Shlomo Pappenheim silenced after being beaten

kikarhashabat

לפני שבועיים ימים, בליל שבת, נזרק שמואל חיים פפנהיים מבית המדרש של חסידות 'תולדות אהרון' בבית שמש, הבוקר, הוא מפרסם מכתב התנצלות ושב לזרועות החסידות.

הזעם בחסידות 'תולדות אהרון' כלפי פפנהיים הגיע לשיא בשל ראיון שהעניק לאחד מכלי התקשורת הכלליים, בו ייחסו לו התבטאויות שונות, שלטענתו כלל לא נאמרו על-ידו.

בעקבות התקרית האלימה, פעלו רבות בני משפחת פפנהיים בקרב קהילת 'תולדות אהרון', בכדי לאפשר את שובו של שמואל חיים לחיק הקהילה.

Before Games, Religious Questions

NYTimes

 The private-schools association, known by the acronym Tapps, was established in the 1970s to coordinate sports among Christian schools. The organization drew national attention this week when it refused to reschedule a state semifinal boys basketball game for an Orthodox Jewish day school, which could not play at the scheduled time because its players observe the Sabbath. [...]

With 500 students, increasing academic prestige and an established soccer team, Iman Academy SW, an Islamic school in Houston, was seeking membership in 2010 to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, a group that organizes competition among more than 200 schools in the state.[....]

Daas Torah 2nd edition - Hebrew Sources available

I just published a separate volume for the Hebrew sources found in the 2nd edition of Daas Torah

It is available now from my Amazon estore or directly from Amazon. It consists of 460 pages of the Hebrew texts which were published in translation in the recently published 2nd edition of Daas Torah. Each of the texts in volume I has a reference number which identifies where to find the Hebrew text in volume II. Font size is a more readable size 10 rather than 8 used in the first edition of Daas Torah.

Click link for description of Daas Torah 2nd edition

Israeli court issues unprecedented enslavement conviction

YNet

The Jerusalem District Court issued an unprecedented ruling this week, convicting a couple for the Shufat neighborhood of the enslavement of their Filipina maid.

Wednesday's ruling was the first time a court in Israel defined such wrongful imprisonment as enslavement.

The court found that Ibrahim and Basma Julani held Mary Ann Paoig in their home for over 18 months and denied her the right to leave the premises or contact anyone by phone. 

Jews take issue with posthumous baptisms by Mormons

NYTimes

Although the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints promised in 1995 to stop including Holocaust victims in its ritual, the church admitted last week that Anne Frank had been “baptized” in a Mormon church in the Dominican Republic. On Wednesday, The Boston Globe reported that Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists in Pakistan in early 2002, was baptized last June in Twin Falls, Idaho; Mr. Pearl was Jewish. 

Also on Wednesday, the church released a letter reiterating its policy that “without exception, church members must not submit for proxy temple ordinances any names from unauthorized groups, such as celebrities and Jewish Holocaust victims.”

Haredi divorcées form unique support group

ynet

A unique support group intended to assist recently divorced Haredi women has begun operating in Jerusalem. The support group is designed to help women deal with the negative stigma that follows a divorce in the Haredi community.

"The community is very helpful when it comes to death, but it's important to understand that separation is a particular form of death," said Gila, a participant in "Em Habanim" (the Center for families without a father).[...]

Reality of increasing divorce rate for Chareidim

YNET

Seven years ago I stood in front of a local bakery's counter in Bnei Brak, and requested the following be written on a cake: "Congratulations Miri, on your divorce". The woman behind the counter was shocked.

Until recently, divorce  in the ultra-orthodox sector was deemed provocation, a spit in the face of a conservative society. A divorcee was regarded as a local myth, a neighborhood attraction in a community of couples. Today, separated couples are becoming more common, even trivial, and no longer situated at the heart of every scandal or gossip.

As the rates of divorce go up, the stigma of the tragic nature of divorce is crumbling. A growing number of divorce stories help strengthen an alternative narrative. Instead of "they married and lived happily ever after", ultra-orthodox society now accepts the possibility of: "They married, lived, divorced and than lived happily ever after".