Israeli probe into deadly holy site stampede opens hearings
FILE - In this April 30, 2021 file photo, Israeli security officials and rescuers stand around the bodies of victims who died during Lag Baomer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel. An Israeli government commission investigating the deadly accident held its first day of hearings Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021, almost four months after the stampede at Mount Meron left 45 people dead. The April 29 incident was the deadliest civilian disaster in the country's history. (Ishay Jerusalemite/Behadrei Haredim via AP, File)
FILE - In this April 30, 2021 file photo, Israeli security officials and rescuers carry a body of a victim who died during a Lag Baomer celebrations, at Mt. Meron in northern Israel. An Israeli government commission investigating the deadly accident held its first day of hearings Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021, almost four months after the stampede at Mount Meron left 45 people dead. The April 29 incident was the deadliest civilian disaster in the country's history.
Sun, August 22, 2021
JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli government commission investigating a deadly accident at a Jewish pilgrimage site in April held its first day of hearings Sunday, almost four months after the stampede at Mount Meron left 45 people dead.
The April 29 incident at the Jewish festival in northern Israel was the deadliest civilian disaster in the country's history. Around 100,000 worshippers, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, attended festivities despite coronavirus regulations limiting outdoor assemblies to 500 people, and in spite of longstanding warnings about the safety of the site.
Hundreds of people bottlenecked in a narrow passageway descending the mountain, and a slippery slope caused people to stumble and fall. The resulting human avalanche killed 45 people and injured at least 150.
In June, the Israeli government approved the formation of an independent state commission of inquiry to investigate safety shortcomings at the Lag Baomer celebrations at Mount Meron.
A panel headed by former Supreme Court justice Miriam Naor began proceedings with testimony from Northern District police chief Shimon Lavi, the officer who was in charge of managing the event.
Lavi said the Mount Meron festivities are the Israel Police's most significant annual event, requiring extensive resources, planning and preparation. He said that out of safety concerns “there has been no limitation on attendance at Meron, that’s how it has been done for the last 30 years." Any attempt to limit entry and put up barricades could result in “bottlenecks and much greater disasters,” he said.
The site in northern Israel is believed to be the burial place of celebrated second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. The tomb complex and adjoining structures are managed by the Religious Services Ministry’s department for holy places. Experts had long warned that the Mount Meron complex was inadequately equipped to handle the enormous crowds that flock there during the springtime holiday, and that existing infrastructure was a safety risk.
But April's gathering went forward this year nonetheless as powerful ultra-Orthodox politicians reportedly pressured then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials to lift attendance restrictions.
Lavi said there had been “neglect for many years” and “a lack of understanding that the event grew over time and that the infrastructure was not adequate, rather a kind of band-aid.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 35098.html
JUDAISM
Reuters
Israeli rabbis ask pope to clarify remarks on Jewish law
Philip Pullella
Wed, August 25, 2021, 7:34 AM
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Israel's top Jewish religious authorities have told the Vatican they are concerned about comments that Pope Francis made about their books of sacred law and have asked for a clarification.
In a letter seen by Reuters, Rabbi Rasson Arousi, chair of the Commission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel for Dialogue with the Holy See, said the comments appeared to suggest Jewish law was obsolete.
Vatican authorities said they were studying the letter and were considering a response.
Rabbi Arousi wrote a day after the pope spoke about the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, during a general audience on Aug. 11.
The Torah contains hundreds of commandments, or mitzvot, for Jews to follow in their everyday lives. The measure of adherence to the wide array of guidelines differs between Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews.
At the audience, the pope, who was reflecting on what St. Paul said about the Torah in the New Testament, said: "The law (Torah) however does not give life.
"It does not offer the fulfilment of the promise because it is not capable of being able to fulfil it ... Those who seek life need to look to the promise and to its fulfilment in Christ."
Rabbi Arousi sent the letter on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate - the supreme rabbinic authority for Judaism in Israel - to Cardinal Kurt Koch, whose Vatican department includes a commission for religious relations with Jews.
"In his homily, the pope presents the Christian faith as not just superseding the Torah; but asserts that the latter no longer gives life, implying that Jewish religious practice in the present era is rendered obsolete," Arousi said in the letter.
"This is in effect part and parcel of the 'teaching of contempt' towards Jews and Judaism that we had thought had been fully repudiated by the Church," he said.
IMPROVED RELATIONS
Relations between Catholics and Jews were revolutionised in 1965, when the Second Vatican Council repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus and began decades of inter-religious dialogue. Francis and his two predecessors visited synagogues.
