Nations declaration to condemn violence against women, the Brotherhood issued a list of objections, which formally laid out its views on women for the first time since it came to power. 

In its statement, the Brotherhood said that wives should not have the right to file legal complaints against their husbands for rape, and husbands should not be subject to the punishments meted out for the rape of a stranger. 

A husband must have “guardianship” over his wife, not an equal “partnership” with her, the group declared. Daughters should not have the same inheritance rights as sons. Nor should the law cancel “the need for a husband’s consent in matters like travel, work or use of contraception” — a reform in traditional Islamic family law that was enacted under former President Hosni Mubarak and credited to his wife, Suzanne.[...]

Asked about the statement’s apparent attempt to shield marital rape from legal prosecution, Ms. Sharkawy brushed off the issue as an irrelevant foreign concern. 

“Marital rape? Is this a big problem that we have?” she said, suggesting that it might be a Western phenomenon, while sexual harassment in the streets was a far greater concern in Egypt.

Ri'az: Not required to believe G-d has no body

The following is an excerpt from the Riaz in his commentary to Sanhedrin pages 74-78  קונטרוס הריאות


ורבינו משה כתב בפ"ג והלכות תשובה  ‏ה' הן הנקראין מינין, האומר אין שם אלוה ואין לעולם מנהיג, והאומד שיש שם מנהיג אבל הם שנים או יותר משנים, והאומר שיש שם רכון אחד אלא שהוא גוף ובעל תמונה, וכן האומד שאינו לבדר ראשון וצור לכל, רכן העובד אלוהיי זולתו כדי להיות מליץ בינו ונין רכון העולמים.

‏ודבריו הן חוץ משטת התלמוד ואמנם כי כן הדעת מכרעת, וכן פשוטן של מקראות. שהקדוש ברוך חוא אינו גוף ובעל תמונה כמו שבאמרנו ואל מי תדמיון אל ומה דמות תערבו לו, וכל הדמיונות שראו הנביאים אינן אלא כדרך הנבואה, כמר שנאמד  ‏וביד הנביאים אדמה, שהקדוש ברוך הוא חיה מראה לו דמיון נכבד [כדי שידע] הנביא כי זו הנבואה באה לו מאת הקדוש ברוך הוא, אבל עקר [הקדוש ברוך הוא] אין לו סוף [אולי צ"ל  גוף]. וכן  הדבר ידוע לכל חכמי לב, אבל מי שיטעה בכך ולא ירד לעמקו של דבר, ומבין המקראות כפשוטן וסברו שהקדוש בררך הוא בעל תמונה, לא נקרא מין. שאם כן הוא הדבר, אין לא פרסמה תורה על דבר זה ולא גלו חכמי התלמוד להודיע דבר זה בגלוי' ולהזהיר נשים ועמי הארץ על כן שלא יהוא מינים ויאבוד עולמן. הלא כמה אסורים קלים כגון אסור מוקצה וכיוצא בו' חבור חכמים כמה הלכות והרבו כמה דקדוקין להעמיד כל דבר על מכונו ועל דבר זה שכל האמונה תלויה בו ויש בו כרת בעולם הזה ובעולם הבא, איך לא הורה חכמים על דבר זה בגלוי.

‏אלא ודאי לא הקפידו לכן אלא יאמין אדם היחוד כפי שכלו ואפילו הנשים כפי מיעוט שכלן שאמר משה ע"ה  ‏שמע ישראל ה' אלהינו ה'  אחד [ושמע] לשון שמועה ולשון ‏קבלה יאמין דבר זה, ולא נתן משה תורה לישראל אלא בדרך אמונה ובדרך קבלה, ‏וכן חכמי המשנה וחכמי התלמוד לא נתעסקו אלא ‏בדרך קבלה ובדרך אמונה, ולא הורו לדרוש ולחקור על ענין [חאלהות] ועל ענין שאר החכמות כלל, ואם היו יחידים שהיו בקיאין בהם לא חיו מורין בהם לרבים. שלא צותה תורה להורות על אלה הדברים.

