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Friday, June 11, 2021
She’s Running for New York City Council. But Newspapers Won’t Publish Her Photo.
In all but one way, Amber Adler is running a pretty normal campaign for New York city council. She knocks on doors and attends rallies; she campaigns outside of grocery stores and subway stations; she puts posters up across her district and places ads in local newspapers.
But look for a picture of her face in one of those local papers, and you’re not likely to find one. Why not? Because most of the magazines and newspapers in her neighborhood refuse to publish her photo.
Adler, 37, is the first Orthodox Jewish woman to run for city council in her Brooklyn district, which includes ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods scattered throughout Borough Park and Midwood. And as she heads toward her June 22 primary, she’s a victim of a fairly recent trend among Jewish media outlets in Orthodox neighborhoods in the United States: a refusal to publish photographs of women and girls for religious reasons. Which means if Adler wants campaign ads printed in the Jewish news, she can’t be in most of them.
For Adler, who is only the second ever Orthodox woman to run for publicly elected office in Brooklyn, the visual gag-order is yet another hurdle in an uphill campaign. She is butting up against expectations that Orthodox women don’t assume positions of communal authority and should instead stick to more internal-facing roles.
She’s trying to change that perception — and also highlight some of the other issues that Orthodox women face, including a system of religious divorce that frequently leaves them trapped in broken marriages. (Such a woman is referred to by the Hebrew term “agunah,” which literally means “chained.”) Adler, who herself spent two years as an agunah and speaks candidly about the experience, supports a current bill in front of the New York state legislature that would make coercive control a Class E felony.
But how far can she get in making things better for women when she can’t even get her photo in the paper?
“If you’re designing a building and you’ve never seen someone with a disability, you won’t understand that you need a ramp. Obviously those people are going to be left out. That’s what’s happening [to women] in Orthodox Judaism right now,” said Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, a Jerusalem-based writer and activist who opposes banning images of women from Jewish media. “Community leaders are making decisions without even considering how they're going to impact women.”
The erasure of female images from Orthodox media began over two decades ago as a fringe movement in insular Hasidic neighborhoods in Israel (Hasidism is a subgroup of ultra-Orthodox Judaism known for its particularly stringent positions and mystical leanings). The practice is not explicitly dictated anywhere in Orthodox law. It grew out of the Talmudic injunction that men must “guard [their] eyes” against immodest and potentially arousing images — a directive designed to prevent any sort of seminal emission not intended for procreation, including masturbation, which is a matter of grave concern in Orthodox law. Countless rules — including those dictating the dress and behavior of women — have been justified in the name of safeguarding men against this supposed infraction
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Charedim fear shtreimel industry will be banned in Israel
The Charedi community in Israel fears that Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel intends to destroy the streimel industry, Behadrei Haredim reported.
A shtreimel is a fur hat which is often worn by hasidic and haredi Jews from eastern Europe. They are usually made from the tails of Canadian or Russian sable, beech marten, and baum marten, and are among the most expensive parts of traditional hasidic dress.
The fear is that the Supreme Court will strike down the religious exemption to the the new bans on the fur industry and the grounds that such exemptions are unequal.
Minister Gamliel had sat on the new regulations for a year due to opposition from the haredi political parties. Today, she finally passed the regulations, which will take effect in December.
At the time the regulations were proposed, a legal opinion was presented to the Knesset members, written by Adv. Amir Kadri, in which he raised concerns that "an argument could be made that the term "religion and tradition" should be interpreted narrowly, and that shtreimels, which are not a halacha (although a tradition) are not a purpose for which it is permissible to deviate from the general provisions of the proposed law, and the prohibition includes them as well," the trade of which is subject to a criminal prohibition.
The passage of the regulations comes as the haredi parties are about to move into the opposition, making it more difficult for them to influence and pass legislation.
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Thursday, June 10, 2021
Syrian commander killed in Israeli airstrike
Seven Syrian army fighters, including a senior commander involved in weapons development, were killed in Israeli airstrikes, Wednesday, rebel aligned Syrian media outlets reported Wednesday night.
According to the reports, the senior military official killed in the airstrikes was Ayham Ismail, who commanded a unit tasked with manufacturing electronic components for the Syrian army's missile system.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, four foreign nationals, apparently from Iran, were also killed in the attack.
A senior Syrian military official who defected during the country's civil war told the London-based pan-Arab Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that Ismail was a chemist and engineer by profession. The official confirmed Ismail had been taken out in an attack on a military facility known as "Sector 1000."
While media outlets aligned with the Damascus regime denied the reports, regime supporters shared photos of the funerals for those killed in the strikes to social media.