Two leading Catholic scholars of religious relations with Jews agreed that the pope's remarks could be seen as a troublesome setback and needed clarification.
"To say that this fundamental tenet of Judaism does not give life is to denigrate the basic religious outlook of Jews and Judaism. It could have been written before the Council," said Father John Pawlikowski, former director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
"I think it's a problem for Jewish ears, especially because the pope's remarks were addressed to a Catholic audience," said Professor Philip Cunningham, director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
"It could be understood as devaluing Jewish observance of the Torah today," Cunningham said.
Arousi and Pawlikowski said it was possible that a least part of the pope's teaching homily, known as a catechesis, was written by aides and that the phrase was not properly vetted.
Koch's office said on Wednesday he had received the letter, was "considering it seriously and reflecting on a response".
Francis has had a very good relationship with Jews. While still archbishop in native Buenos Aires, he co-wrote a book with one of the city's rabbis, Abraham Skorka, and has maintained a lasting friendship with him.
In his letter to Cardinal Koch, Arousi asked him to "convey our distress to Pope Francis" and asked for a clarification from the pope to "ensure that any derogatory conclusions drawn from this homily are clearly repudiated".
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... -123442587.
Israeli rabbis ask pope to clarify remarks on Jewish law
Philip Pullella
Wed, August 25, 2021, 7:34 AM
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Israel's top Jewish religious authorities have told the Vatican they are concerned about comments that Pope Francis made about their books of sacred law and have asked for a clarification.
In a letter seen by Reuters, Rabbi Rasson Arousi, chair of the Commission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel for Dialogue with the Holy See, said the comments appeared to suggest Jewish law was obsolete.
Vatican authorities said they were studying the letter and were considering a response.
Rabbi Arousi wrote a day after the pope spoke about the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, during a general audience on Aug. 11.
The Torah contains hundreds of commandments, or mitzvot, for Jews to follow in their everyday lives. The measure of adherence to the wide array of guidelines differs between Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews.
At the audience, the pope, who was reflecting on what St. Paul said about the Torah in the New Testament, said: "The law (Torah) however does not give life.
"It does not offer the fulfilment of the promise because it is not capable of being able to fulfil it ... Those who seek life need to look to the promise and to its fulfilment in Christ."
Rabbi Arousi sent the letter on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate - the supreme rabbinic authority for Judaism in Israel - to Cardinal Kurt Koch, whose Vatican department includes a commission for religious relations with Jews.
"In his homily, the pope presents the Christian faith as not just superseding the Torah; but asserts that the latter no longer gives life, implying that Jewish religious practice in the present era is rendered obsolete," Arousi said in the letter.
"This is in effect part and parcel of the 'teaching of contempt' towards Jews and Judaism that we had thought had been fully repudiated by the Church," he said.
IMPROVED RELATIONS
Relations between Catholics and Jews were revolutionised in 1965, when the Second Vatican Council repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus and began decades of inter-religious dialogue. Francis and his two predecessors visited synagogues.
Two leading Catholic scholars of religious relations with Jews agreed that the pope's remarks could be seen as a troublesome setback and needed clarification.
"To say that this fundamental tenet of Judaism does not give life is to denigrate the basic religious outlook of Jews and Judaism. It could have been written before the Council," said Father John Pawlikowski, former director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
"I think it's a problem for Jewish ears, especially because the pope's remarks were addressed to a Catholic audience," said Professor Philip Cunningham, director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
"It could be understood as devaluing Jewish observance of the Torah today," Cunningham said.
Arousi and Pawlikowski said it was possible that a least part of the pope's teaching homily, known as a catechesis, was written by aides and that the phrase was not properly vetted.
Koch's office said on Wednesday he had received the letter, was "considering it seriously and reflecting on a response".
Francis has had a very good relationship with Jews. While still archbishop in native Buenos Aires, he co-wrote a book with one of the city's rabbis, Abraham Skorka, and has maintained a lasting friendship with him.
In his letter to Cardinal Koch, Arousi asked him to "convey our distress to Pope Francis" and asked for a clarification from the pope to "ensure that any derogatory conclusions drawn from this homily are clearly repudiated".
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... -123442587.
Re: JUDAISM
Israel’s Newest Army Recruits: the Ultra-Orthodox
Photographs by Sergey PonomarevText by Jack Nicas and Adam Sella
The journalists spent six months following the journeys of three ultra-Orthodox men who had been drafted.
They weren’t supposed to fight.
At Israel’s founding in 1948, the new nation’s leaders agreed that ultra-Orthodox men — known as the Haredim, or God-fearing, in Hebrew — would be spared from mandatory military service. In exchange, Haredi leaders lent their support for the largely secular state.