‏הנה מה אמר הצדיק והחכמה מאין תמצא וגו', אלהים הבין דרכה והוא ידע את מקומה  ויאמר לאדם חן יראת ה' היא חכמה וסור מרע בינה הא לך בפירוש, שלא גברא האדם אלא לירא מהקדוש בררך הוא ולסור מרע, ולא להתבונן במעשי' הנוראים של הקרוש בדרך חוא, וחכמי ישראל שהיו בקיא באלה החכמות, סתמום וסתרום, ולא רצו לפרסמם לרבים. ולא חששו ללמד לשום אדם. שאין הקדוש ברוך הוא גוף שאין חשש בדבר זה כאשר ביארתי.

‏ומה שכתוב  ‏ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם כי לא ראיתם כל תמונה, לא בא הכתוב להזהיר אלא שלא לעשות תמונה, כמו שכתוב בסוף חפסוק  ‏פן תשחיתון ועשיתם לכם פסל תמונת כל פסל, אבל אם יחשוב אדם שהקדוש ברוך חוא בעל תמונה, לא הקפידה תורה בכן, וכמה חיו מחכמי התלמוד הקדושים שמהם תצא תורה לישראל שלא נתנו לבם להתבונן בענין האלהות  אלא הבינו המקראות כפשוטם ולפי תומם  ‏חשבו כי הקדוש ברוך בעל גוף ותמונה. וחלילה שנקר' מינים לאשר נאמר עליהם  ‏קדושים אשר בארץ המה וגו'

ואמנם מה שכתב רבינו משה בפרק [א] מהלכות יסודי התורה ופירש שם שהקדוש ברוך הוא אינו בעל גוף ותמונה ‏כלם דברים נכוחים הם.

‏ ‏ אבל מה שכתב בסוף הלכות תשובה  צריך האדם לייחד עצמו להבין ולהשכיל בהכמות המודיען ‏לו את קונו , וכן כתב ברוב מקומות, הדברים הללו אינן מדרך תורתינו, שחכמי התורה הזהירו שלא ללמד כמעשה מרכבה ושלא לדרוש במעשה כראשית לרבים, כמפורש כמסכת חגיגה  ולפיכך נזהרו חכמי ישראל הקדמונים מלחבר בהם שום ספר ומה שהוי יודעים בהם, כלו היה על פי הקבלה שהיו מקבלים יחידים. ולא מהספרים שחברו בהם חכמי אומות העולם, שהם נוטים כלן למינות, שאומרים אין תורה מן השמים, וגם חושבים שהעולם קדמוני וכופרין במה שכתוב כראשית ברא אלהים, וכל הענין

 והנה אריסטוטליס, שהוא רבן על כל הפילוסופים ומימיו הם שותים וספריו הם הוגים, ודבריו הם דברי מינות, שהוא אומר שאין הקדוש ברוך הוא משכיח על בני אדם כמו שכתב בשמו רבינו משה במורה נהבוככים בפרק דעות בני אדם בהשגחה. אמר שדעת אירסטו שהשגחת השם תכלה אל גלגל הירח, ועוד כתב שם שכל מה שתראה מענייני בני אדם המתחלפין יחשוב אריסטו שהם במקרה גמור, וזו מינות גמורה, שעוקרת כל התורה כלה ואומ' לית דין ולית דיין,  ועליו אמר דוד ע"ה על מה נאץ רשע אלהים אמר בלבו לא תדרוש,וספריו ספרי מינות, ועליו ועליהם נאמר בתלמוד ההוגה בספרים החצונים אלו ספרי מינים. ור"ע היה אומר ההוגה בהם אין לו חלק לעולם הבא.