On Wednesday, the Syrian state-owned SANA news outlet reported Israeli jets struck targets adjacent to Damascus. It noted Syria's aerial defense system was activated in the attack but did not mention any casualties inside Syria in its reporting.
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The real reason Charedi leaders turned against Bennett
by Yifat Erlich
If the verbal lashing Haredi politicians gave Yamina leader Naftali Bennett Tuesday teaches us anything, is that they are afraid. Very, very afraid.
It is not, however, the inception of a Center-Left government that is troubling them, nor are they bemoaning the apparent end of the Netanyahu era. They are worried about one thing: being cut off from the state's coffers.
The last 45 years have seen the ultra-Orthodox parties man the benches of the opposition only twice: the first from 1074-1977 and the second from 2012-2015. Those anomalies aside, the Haredim have made sure to maintain a tight grip on their place in the coalition, and an even tighter grip on their seats in the powerful Knesset Finance Committee, which they have transitionally chaired.
However, they have never used their political clout to help the Israeli public as a whole. All they every cared about was their own sector. That narrow vision has only increased the maladies plaguing Haredi society, which failed to use the massive state budgets diverted to it to become a productive sector, becoming, for the most part, dependent on the state.
I'm an ardent supporter of the world of Torah and I'm all for making it as great as possible. But few are those who can dedicate their lives to these studies, and rather than cultivating these chosen few, the ultra-Orthodox sector has fostered generations of mediocre youth, who are both unable to delve into their studies nor are they able to make an honest living.
Moreover, the Haredi leadership's narrow views have prevented any attempt to resolve the conversions crisis. Other issues – anything that didn't serve solely their constituents – have fallen by the wayside as well.
This narrow view is the biggest sacrilege of all.
On Tuesday, Shas and United Torah Judaism leaders launched a ferocious attack on Bennett, denouncing him as "evil" and even going as far as demanding he removes his kippah.
Why are they so furious with the future prime minister? Because Bennett represents a different type of religiosity – one that has deliberately disengaged from the sector; one that is infused with reverence for God and love for the Torah but also has a broad vision and concern for Israeli society as a whole, and one that embodies productivity and responsibility.
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Liberman said to tell party members Charedim won’t be joining government
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman reportedly told members of his right-wing, secular party Tuesday that the Knesset’s two ultra-Orthodox parties will not at any point be part of the prospective unity government, despite assertions by senior coalition leaders that the Haredi slates are still welcome to join.
“It is not possible for the ultra-Orthodox to join the government. Anyone who claims that the ultra-Orthodox can be added to this government is deluding himself and others,” Liberman said at a faction meeting, according to a Wednesday Channel 12 report.
The comments appeared to have been directed at Yamina chairman and prime minister-designate Naftali Bennett, as well as Yesh Atid chairman and foreign minister-designate Yair Lapid, who have both insisted that they have not shut the door to a coalition with the Haredi parties, even though the prospective government currently has a majority of secular factions and no hardline religious ones.
Bennett, in particular, is believed to be interested in folding Shas and United Torah Judaism into his coalition in order to expand the bloc of right-wing parties.
However, Shas and UTJ leaders all but put to bed such a possibility at a Tuesday press conference where they launched a stunning assault on Bennett.
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Shira Haas gives life to a devastating illness in Israeli film ‘Asia’
In the starkly photographed, minimalist film, Haas plays Vika, a tough yet sensitive kid struggling from a degenerative neurological disease. She lives with her single mother, Asia (Alena Yiv), a free spirit, and the two women are forced to come to terms with Vika’s accelerating condition.
For Haas, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer at age 2 and saw her growth stunted as a result of her chemotherapy treatments, the role presented a unique challenge.
“First, I had to deal with Vika’s physical condition, which changes from scene to scene, and it had to be very specific – from the way Vika holds a cup to the way she walks,” Haas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency over the phone from her home in Tel Aviv. “Though it is never spelled out in the movie, she has ALS [Lou Gehrig’s disease]. We consulted with a doctor throughout.”
Writer-director Ruthy Pribar based the story on the prolonged death of her own sister 14 years ago, having recalled her mother’s relentless, selfless devotion over that period. Pribar, who wrote the script during her own pregnancy, said she often wondered if she could measure up to her own mother when she became one.
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Amid housing shortage, Apartments in Israel ‘flying off shelves’
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| Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel |
Israel’s red-hot real estate market has been booming over the last several months, with demand for housing far outpacing supply. Increased immigration to Israel has exacerbated the problem, with new citizens and people thinking about becoming citizens looking for a dwelling in the Jewish state. As the competition to purchase property in Israel becomes stiffer, new trends are emerging, such as the willingness to buy a home sight unseen.
