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.[...]

The missing mothers

Kikar Shabbat

במשפחה שלנו, במקום אמא ואבא, יש אבא ואבא.

לא תמיד זה היה כך. עד לאחרונה גם אצלינו היו אבא ואמא, כמו לכל המשפחות. אבל אז הכל השתנה.

Prof. Neusner returns to Reform Judaism

Forward

Once upon a time, there was a young man, a third-generation American who was raised in a classical Reform temple, who in the Reform manner celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah and who was confirmed in the Reform rite. He was inspired by his temple's rabbi to himself become a Reform rabbi. He held national office in the National Federation of Temple Youth, and he was admitted to the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College.

Then, on the very day this young man was supposed to begin studies at Hebrew Union College, he instead entered the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the intellectual citadel of Conservative Judaism. He agreed to give up the lobster dinners, the veal parmigiana and the BLT sandwiches that he had loved, and even to quit smoking on the Sabbath, as admission to JTS demanded.

The decision was not the result of a dramatic change of convictions. He simply thought he would get a better Jewish education at JTS than at HUC. To that goal everything else was secondary. Six years later, he was ordained by JTS as a Conservative rabbi.[...]