ואפילו אם ה"ו חבריו חלוקין עליו, יתכן שחולקים במה שאמר אין לו חלק להעולם הבא, אכל מ"מ אסור להגות בהם, מפני שנמשך בהן למינות, ועוד ששטת התלמוד היא כר"ע בפרק ידיעות הטומאה  ‏כאשר אני עתיד לבאר . ועל כאלה הספרים אמורי  ‏על אלישע (ד)אחר שהיו ספרי מינים נושרים מחיקו' ועוד אמרן  ‏ד' נכנסו לפרדס. ולא נכנס אחד ויצא כשלום אלא ר"ע לבדו ( ואם החכמים הקדמונים שהיה לכם רחב כאולם והיו חסידי עליון, לא היו יכולים לעמוד כאלה החכמות ואע"פ שהיו עסוקים בהן על פי הקבלה, כל שכן הדודות האחרונים שדמו לבם לנקב המחטוטות, שאי' יכולים ללמוד בהם אלא מספרי חכמי האומות שהם ספרי מינות, ואפילו דבר טוב אין ראוי ללמוד מהמינים שנאמר ‏הרחק מעליה דרכך י כמר שמפורש בפ"ק דע"ז  ‏הוא שאמר הצדיק  אלהים הבין דרכה וגו', שאין דעתו של אדם משגת כאלו החכמות, ואין לו לעסוק אלא בתורה שהיא יראת ה' וכן אמר  ‏הנביא ליהויקים מלך יהודה דן דין עני ואביון אז טוב לו הלא היא הדעת אותי נאם ה', לפי שהיה יהויקים מקל בתורה ובמצוות והיה מפאר החכמות שיש בהן ידיעת האלוה, וחיתה דעתו כדעת אריסטו, ואמר לו הנביא ידיעת הבורא אינה אלא לעשות צדקה ומשפט ולקיים התורה ‏ורבינו משה שנתעסק באלה החכמות, אולי...

Palestinian mourns death caused by Palestinian rocket - is not news?

 Tablet Magazine    Yesterday, we were treated to another in a series of backpedals, when the Associated Press corrected a caption to the heartbreaking picture above, which faulted an Israeli air strike for killing the infant son of a BBC reporter during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense last November. Here’s what the caption to this picture, which graced the cover of countless papers across the world, has been for the last four months:

“Jihad Masharawi weeps while he holds the body of his 11-month old son Ahmad, at Shifa hospital following an Israeli air strike on their family house, in Gaza City. The Israeli military said its assassination of the Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari, marks the beginning of an operation against Gaza militants.”

The correction came as a result of a United Nations report yesterday casting doubt on the narrative of Israeli blame, which in addition to marking the first time in history that the Washington Free Beacon and the United Nations have ever agreed, suggested the death was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket. [...]

Does this seem ridiculous to you yet? It should. In the midst of the findings, Armin Rosen at the Atlantic tweeted this, which sums up how this fits with a horrifying list of highly charged accusations leveled against Israel over the years that were ultimately discredited:

Al Dura. The Jenin Massacre. The Swedish organ-harvesting ring. Forced sterilization of Ethiopian immigrants..you’d think the media would have some humility about discredited anti-Israel stories. You would be wrong.

At a certain point, this stops being about the facile media coverage of extraordinarily polarizing events. The battle for the truth and blame is simply mimicking the conflict itself.

Hi tech CEO pedophile convicted of sexual offenses on children

YNet    The Lod District Court approved a plea agreement Wednesday morning with the 42-year-old CEO of a high tech company from the Sharon area who admitted to committing sexual offenses on young girls. The man made the admissions within the framework of the plea agreement in which he pled guilty to 29 counts. Four counts which appeared in the original charges were erased. 

The man was convicted of indecent acts on a minor, encouraging indecent acts on a minor, sexual harassment of a minor, immoral advertisement, encouraging an act of sodomy on a minor, blackmail with threats, and more. [...]

He succeeded in entrapping young boys and girls on the web, encouraging them to commit rape, sodomy and other indecent acts upon themselves. Using Skype, Messenger, ICQ and Oovoo, after girls would accept his connection request, he would encourage them to perform sexual acts, taking advantage of their young age, curiosity and naivety. [...]
 

Israel Arab recruiter harrassed by Arabs - demands compensation

YNet   The 30-year-old woman, who lives with her husband and children in the Galilee, began to encourage the enlistment of Israeli Arabs to National Service several months ago .