Rafi Shulman, co-founder of Olim Advisors, an organization that helps people make aliyah and find a home in Israel, says the prices of properties are skyrocketing because of the crowded real estate market.
“The prices of houses continue to increase,” he told The Media Line. “It’s just mind-boggling.”
“There is just more demand, specifically in certain areas, like Ramat Beit Shemesh for example, or Modi’in or Jerusalem, that are popular places for new citizens,” Shulman added. “We work with developers and we get the sense that they [apartments] are literally flying off the shelves.”
Ariyel Maresky, the owner of RE/MAX Vision in Jerusalem, the largest real estate company in Israel’s capital city with more than 30 agents, also says the real estate market is booming.
“I’ve been in the field for almost 20 years and I don’t remember such a high demand before,” he told The Media Line.
However, Maresky disagrees that housing prices are going up more than usual.
“Both in sales and rentals, we don’t really see a larger surge in prices,” he said. “Jerusalem has always increased 5% to 7% annually. I don’t think this year is any different.”
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16-year agunah freed from marriage after rabbinical court rulings
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| Yaakov Hoffman Father of the Get-Refuser |
A woman who suffered a debilitating stroke that left her disabled, and whose husband deserted her as a result and refused to give a bill of divorcefor 16 years, was finally freed from her long-defunct marriage on Tuesday night.
The case involves landmark halachic and legal decisions, first by the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court, then by the Supreme Rabbinical Court, and finally by the High Court of Justice, which identified the multimillionaire father of the husband as the key obstacle to a divorce, fined him and denied him the right to leave Israel until the divorce was issued.
Having been stuck in Israel for five years since 2016, facing mounting fines, and with the High Court of Justice upholding this situation last year, it appears the father finally relented and permitted his son to issue a bill of divorce on Tuesday night through a rabbinical court in New York.
In 2005, an American ultra-Orthodox couple were on a trip to Israel. During the visit, the wife, identified only as D., suffered a medical brain trauma, leaving her permanently disabled, following which her husband eventually abandoned her and their children in Israel, returned to the US and refused to grant her a divorce ever since.
The wife’s legal team has said that the husband’s recalcitrance was due to his having been insulted and angered by his wife’s request for a divorce after he behaved inappropriately while visiting her before the marriage broke down. He then abandoned her.
The Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court ruled in 2013 that the man was obligated to grant a divorce, but he ignored the decision.
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SHOCKING! Hunter Biden addressed his white lawyer as "Nig__" and told Obama ‘you my nig__ Barack’ in texts unearthed days
- Text messages obtained by DailyMail.com reveal Hunter Biden used the n-word multiple times in banter with his lawyer
- The president’s son, 51, flippantly addressed corporate attorney George Mesires, who is white, by the racial slur, with phrases including ‘true dat n***a’
- In a December 2018 conversation, Hunter asked Mesires: ‘How much money do I owe you. Becaause (sic) n***a you better not be charging me Hennessy rates.’
- In another chat a month later, Hunter cracked jokes about his penis and then told Mesires ‘I only love you because you’re black’
- ‘It’s so annoying when you interject with frivolity,’ the Chicago lawyer replied
- The damning texts have emerged just days after his father, President Joe Biden gave a speech decrying racism on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre
- Biden has sought to portray racial justice as a top priority for his administration
- Hunter also saved a meme with a photo of his father hugging Barack Obama with a caption describing a joke conversation
- ‘Obama: Gonna miss you, man Joe: Can I say it? Just this once? Obama: *sigh* go ahead Joe: You my n***a, Barack’
Hunter Biden used the n-word multiple times in conversation with his white, $845-per-hour lawyer, his texts messages reveal.
The shocking texts may prove embarrassing for his father President Joe Biden, who just last week gave a speech decrying racism on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre, and has sought to portray racial justice as a top priority for his administration.
The president’s son joked in a January 2019 text to corporate attorney George Mesires about a ‘big penis’, and said to the lawyer: ‘I only love you because you’re black’ and ‘true dat n***a’.
In another text a month earlier he wrote to the Chicago lawyer saying: ‘how much money do I owe you. Becaause (sic) n***a you better not be charging me Hennessy rates.’
Mesires replied: ‘That made me snarf my coffee.’
Hunter added: ‘That’s what im saying ni…’, cutting off the racial slur mid-word, then texted a picture to Mesires.
LITTLE SAMPLE, HERE …
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