The arrangement held for Israel’s first 75 years, until the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
The resulting war in Gaza pulled hundreds of thousands of Israelis into battle — but hardly any ultra-Orthodox. The dynamic exacerbated tensions that had been simmering for years.
The Haredim, who average more than six children per family, now make up 14 percent of the nation, up from 5 percent in 1948. In 40 years, they are on track to account for half of all Israeli children.
As the numbers of Haredim have grown, many Israelis have become frustrated that their own sons and daughters are sent to fight while the Haredim receive government subsidies to study the Torah.
Last summer, the tensions broke open. Under pressure, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that ultra-Orthodox men were no longer exempt from service. The military has since sent draft orders to 10,000 Haredi men. Just 338 have shown up for duty.
Israel is now confronting one of its messiest and most fundamental dilemmas: Its fastest growing sect won’t serve in the military.
After the Supreme Court decision, The New York Times began following three Haredi teenagers who represent the divergent paths for the Haredim and Israel.
Chaim Krausz, 19, studies the Torah for 14 hours a day, just like his father before him. He has protested the Supreme Court decision and believes armed service is not only a sin, but also a threat to ultra-Orthodox traditions.
Itamar Greenberg, 18, a former ultra-Orthodox seminary student, has also protested against the Israeli state, but his reasons are not religious. “They’ve been committing a massacre in Gaza,” he said.
Yechiel Wais, 19, also once studied in a seminary, but had dreams of a life outside his strict ultra-Orthodox community and left for the work force. Then his draft orders arrived.
“It’s not an entry ticket to Israeli society,” Mr. Wais said of a position in the Israeli military. “But it’s the minimum requirement.”
The soldier
ImageA young man wearing tefillin stands in prayer in front of a window in a skyscraper, next to an Israeli flag.
Yechiel Wais, 19, once studied in a seminary, but dreamed of a life outside his strict ultra-Orthodox community. He is now in the military.
Growing up, Mr. Wais wore a black-and-white suit. Like most ultra-Orthodox males, it was practically his only outfit.
But one year for Purim, a Jewish holiday when many children wear costumes, he dressed up as an Israeli soldier. He lived near an Israeli Air Force base and loved watching the F-16 fighter jets from behind a fence.
The idea of him, a Haredi boy, growing up to be a soldier felt impossible. “I didn’t even fantasize about it,” he said.
Ultra-Orthodox men are supposed to devote themselves to a life of study and prayer. For many, that includes isolation from the outside, secular world: no internet, no television and no radio.
Image
Mr. Wais, second from left running forward, at pre-military fitness training for Haredi youth at a park in Tel Aviv.
Image
Mr. Wais moved to Jerusalem, since he could not wear a uniform in his conservative Tel Aviv neighborhood.
At Mr. Wais’s home, even the CD player was “kosher” — its radio antenna removed. One day, when Mr. Wais was listening to music, he suddenly heard a voice through static. His headphones had unwittingly picked up a radio signal. After that, he spent hours surreptitiously listening to the radio, discovering a very different world.
It was the beginning of his exit from a strict ultra-Orthodox life. When he turned 17 in 2022, he told his parents he wanted to leave the yeshiva to work. They were stunned, but acquiesced. They took him to a mall to shop for clothes for his new life.
He found a job outside Tel Aviv. Then, when he heard about the Supreme Court decision, he found a new path, fighting for his country.
The student
Image
Five ultra-Orthodox young men in formal garb at a wedding ceremony.
Chaim Krausz, second from left, who studies the Torah for 14 hours a day, at an ultra-Orthodox wedding in Beit Shemesh, Israel, in September.
Mr. Krausz has no interest in secular Israeli society.
He spends most of his time under the tutelage of rabbis who warn against a long list of sins, including any contact with women outside his family before marriage. He hardly leaves his densely packed ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, where signs — including above his family home — warn passers-by to dress modestly so as not to offend residents.
It is how he wants to live.
Thousands of Haredi men in Israel receive government subsidies to study the Torah, while their wives often work. In Israel, 53 percent of Haredi men are employed, versus 80 percent of Haredi women. For Israelis who are not ultra-Orthodox, employment rates exceed 80 percent.
The Haredi population is also soaring — from 40,000 in 1948 to 1.3 million today.
Mr. Krausz is one of 18 children. In his four-room house, people sleep around the dining room table. He wants the same big family. “The more the better,” he said. His parents are searching for a wife for him.
Image
Mr. Krausz preparing for Shabbat dinner with his family in Jerusalem.
