Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Monday, November 1, 2021
Disgraced hassidic leader Berland, already in jail, held for murder
Detectives from the Jerusalem Police’s Central Unit arrested Rabbi Eliezer Berland on Monday morning at his current place of incarceration in Ramle prison on suspicion of involvement in kidnap and murder cases dating back more than 30 years.
Later,
police also arrested Berland’s wife at her home in an ultra-Orthodox
neighborhood in central Jerusalem, leading to violent clashes between
members of Berland’s Shuvu Banim sect and the police.
Berland
is currently serving time in prison, his second custodial sentence,
after his conviction on fraud, attempted tax evasion and other financial
crimes.
How Strong is Orthodox Judaism -- Really? The Demographics of Jewish Religious Identification
https://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/demographics.htm
It means that if there are only eight million Jews who identify themselves as religious, there is an approximately equal division between self-defined non-Orthodox and self-defined Orthodox. However, if there are as many as 9.5 million religiously identifiable Jews, 5.5 million of these identify with Orthodoxy whatever their level of personal observance, giving the latter a 40 percent margin. Many in both groups are nominal in their commitment. Indeed, when nominal observance is factored out, the strength of Orthodoxy is even greater.
Take the Conservative movement, until recently recognized as the largest of the non-Orthodox movements in the United States, and, as a result, probably in the world. Charles Liebman and I have calculated that there are no more than forty to fifty thousand Conservative Jews in the world who live up to the standards of observance set by the Conservative movement. This means that when the Conservative mass is left out, the movement is only the equivalent of a fair sized Hassidic sect. It may be hard to believe, but it is important to note that at the late 1984 wedding of two scions of the Satmar dynasty, the number of Jews packed into a single Long Island stadium for the nuptials equalled the whole body of authentic Conservative Jews. There are seriously committed Conservative Jews who do no live up to those standards, but who are seriously religious in some way. It is hard to estimate how many, but a generous figure would be 36 percent of the movement's membership. Thus, at most there are 400,000 Conservative Jews in the world.
The situation is even harder to estimate with regard to Reform Jews, where standards of observance are low and less binding, but figures similar to those of the Conservative movement are probably in order. Moreover, recent studies of American Jewry show that both movements are in trouble, as increasing numbers of American Jews tend to identify with neither. According to the studies, first generation American Jews tend to identify with Orthodoxy; second and third generation Jews with Conservatism, and, beginning with the fourth generation, with Reform or nothing. This accounts for the decline in Conservative movement membership noted in the recent population studies and the increase in the Reform membership, but the non-identified category in the fourth generation and beyond is around 40 percent.
Orthodox identification, on the other hand, which had been declining precipitously since the late nineteenth century (before that, high Orthodox birthrates offset defections), has probably bottomed out.
Overall, the percentage of Jews who define themselves as Orthodox has grown only marginally, but there has been a transformation in the nature of this group. Many of the nominally Orthodox have fallen by the wayside, and more of those who define themselves as Orthodox really are committed or want to be,. Moreover, the increase in the number of seriously Orthodox is significant, even without taking into consideration the effect of today's high Orthodox birthrate, contrasted with the very low non-Orthodox birthrate.
Today there are approximately 600,000 Orthodox Jews in the
United States, plus another 850,000 in Israel, and perhaps
another 750,000 committed Orthodox in the rest of the world. This
means that there are approximately 2.2 million Orthodox Jews who
are indeed Orthodox - that is to say, wholly committed to
Orthodoxy. That does not include several million semi-observant
Jews who identity with Orthodoxy and will not choose to identify
with a non-Orthodox movement, even if they do not intend to
become more Orthodox in observance in their own lives.
New poll: Young U.S. Jews becoming more Orthodox as American Judaism splits between devout and secular
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/05/11/orthodox-jews-poll-secular-trump-republican/
Pew Research Center’s “Jewish Americans in 2020,” the biggest national study of Jews since 2013, said 17 percent of Jews under 30 are Orthodox, compared with 3 percent of Jews 65 and over and 7 percent of Jews aged 50 to 64. They are the product of high birthrates and, experts say, a more engaging and somewhat less isolated culture.
In Pew’s 2013 study, 11 percent of Jews under the age of 30 were Orthodox. Nine percent of all Jews in the new study identify as Orthodox, essentially unchanged from 10 percent in 2013.
While the Orthodox appear to be proportionally growing, Pew found even more Jews becoming more secular and unaffiliated. “Jews of no religion” — Pew’s term for people who identify as Jews and do things they see as Jewish but do not identify with the religious parts — in 2020 made up 27 percent of all U.S. Jews, up from 22 percent in 2013. These Jews are not leaving Judaism, not letting go of their identity, are increasingly welcoming and retaining interfaith Jews, and are strengthening the idea of Judaism as a civilization as much as a religion.
What is changing, religiously, is the moderately religious Jewish population, the liberal Jewish center, “is starting to vanish,” said Michelle Shain, assistant director of the Center for Communal Research at the Orthodox Union, a major group representing Orthodox Jews. Shain advised Pew. “To me the question becomes, what does that growing gap [between the very religious and the secular] mean? Who speaks for the interests of American Jews?”
Extradition of senior Lev Tahor leaders to US from Guatemala approved
A court in Guatemala has approved the extradition to the US of two
senior leaders of the Lev Tahor ultra-Orthodox cult – brothers Yaakov
Weingarten and Shmuel “Shmiel” Weingarten – where they face child
exploitation offenses.
The
Third Criminal Sentencing Court in Guatemala authorized the extradition
of the two men on Thursday and Friday, after they were charged in April
this year by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York for
the kidnap of a 14-year old girl and for smuggling her across the
US-Mexico border to reunite her with her adult husband.
