Quote: A remnant of the retaining wall of the ancient temple, the Western Wall is one of Judaism’s most sacred sites, and since Israel wrested it from Jordanian control in 1967, it has been a pilgrimage site for foreign tourists and a place for the daily prayers of thousands of Orthodox Israelis. It is governed by ultra-Orthodox rabbis, with prayer areas segregated by sex, and women are required to dress modestly and refrain from singing aloud. Since the late 1990s, mixed prayer has been allowed at Robinson’s Arch, by appointment, during limited hours and for a fee.

After 25 years in which legislation and legal rulings barred women from wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries at the site, the activist group won a court victory this spring allowing members to pray as they wish. Over the past several months, thousands of ultra-Orthodox young people have crammed the site to prevent the women from using it, creating a new set of problems.

(June 7, 2013 at 2:44 pm)Minimalist Wrote: This is the kind of shit that xtian assholes are propping up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/world/...=5043&_r=0

Quote: Because of Orthodox men’s commitment to full-time Torah study and a fear of assimilation, only a little more than 4 in 10 of them work, less than half the rate of other Jewish men in Israel, and their average salaries are 57 percent of other Jewish men in the country. Nearly 60 percent of Haredi families live in poverty, and by 2050 they are expected to make up more than a quarter of Israel’s population.

“It’s clear this is a situation which cannot continue,” Stanley Fischer, the departing governor of the Bank of Israel, declared this spring, a warning underlined in a recent report to the cabinet from the National Economic Council.

Without a radical change, cautioned Yedidia Z. Stern of the Israel Democracy Institute, “the Israeli economy will collapse in two decades.”

Quote: TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Two orthodox rabbis and eight other men were arrested in an FBI sting in New Jersey and New York on charges they plotted to kidnap and torture a man to force him to grant a religious divorce.

Rabbis Mendel Epstein and Martin Wolmark charged Jewish women and their families thousands of dollars to obtain religious divorces, known as "gets," from unwilling husbands, the FBI said.

"They didn't do it out of religious conviction," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Gribko told a judge Thursday in a federal court hearing for the men. "They did it for money."

Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Wolmark, said it's possibly a case where religious law collides with federal statutes, where the crimes they're accused of can be punished by life in prison.

"It's a very complex case. The government says it's all about money, but I don't think that's quite right," Agnifilo said after the hearing, calling coercion and even violence to get husbands to grant religious divorces "an old tradition."

The rabbis and the 10 other men were arrested as a result of an undercover operation that began in August when two FBI agents, one posing as a woman trying to get a divorce, contacted the rabbis. According to an FBI complaint, Epstein spoke about forcing compliance through "tough guys" who use electric cattle prods and even place plastic bags over the heads of husbands.

Quote:There’s bad news for Hasidic vegetarians: The yeshiva of Gur (pictured) has allegedly banned students from eating any soy-based food products out of concern that it may lead to an increase in “gay sexual activity.”

According to a numerous reports, the rabbi of the ultra-orthodox Gur hasidic sect made the new rule based on a fear that the hormones in soy could turn boys more feminine and lead to lead to “unwanted arousal.”

Quote: JERUSALEM (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews rallied Sunday in the streets of Jerusalem, blocking roads and paralyzing the city in a massive show of force against plans to require them to serve in the Israeli military.

The widespread opposition to the draft poses a challenge to the country, which is grappling with a cultural war over the place of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society.

The issue of army service is at the core of that struggle. Since Israel's founding in 1948, the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 8 percent of Israel's 8 million citizens, largely have been allowed to avoid military service, compulsory for most Jewish men, to pursue their religious studies. Older men often don't work and collect welfare stipends while continuing to study full time.

The ultra-Orthodox insist their young men serve the nation through prayer and study, thus preserving Jewish learning and heritage, and by maintaining a pious way of life that has kept Jewish culture alive through centuries of persecution.

But the exemption has enraged secular Israelis who say the ultra-Orthodox are not doing their fair share. The issue featured prominently in last year's election, which led to the establishment of a center-right government that has been pushing for reforms that will require ultra-Orthodox to serve in the army. Parliament is expected to vote on the conscription bill this month.

Quote:NEW YORK (Reuters) – Four Orthodox Jewish rabbis and one of their sons were indicted on Thursday on charges of kidnapping Jewish men and violently forcing them to grant divorces to their unhappy wives, New Jersey authorities said on Thursday.

Between 2009 and 2013, the rabbis – Mendel Epstein, Martin Wolmark, Binyamin Stimler and Jay Goldstein, who also went by “Yaakov” – kidnapped or tried to kidnap men and torture them with beatings and stun guns until they agreed to divorce their wives, according to the indictment filed in New Jersey federal court by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Quote:The ultra-orthodox Jewish movement Shas' new spiritual leader Rabbi Shalom Cohen announced his strong opposition to ultra-Orthodox Jewish women entering higher education, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported today.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews generally oppose undergraduate studies and are encouraged instead to study in a Jewish seminary, which focuses on studying the Torah and other Jewish religious books.

Haaretz quoted Cohen as saying, in a letter he circulated 10 days ago: "Women should not even consider academic study in any framework, because this is not the way of the Torah."

(June 25, 2014 at 2:50 pm)Minimalist Wrote: And the difference between these fuckers and the taliban is what?