Image
The Haredim now account for 14 percent of the nation, up from 5 percent in 1948.
The government had long funded at least a fifth of yeshivas’ budgets; donors cover the rest. Then earlier this year, an Israeli court halted public funding to yeshivas that teach military-age men, part of the push to get more Haredim into the military.
The decision doesn’t bother Mr. Krausz. One of the reasons he resists military service is that he opposes the concept of the Israeli state.
Mr. Krausz’s sect, Yahadut Haharedi, says there should not be a Jewish state until the messiah arrives.
The activist
Image
A young man holds a banner at an antiwar demonstration. The arm of another person holding a megaphone can be seen.
Itamar Greenberg, a former member of the ultra-Orthodox community, at an antiwar demonstration in Tel Aviv last July.
In the weeks before his new life in the military, Mr. Wais headed out for a night out with friends. Sliding into the car, Mr. Wais wrinkled his nose and said, “The lefty sitting next to me is sweaty.”
That “lefty” he referred to was his friend, Mr. Greenberg, who was indeed far to the left ideologically — and sweaty. He had come directly from an antiwar demonstration and had stickers on his shirt to show for it.
The two had met on social media months earlier and formed a friendship as young Haredi men trying to fit into broader society.
At age 12, Mr. Greenberg began questioning his faith with a censored version of the internet as a guide, dreaming of life outside his community. “The only way to become a part of Israeli society is to get drafted,” he recalled thinking. “That was one of the most accurate realizations I had in my life.”
By 16, his views had evolved further — and to the left. He became a vegan, stopped believing in God and developed a fierce opposition to the Israeli occupation.
He also opposes the drafting of the ultra-Orthodox, but for different reasons than most. “It’s important to integrate the ultra-Orthodox people into Israeli society,” he said. “And to work for equality. But I don’t care about equality in killing and oppression.”
In the car to Jerusalem, Mr. Wais and Mr. Greenberg jokingly exchanged digs. They drank colorful cocktails at a friend’s apartment and then headed to a Haredi haunt that served traditional Jewish foods like chopped liver and cholent, a slow-cooked stew. Eventually the conversation turned to politics.
Image
Mr. Wais, left, and Mr. Greenberg, center in blue T-shirt, with friends at a restaurant in Jerusalem in July.
Image
Mr. Greenberg with his mother, Ela, checking the softness of a pillow as he prepared to go to prison as a conscientious objector in August.
“I’m not willing to take part in a system that commits such crimes,” Mr. Greenberg said to Mr. Wais in the car.
“Which crimes?” Mr. Wais responded.
“Do you want a list?” Mr. Greenberg said.
It would be their last night out together. Both had been drafted. While Mr. Wais was preparing for basic training, Mr. Greenberg was preparing to report to a military prison as a conscientious objector. His ultra-Orthodox family reluctantly accepted his new views, including his father, a rare Haredi man who serves in the Army reserves.
He was not accepted by his bunk mates. Once in prison, Mr. Greenberg realized that his fellow inmates were not activists like him, but soldiers accused of crimes. They taunted and threatened him, he said, and guards sometimes put him in solitary confinement for his own protection. “They hate the army,” he said of the other prisoners, “but they hate me more.”
Last month, after 197 days incarcerated across five separate prison stints, Mr. Greenberg walked out of the prison for what he hoped was the final time. “The army’s decided to release me,” he said, dressed in a green sweatshirt with smiley faces.
“But the broader goal was to build a better future, for everyone from Jordan to the sea,” he added. “I’m not done with that yet.”
An ultra-Orthodox platoon
Image
An airman stands at the rear of a military aircraft in a hangar, holding a flashlight.
Mr. Wais is now an aircraft technician in a special ultra-Orthodox unit of the Israeli Air Force’s 105th Scorpion Squadron.
Over the past several decades, hundreds of Haredi men had defied their community and volunteered for military service, but most had been kept away from combat. Mr. Wais wanted to be different: He wanted to fight.
“I don’t like war,” he said. “But I like action in the street — the soldiers and rockets.”
Yet after a medical exam revealed he needed ear surgery, military officials told him he was not cut out for combat. Instead, he would maintain aircraft.
In August, he arrived at an air force base in Israel’s north and was assigned to a unit with two dozen other Haredi soldiers. They shed their traditional black-and-white garb for mechanics’ jumpsuits, but kept their kipas, or traditional skullcaps. Many also still wore payot, or side curls, common among the ultra-Orthodox. Mr. Wais had shaved his years earlier.
Image
Mr. Wais was greeted by friends outside a military base as he started his army service.