According to media in Guatemala where the Lev Tahor
cult is currently located, the court has verified that there are
currently no legal proceedings against the Weingarten brothers and that
the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry is therefore authorized to begin
extradition proceedings.
Jewish Moderate Urges Believers to Take Stand
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/24/us/jewish-moderate-urges-believers-to-take-stand.html
Despite that outlook, Dr. Lamm said in response to a question that ''in 34 years of public life I've never experienced such open hostility toward the Orthodox'' from the non-Orthodox groups.
Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, a Conservative leader who is the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, acknowledged the animosity, but he said it came from efforts, particularly among ultra-Orthodox groups, to try to delegitimize non-Orthodox rabbis.
''The centrist Orthodox have not been our problem,'' Rabbi Kelman said.
The Future is Haredi
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-future-is-haredi/
Regardless of what initially attracts people, Haredi branches of
Orthodoxy are growing faster than Liberal, Modern, and Centrist
Orthodoxy combined, and many Orthodox synagogues and institutions are
shifting rightward. If trends continue, and there is no reason to
suggest they won’t, Haredi Judaism will make up the largest swath of the
Jewish American population.
Deadline for retraction by GOP Gov. candidate Ciattarelli on his support of Assisted Suicide
I texted this to R Avi Richler, Jewish Liaison for the GOP Gov. candidate, within the past half hour or so:
"R.Richler,
On intensive consultation& deliberation,I was informed in no uncertain terms that I was dead wrong in my initial assessment that a statement from Mr. Ciattarelli that would not be properly publicized to Jewish media tommorow would suffice.
In reality,it would NOT alleviate the premier pikuach nefesh ("danger to life") concerns I articulated to you, regarding leftist republicans in NY,&MD, etc.deriving a takeaway from Orthodox support of a republican who voted 2x for A/S, &who articulated* in its defense.
Thus,we need a full, unequivocal disavowal& commitment posted in video online by noon tommorow, Mon., & publicized to Jewish media, in order to avoid the need for me to correct the record.
Rabbi Noson Leiter,
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children"
"PS.
Rabbi Richler,
Our objective is not to assist candidates.
It's to save lives.
Rabbi Richler,
Our objective is not to assist candidates.
It's to save lives.
As I told you in our long talk earlier, even a properly publicized statement, the one we've been waiting for- since Friday- falls far short of the ideal, in terms of alleviating aforementioned concern of a lethal takeaway by leftist republican governors & legislators, just itching to pass assisted suicide in NY, MD, CT, &beyond.
IF it's not CLEAR that the Orthodox street knows & has reason to trust any commitment Jack would hypothetically make to repeal Aid In Dying, we remain w/that aforementioned danger to NY et.al.
Rabbi Leiter"
~~~~~
* I refer to https://observer.com/2014/11/
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director
Help Rescue Our Children
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director
Help Rescue Our Children
Why mandatory vaccination is nothing new
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211029-why-mandatory-vaccination-is-nothing-new
"The United States has had vaccination mandates in place since the late 1970s," says Lee Hampton, a paediatrician and medical epidemiologist with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. And Italy requires children to be vaccinated against a range of pathogens, such as hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis, poliovirus, tetanus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella.
Rabbi Berland arrested on suspicion of involvement in murder case 30 years ago
The Jerusalem Police arrested Rabbi Eliezer Berland on Monday morning at his current place of incarceration in Ramle prison on suspicion of involvement in kidnap and murder cases dating back more than 30 years.
Berland
is currently serving time in prison, his second custodial sentence, due
to his conviction on fraud, attempted tax evasion, and other financial
crimes.
He was
interrogated under warning at the prison on Monday for involvement in
two murders from the 1980s and 1990s in which his Shuvu Banim sect
allegedly was involved in.
Jailed rabbi Berland arrested in connection with murders linked to Hasidic cult
Jailed sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland was arrested Monday in connection with decades-old homicide cases linked to his extremist ultra-Orthodox sect, according to multiple Hebrew-language reports.
Berland entered prison last week after he was convicted of fraud in June, in a plea deal that saw him sentenced to 18 months.
He was arrested and questioned at the Nitzan Prison in Ramle.
Supreme Court rules against workers seeking religious exemption to vaccine mandate
A doctor and eight other health care workers challenged the law’s approach to religion, arguing that state officials could not ignore their faith-based concerns. As a result of the court’s 6-3 decision, these workers will risk losing their jobs if they continue refusing the vaccine.
Vizhnitz bans single young men from weddings
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316076
Single young men from the Vizhnitz hasidic sect may no longer participate in community weddings, their rebbe (hasidic leader) said, according to Kikar Hashabbat.
According to Kikar Hashabbat, the instruction follows a speech by the Vizhnitzer Rebbe on Shabbat (Saturday), in which he said that, "Everyone is familiar with the history of Vizhnitz over the past seventy years, when during the time that the Vizhnitz neighborhood was built in Bnei Brak, a situation was created in which everyone knew everyone else, and therefore everyone participated in the weddings as one family."
He also said that when his father, the "Yeshuot Moshe," Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, became rebbe, he instructed that single young men not participate in weddings, since there are enough people who come to make the couple happy.
Pandemic restrictions were a blow to religious liberty - more nonsense!
https://nypost.com/2021/10/30/pandemic-shutdowns-were-a-blow-to-religious-liberty/
I find that pandemic restrictions significantly reduced religious
peoples’ well-being. These effects persisted even after controlling for a
wide array of demographic features, such as age and education, and
other characteristics, such as income and industry. For example, the
restrictions led to a 4.1 percentage point rise in self-isolation among
the religious, relative to their counterparts. And they reduced life
satisfaction by 0.09 standard deviations, an effect nearly twice as
large as the male-female difference in the same measure.
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