"I thought this was a good way of integrating into Israeli society, and that it is important to contribute to our community." 

She was praised at work and director of the National-Civil Service Administration Sar-Shalom Jerbi said she "did good work." 

However, a few months later, the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee declared it was against such enlistment. "They called me and my friends 'traitors,'" she recalls. "In one case they physically attacked me and I went to the hospital."  [...]

As a result of the incidents, she hired Attorney Eli Malul from Afula, an expert on the National Insurance Institute and labor laws, to insure that the NII recognizes her.

"My client was emotionally harmed by the difficult chain of events she endured at her place of employment," wrote Malul to the NII. "She is suffering from stress, depression and fits of rage. I request to determine that there is a direct connection between her emotional state and her work."

Moshiach Oi! Merges Orthodox Judaism and Punk Rock

NY Times   The band and the weekly Thursday night gathering, known as Chulent, both appear in a new documentary film called “Punk Jews,” about fringe strands that have emerged within New York’s Orthodox community. The movie, which is scheduled for release on DVD this summer, examines loose bits of subculture inside what is often seen as an insular, rule-oriented cloister. To be a hard-core punk band chanting, “Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman,” the song of global healing for an obscure branch of Hasidism, is to be something beyond a square peg in a round hole. It is to give up the idea of fitting in altogether. Even at Chulent their din divides. 

“It’s very amusing to me to see the looks on people’s faces,” Mr. Romanoff said, wearing a long beard and a skullcap with the “Na Nach” phrase embroidered in Hebrew around the edge. “Most religious Jews have never seen anything like this, so they have no idea what’s going on.” 

Yet he saw no contradiction between his music and his submission to his faith. “To me, Judaism is like punk rock,” he said. “Real Judaism is very in your face. The world is chasing after desires for money and sex and drugs and materialism, and Judaism is the opposite. Judaism is like, this world is nothing. This world is only to serve God and bring light and redemption. To me, that’s very punk rock.” 

The New York area’s Orthodox Jewish population has swelled by more than 25 percent in the past decade, to almost half a million in 2011, according to a study by UJA-Federation of New York. One in three Jews in the area is now Orthodox, and more than half of Jewish children live in O

Rav Steinman : Chinuch - education children 2008 Har Nof

 לדף בעברית

Cheshvan 5769 - November 2008

Series of Lectures on Chinuch HaBanim - Child Education, organized by Moreinu HaRav Yitzchak Mordechai HaCohen Rubin shlit"a and hosted by Kehilat Bnei Torah - Har Nof.

Everybody knows that our future lays with our children and we all know how much there is and can be improved in their education. Both parents, as well as the educators that we entrust our children with, know that we need guidance and help from our Torah leaders and other experts in the field of Chinuch.

Therere, Moreinu HaRav Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin initiated and organized a series of lectures on the topic of Chinuch HaBanim - Child Education. Lectures will be held every 3-4 weeks this coming winter and will focus on different aspects of Chinuch and different goal groups. Seperate lectures will be held for educators, for fathers, for mothers, both in Hebrew as well as in English.

The opening session of this series was on Tuesday 20 Cheshvan 5769 (November 18, 2008).

We were greatly honored to be able to host one of the great Torah leaders in our generation HaGaon Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, shit"a. Rabbi Steinman addressed the appr. 1100 participants (men and woman) with his advice on Chinuch, as well as answer to questions submitted before the conference.

Opening words were said by Moreinu HaRav Yitzchak Mordechai Rubin, followed by the well-known Mechanech Rabbi Chizkiyahu Mishkovsky.

The Kennes was broadcasted live via Kol HaLashon, and the audio recordings are available for listening and downloading on this page. (Click to listen or right-click to download.)