Image
Mr. Wais and other Haredi soldiers listening to a sermon from a Haredi rabbi.
Their barracks and lunch tables were separated from other soldiers to avoid mixing with women, which could violate Haredi principles. Their food was cooked to even stricter kosher standards. They prayed and studied religious texts for two to three hours a day — the most Mr. Wais said he had studied since leaving the seminary.
“There isn’t a soldier here who could complain how we’re being treated with regard to religious issues,” he said.
On a recent day, Mr. Wais and two fellow Haredi soldiers went through final training on maintenance for an F-16 fighter jet. They were the same jets he used to watch as a child.
Afterward, the soldiers gathered for a sermon from a Haredi rabbi. They were set to graduate from training the next day.
“We are in the middle of the biggest war of all,” the rabbi, David Viseman, told the teenagers.
“You have to prepare your souls to cling to goodness in the world,” he added. “To erase evil.”
Now he is working as an aircraft technician in a special ultra-Orthodox unit of the Israeli Air Force’s 105th Scorpion Squadron.
“We are the new pioneers,” he said. “We are marching at the head of a movement.”
An ultra-Orthodox protest
Image
Ultra-Orthodox men sit or lie on the ground during a protest, while police officers stand nearby.
Haredi men protesting the new draft law outside the Tel Hashomer military base last August.
To Mr. Krausz, the evil are the Haredim in the military.
“It’s the way I look at any Jew who breaks the Shabbat,” he said, referring to the Jewish day of rest. “It’s forbidden to love them.”
He was more forgiving of secular soldiers. “Of course they don’t know better,” he said, puffing on a strawberry-kiwi-flavored vape at his dining room table, shelves of religious texts behind him.
His biggest fear is that the ultra-Orthodox faith won’t survive if Haredi men must fight.
After the Supreme Court decision, Mr. Krausz joined thousands of other Haredi men in the streets. They crowded around an enlistment office and harassed the Haredi draftees going in.
Image
“Whoever goes into the military comes out completely secular,” Mr. Krausz, second from left, said.
Image
Mr. Krausz at his home in Jerusalem.
The Israeli Army said in a statement that Haredi men who ignore draft orders “may face criminal sanctions.”
Yet unlike Mr. Greenberg, who turned himself in to the authorities, Mr. Krausz and his peers have largely avoided consequences.
Any effort to force them to serve, Mr. Krausz warned, would not be taken lightly.
“We are willing to die to not go to the army,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/worl ... e9677ea768
Photographs by Sergey PonomarevText by Jack Nicas and Adam Sella
The journalists spent six months following the journeys of three ultra-Orthodox men who had been drafted.
They weren’t supposed to fight.
At Israel’s founding in 1948, the new nation’s leaders agreed that ultra-Orthodox men — known as the Haredim, or God-fearing, in Hebrew — would be spared from mandatory military service. In exchange, Haredi leaders lent their support for the largely secular state.
The arrangement held for Israel’s first 75 years, until the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
The resulting war in Gaza pulled hundreds of thousands of Israelis into battle — but hardly any ultra-Orthodox. The dynamic exacerbated tensions that had been simmering for years.
The Haredim, who average more than six children per family, now make up 14 percent of the nation, up from 5 percent in 1948. In 40 years, they are on track to account for half of all Israeli children.
As the numbers of Haredim have grown, many Israelis have become frustrated that their own sons and daughters are sent to fight while the Haredim receive government subsidies to study the Torah.
Last summer, the tensions broke open. Under pressure, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that ultra-Orthodox men were no longer exempt from service. The military has since sent draft orders to 10,000 Haredi men. Just 338 have shown up for duty.
Israel is now confronting one of its messiest and most fundamental dilemmas: Its fastest growing sect won’t serve in the military.
After the Supreme Court decision, The New York Times began following three Haredi teenagers who represent the divergent paths for the Haredim and Israel.
Chaim Krausz, 19, studies the Torah for 14 hours a day, just like his father before him. He has protested the Supreme Court decision and believes armed service is not only a sin, but also a threat to ultra-Orthodox traditions.
Itamar Greenberg, 18, a former ultra-Orthodox seminary student, has also protested against the Israeli state, but his reasons are not religious. “They’ve been committing a massacre in Gaza,” he said.
Yechiel Wais, 19, also once studied in a seminary, but had dreams of a life outside his strict ultra-Orthodox community and left for the work force. Then his draft orders arrived.
“It’s not an entry ticket to Israeli society,” Mr. Wais said of a position in the Israeli military. “But it’s the minimum requirement.”
The soldier
ImageA young man wearing tefillin stands in prayer in front of a window in a skyscraper, next to an Israeli flag.
Yechiel Wais, 19, once studied in a seminary, but dreamed of a life outside his strict ultra-Orthodox community. He is now in the military.
Growing up, Mr. Wais wore a black-and-white suit. Like most ultra-Orthodox males, it was practically his only outfit.
But one year for Purim, a Jewish holiday when many children wear costumes, he dressed up as an Israeli soldier. He lived near an Israeli Air Force base and loved watching the F-16 fighter jets from behind a fence.
The idea of him, a Haredi boy, growing up to be a soldier felt impossible. “I didn’t even fantasize about it,” he said.
Ultra-Orthodox men are supposed to devote themselves to a life of study and prayer. For many, that includes isolation from the outside, secular world: no internet, no television and no radio.
Image
Mr. Wais, second from left running forward, at pre-military fitness training for Haredi youth at a park in Tel Aviv.
Image
Mr. Wais moved to Jerusalem, since he could not wear a uniform in his conservative Tel Aviv neighborhood.
At Mr. Wais’s home, even the CD player was “kosher” — its radio antenna removed. One day, when Mr. Wais was listening to music, he suddenly heard a voice through static. His headphones had unwittingly picked up a radio signal. After that, he spent hours surreptitiously listening to the radio, discovering a very different world.
It was the beginning of his exit from a strict ultra-Orthodox life. When he turned 17 in 2022, he told his parents he wanted to leave the yeshiva to work. They were stunned, but acquiesced. They took him to a mall to shop for clothes for his new life.
He found a job outside Tel Aviv. Then, when he heard about the Supreme Court decision, he found a new path, fighting for his country.
The student
Image
Five ultra-Orthodox young men in formal garb at a wedding ceremony.
Chaim Krausz, second from left, who studies the Torah for 14 hours a day, at an ultra-Orthodox wedding in Beit Shemesh, Israel, in September.
Mr. Krausz has no interest in secular Israeli society.
He spends most of his time under the tutelage of rabbis who warn against a long list of sins, including any contact with women outside his family before marriage. He hardly leaves his densely packed ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, where signs — including above his family home — warn passers-by to dress modestly so as not to offend residents.
It is how he wants to live.
Thousands of Haredi men in Israel receive government subsidies to study the Torah, while their wives often work. In Israel, 53 percent of Haredi men are employed, versus 80 percent of Haredi women. For Israelis who are not ultra-Orthodox, employment rates exceed 80 percent.
The Haredi population is also soaring — from 40,000 in 1948 to 1.3 million today.
Mr. Krausz is one of 18 children. In his four-room house, people sleep around the dining room table. He wants the same big family. “The more the better,” he said. His parents are searching for a wife for him.
Image
Mr. Krausz preparing for Shabbat dinner with his family in Jerusalem.
Image
The Haredim now account for 14 percent of the nation, up from 5 percent in 1948.
The government had long funded at least a fifth of yeshivas’ budgets; donors cover the rest. Then earlier this year, an Israeli court halted public funding to yeshivas that teach military-age men, part of the push to get more Haredim into the military.
The decision doesn’t bother Mr. Krausz. One of the reasons he resists military service is that he opposes the concept of the Israeli state.
Mr. Krausz’s sect, Yahadut Haharedi, says there should not be a Jewish state until the messiah arrives.
The activist
Image
A young man holds a banner at an antiwar demonstration. The arm of another person holding a megaphone can be seen.
Itamar Greenberg, a former member of the ultra-Orthodox community, at an antiwar demonstration in Tel Aviv last July.
In the weeks before his new life in the military, Mr. Wais headed out for a night out with friends. Sliding into the car, Mr. Wais wrinkled his nose and said, “The lefty sitting next to me is sweaty.”
That “lefty” he referred to was his friend, Mr. Greenberg, who was indeed far to the left ideologically — and sweaty. He had come directly from an antiwar demonstration and had stickers on his shirt to show for it.
The two had met on social media months earlier and formed a friendship as young Haredi men trying to fit into broader society.
At age 12, Mr. Greenberg began questioning his faith with a censored version of the internet as a guide, dreaming of life outside his community. “The only way to become a part of Israeli society is to get drafted,” he recalled thinking. “That was one of the most accurate realizations I had in my life.”
By 16, his views had evolved further — and to the left. He became a vegan, stopped believing in God and developed a fierce opposition to the Israeli occupation.