* HaRav Yitzchak Mordechai HaCohen Rubin, 16 min Listen or Download (See Video)* HaRav Chizkiyahu Mishkovsky, 30 min Listen or Download  (See Video)

* HaGaon HaRav Aharon Leib Steinman, shlit"a - Main Address, 25 min Listen or Download   See Video  or   Read it

* Question and Answers with HaGaon HaRav Aharon Leib Steinman, shlit"a, 32 min Listen or Download   (See Video)

(Read the questions that were asked to HaGaon HaRav Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, shlit"a during the conference: Link to view the PDF file with 26 questions)

Haaretz backtracks on claims Israel forced birthcontrol on Ethiopians

Tablet Magazine   There was no shortage of outrage following a report by Haaretz in late Janaury asserting that Israel had acknowledged a policy of forcing long-acting birth control shots upon Ethiopian women in transit camps who wished to emigrate from Ethiopia to Israel. The story also charged that Israeli officials hadn’t told the women that the effects of the Depo-Provera shots. The explosive first of the story went like this:

A government official has for the first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera.

Beyond the normal outlets that selectively focus on Israeli scandals, sites that report on women’s issues reprinted the Haaretz story and, in multiple acts of stenographic journalism, cast their vicious judgments of Israeli racism and sexism to their readerships.a

The first problem with the story: No Israeli official ever acknowledged there was such a practice at all, it was denied by Joint Distribution Committe, which ran the clinics, and the Health Ministry. (The Scroll was able to convince the popular site Jezebel to retract a damning first line after the story had already blown up and commenters had accused Israel of committing genocide.)

After an Israeli committee was established to investigate the matter, a second story ran in Haaretz last week repeating much of its original reporting. Then, earlier this week, came this correction (caught by CAMERA):

This article, which was updated on March 6, 2013, reported on Health Ministry director-general Prof. Roni Gamzu’s instruction to gynecologists not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera if there is any doubt that recipients did not understand the implications of the treatment. The original version failed to state that this instruction was issued “without taking a stand or determining facts about allegations that had been made,” and referred to all women and not just women of Ethiopian origin.

So not only had the head of the Health Ministry not admitted the practice, he had–of his own volition and not under duress from scandal–issued a directive for doctors to make sure that all women (and not just Ethiopian women in transit camps) fully understood what the shots would do. [...]

NY Times Looks at Orthodox Community through Pomegranate

NY Times    In Midwood, Brooklyn, there’s a luxury kosher grocery store called Pomegranate serving the modern Orthodox and Hasidic communities. It looks like a really nice Whole Foods. There’s a wide selection of kosher cheeses from Italy and France, wasabi herring, gluten-free ritual foods and nicely toned wood flooring. [...]

Nationwide, only 21 percent of non-Orthodox Jews between the ages of 18 and 29 are married. But an astounding 71 percent of Orthodox Jews are married at that age. And they are having four and five kids per couple. In the New York City area, for example, the Orthodox make up 32 percent of Jews over all. But the Orthodox make up 61 percent of Jewish children. Because the Orthodox are so fertile, in a few years, they will be the dominant group in New York Jewry.

Another really impressive thing about the store is not found in one section but is pervasive throughout. That’s the specialty products designed around this or that aspect of Jewish law. There are the dairy-free cheese puffs in case you want to have some cheese puffs with a meat dish. There are the precut disposable tablecloths so you don’t have to use scissors on the Sabbath. There are the specially designed sponges, which don’t retain water, so you don’t have to do the work of squeezing out water on Shabbat. 

Pomegranate looks like any island of upscale consumerism, but deep down it is based on a countercultural understanding of how life should work.[...]

For the people who shop at Pomegranate, the collective covenant with God is the primary reality and obedience to the laws is the primary obligation. They go shopping like the rest of us, but their shopping is minutely governed by an external moral order. 

The laws, in this view, make for a decent society. They give structure to everyday life. They infuse everyday acts with spiritual significance. They build community. They regulate desires. They moderate religious zeal, making religion an everyday practical reality. 

The laws are gradually internalized through a system of lifelong study, argument and practice. The external laws may seem, at first, like an imposition, but then they become welcome and finally seem like a person’s natural way of being.[...]

Digital version of Daas Torah - is it possible without loss?