He also opposes the drafting of the ultra-Orthodox, but for different reasons than most. “It’s important to integrate the ultra-Orthodox people into Israeli society,” he said. “And to work for equality. But I don’t care about equality in killing and oppression.”
In the car to Jerusalem, Mr. Wais and Mr. Greenberg jokingly exchanged digs. They drank colorful cocktails at a friend’s apartment and then headed to a Haredi haunt that served traditional Jewish foods like chopped liver and cholent, a slow-cooked stew. Eventually the conversation turned to politics.
Image
Mr. Wais, left, and Mr. Greenberg, center in blue T-shirt, with friends at a restaurant in Jerusalem in July.
Image
Mr. Greenberg with his mother, Ela, checking the softness of a pillow as he prepared to go to prison as a conscientious objector in August.
“I’m not willing to take part in a system that commits such crimes,” Mr. Greenberg said to Mr. Wais in the car.
“Which crimes?” Mr. Wais responded.
“Do you want a list?” Mr. Greenberg said.
It would be their last night out together. Both had been drafted. While Mr. Wais was preparing for basic training, Mr. Greenberg was preparing to report to a military prison as a conscientious objector. His ultra-Orthodox family reluctantly accepted his new views, including his father, a rare Haredi man who serves in the Army reserves.
He was not accepted by his bunk mates. Once in prison, Mr. Greenberg realized that his fellow inmates were not activists like him, but soldiers accused of crimes. They taunted and threatened him, he said, and guards sometimes put him in solitary confinement for his own protection. “They hate the army,” he said of the other prisoners, “but they hate me more.”
Last month, after 197 days incarcerated across five separate prison stints, Mr. Greenberg walked out of the prison for what he hoped was the final time. “The army’s decided to release me,” he said, dressed in a green sweatshirt with smiley faces.
“But the broader goal was to build a better future, for everyone from Jordan to the sea,” he added. “I’m not done with that yet.”
An ultra-Orthodox platoon
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An airman stands at the rear of a military aircraft in a hangar, holding a flashlight.
Mr. Wais is now an aircraft technician in a special ultra-Orthodox unit of the Israeli Air Force’s 105th Scorpion Squadron.
Over the past several decades, hundreds of Haredi men had defied their community and volunteered for military service, but most had been kept away from combat. Mr. Wais wanted to be different: He wanted to fight.
“I don’t like war,” he said. “But I like action in the street — the soldiers and rockets.”
Yet after a medical exam revealed he needed ear surgery, military officials told him he was not cut out for combat. Instead, he would maintain aircraft.
In August, he arrived at an air force base in Israel’s north and was assigned to a unit with two dozen other Haredi soldiers. They shed their traditional black-and-white garb for mechanics’ jumpsuits, but kept their kipas, or traditional skullcaps. Many also still wore payot, or side curls, common among the ultra-Orthodox. Mr. Wais had shaved his years earlier.
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Mr. Wais was greeted by friends outside a military base as he started his army service.
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Mr. Wais and other Haredi soldiers listening to a sermon from a Haredi rabbi.
Their barracks and lunch tables were separated from other soldiers to avoid mixing with women, which could violate Haredi principles. Their food was cooked to even stricter kosher standards. They prayed and studied religious texts for two to three hours a day — the most Mr. Wais said he had studied since leaving the seminary.
“There isn’t a soldier here who could complain how we’re being treated with regard to religious issues,” he said.
On a recent day, Mr. Wais and two fellow Haredi soldiers went through final training on maintenance for an F-16 fighter jet. They were the same jets he used to watch as a child.
Afterward, the soldiers gathered for a sermon from a Haredi rabbi. They were set to graduate from training the next day.
“We are in the middle of the biggest war of all,” the rabbi, David Viseman, told the teenagers.
“You have to prepare your souls to cling to goodness in the world,” he added. “To erase evil.”
Now he is working as an aircraft technician in a special ultra-Orthodox unit of the Israeli Air Force’s 105th Scorpion Squadron.
“We are the new pioneers,” he said. “We are marching at the head of a movement.”
An ultra-Orthodox protest
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Ultra-Orthodox men sit or lie on the ground during a protest, while police officers stand nearby.
Haredi men protesting the new draft law outside the Tel Hashomer military base last August.
To Mr. Krausz, the evil are the Haredim in the military.
“It’s the way I look at any Jew who breaks the Shabbat,” he said, referring to the Jewish day of rest. “It’s forbidden to love them.”
He was more forgiving of secular soldiers. “Of course they don’t know better,” he said, puffing on a strawberry-kiwi-flavored vape at his dining room table, shelves of religious texts behind him.