I just received the following email regarding putting my books in digtial form. I agree with the writer who would prefer an electronic version over a printed version - I use the electronic form almost exclusively.  The simple problem is how to do this without losing all my rights and possible financial compensation as thousands of copies proliferate across the internet with the click of a mouse. The NY Times has a good article on the demise of the industry as the result of being able to get an electronic book for nothing or at most pennies. At the present I am not presenting my books in electronic form - but I would like to. Anyone have a realistic solutions?

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I think your book Daas Torah is an invaluable work, really fantastic. If possible I would really like to buy a digital copy of the book, preferably PDF. The reason for this is that, as a student of the 21st century, indexes and tables of content don't do much for me when I'm looking for source material. I search for keywords. I use Bar Ilan daily. B"H my Beis Midrash has Wifi. For this reason, you're book would be indescribably more practical to me if it was in a digital format that would allow me to type in keywords and find exactly what i'm searching for. I'll pay you the full 35 dollars for the book. And I will do my utmost, bli neder, to never distribute the book, or parts of it, in any way that would breach the copyright. I would probably not even tell anyone else that I have a digital copy so that they don't even ask for it. But it would be extremely helpful and useful for me to have a digital copy of the book, again, preferably PDF.

Todros Grynhaus - alleged sex offender - arrested in Israel after fleeing England

Jewish Chronicle   An international hunt has ended for a suspected British sex offender who fled to Israel to avoid trial for alleged crimes against children, when the man was arrested in Jerusalem after two weeks on the run.

Todros Grynhaus, from Salford, is thought to have escaped from the UK on false documents after being arrested and charged with historic sexual and indecent assault against three minors.

He was given strict bail conditions by the UK courts to surrender his passport and was forbidden to travel abroad, but Israeli police confirmed the 48-year-old was apprehended by its officers last Thursday (February 28)).

Divorce Tragedies - Letter to Jewish Press

Jewish Press   In a Feb. 15 op-ed column titled “An Agunah Day Message,” the author asks what a young girl caught in an unresolved divorce situation will eventually think and feel about her father and grandmother. I think the answers to that question are clear.

The first rule of good parenting is not to fight when the children are present and certainly not to blame each other in front of the kids. The same is true for separated or divorced parents. If mother and father and assorted grandparents follow that principle and do not drag their children or the public into their personal disagreement, the child will know that there are two sides to every story.

On the other hand, if one or both parents decide to drag their child into their fight, the child will, at a young age, presumably take the view of only one side – the side that decided to attack the spouse; the side that had more regular custody and time to propagandize.

As the child grows up, she will, as the op-ed article indicates, eventually search the Internet. Most likely in the short run she will unfortunately continue to disrespect the parent who has been badmouthed. But as the growing child further searches online she will then begin to see that who is right is not determined by which side has more Internet hits, more blog entries, or yells louder. She will realize that when a divorce is messy or a get not given, it is typically because the two sides cannot come to an agreement, whether over division of property, alimony, child support, child custody or visitation rights.

If the grown child delves further into the issue of Jewish divorce, she’ll find more. She’ll find that many Orthodox Jewish men and women run to civil court in divorce (and many other) cases, when they should be going to beis din. She’ll also find that the beis din system is often broken, with litigants searching for a friendly judge; with rabbis signing decrees without hearing from both sides; with rabbis who are friendly with one of the litigants; with rabbis who are afraid to oppose their colleagues; and with money often doing the talking.

If this grown child explores still further, she’ll find that many Orthodox rabbis hold that, with very rare exceptions, a women does not have the right, halachically, to initiate a divorce action. She’ll learn that many rabbis believe a women cannot just end a marriage because she is “unhappy.” If she enters the word agunah in a search engine and really studies the results, she’ll see that the term is vastly overused, and that a real agunah is a woman whose husband is missing. She’ll find that certain activists use the term the way pro-abortion advocates use the term “free to choose” – because it sounds better. She will also find that Agunah Day was established in 1990 by the International Coalition for Agunah Rights, not by a panel of gedolim. [...]