His biggest fear is that the ultra-Orthodox faith won’t survive if Haredi men must fight.
After the Supreme Court decision, Mr. Krausz joined thousands of other Haredi men in the streets. They crowded around an enlistment office and harassed the Haredi draftees going in.
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“Whoever goes into the military comes out completely secular,” Mr. Krausz, second from left, said.
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Mr. Krausz at his home in Jerusalem.
The Israeli Army said in a statement that Haredi men who ignore draft orders “may face criminal sanctions.”
Yet unlike Mr. Greenberg, who turned himself in to the authorities, Mr. Krausz and his peers have largely avoided consequences.
Any effort to force them to serve, Mr. Krausz warned, would not be taken lightly.
“We are willing to die to not go to the army,” he said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/worl ... e9677ea768
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swamidada786
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Re: JUDAISM
What It Means When Coca-Cola Bottles Have A Yellow Cap
Aspen Oblewski
Sun, December 22, 2024 at 9:25 AM CST·
Since the early 1890s, Coca Cola has sported its iconic red packaging. Frank Mason Robinson, the man who actually named the drink, also designed its logo and crafted its color palette to maximize Coca Cola's recognizability. Because of him, it is extremely easy to locate a bottle or can of Coke in any grocery store, gas station, and soda machine. However, some soda connoisseurs have noticed new Coca Cola bottles topped with yellow caps recently. This begs the question, is Coca Cola planning on ditching its century-old red and white branding?
The answer? Absolutely not. The yellow caps on Coke bottles are actually to tell potential buyers that the soda is kosher just in time for Passover, a religious holiday celebrated by those who follow Judaism. The day is important to commemorate those enslaved in Egypt and their eventual escape from slavery. The holiday spans over seven days, and various food items are prohibited for consumption during this time; these often include oats, wheat, rice, corn, and many other common food items. Items that are considered "kosher" during Passover are those that abide by the religion's dietary rules.
In order for Jewish soda fans to enjoy the beverage during Passover, Coca Cola has produced a version of the drink without corn syrup. This drink, now deemed kosher specifically for Passover (regular Coca Cola is considered kosher outside of the week of Passover) is topped with a bright yellow cap so it can be easily spotted in a sea of red-capped Coke bottles.
For those not interested in Coca Cola, there are also endless guides for acceptable brands to use during Passover. The forbidden items are also not limited to food, as many other brands are considered unkosher or "treyf." Things like deodorant, detergent, and even glue have specific rules that need to be followed for use during Passover.
For a quick and easy purchase, products that meet the requirements are labeled with a kosher symbol on the packaging. This label is put on products that are kosher year-round, however, and those that are specifically kosher for Passover will need to be checked for treyf products that are prohibited during Passover.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/cm/ ... 44186.html
Aspen Oblewski
Sun, December 22, 2024 at 9:25 AM CST·
Since the early 1890s, Coca Cola has sported its iconic red packaging. Frank Mason Robinson, the man who actually named the drink, also designed its logo and crafted its color palette to maximize Coca Cola's recognizability. Because of him, it is extremely easy to locate a bottle or can of Coke in any grocery store, gas station, and soda machine. However, some soda connoisseurs have noticed new Coca Cola bottles topped with yellow caps recently. This begs the question, is Coca Cola planning on ditching its century-old red and white branding?
The answer? Absolutely not. The yellow caps on Coke bottles are actually to tell potential buyers that the soda is kosher just in time for Passover, a religious holiday celebrated by those who follow Judaism. The day is important to commemorate those enslaved in Egypt and their eventual escape from slavery. The holiday spans over seven days, and various food items are prohibited for consumption during this time; these often include oats, wheat, rice, corn, and many other common food items. Items that are considered "kosher" during Passover are those that abide by the religion's dietary rules.
In order for Jewish soda fans to enjoy the beverage during Passover, Coca Cola has produced a version of the drink without corn syrup. This drink, now deemed kosher specifically for Passover (regular Coca Cola is considered kosher outside of the week of Passover) is topped with a bright yellow cap so it can be easily spotted in a sea of red-capped Coke bottles.
For those not interested in Coca Cola, there are also endless guides for acceptable brands to use during Passover. The forbidden items are also not limited to food, as many other brands are considered unkosher or "treyf." Things like deodorant, detergent, and even glue have specific rules that need to be followed for use during Passover.
For a quick and easy purchase, products that meet the requirements are labeled with a kosher symbol on the packaging. This label is put on products that are kosher year-round, however, and those that are specifically kosher for Passover will need to be checked for treyf products that are prohibited during Passover.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/cm/ ... 44186.html