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Baruch Dayan HaEmet – Rep. Tom Lantos

Rep. Tom Lantos, a long-serving member of the United States Congress and its only Holocaust survivor, passed away this morning at age 80. Lantos was one of the Washington insiders who helped make Operation Moses and Solomon realities.

Lantos escaped a forced labor camp and was later saved by Raoul Wallenberg. Much of his family perished in the Holocaust.

Halakhic Question

A friend in Israel wants to know which specific poskim allow Jews to consume vitamins without a hechsher. If you know rabbis who allow this, please leave their names in the comments section below. Thank you.

Haredim and the Holocaust

It takes a certain amount of willful blindness to see overwhelming good in the haredi response to the Holocaust. Jonathan Rosenblum…

Rabbi David Weiss-Halivni Wins Israel Prize

Rabbi David Weiss-Halivni has won the Israel Prize for Talmud. Rabbi Weiss-Halivni is the founder of the Union for Traditional Judaism (UTJ) and a former professor at JTS and Columbia.

He made aliya in 2005 and now teaches at Hebrew University and Bar Illan.

Rabbi Weiss-Halivni is perhaps academically most famous for his contention that…

UPDATED: MONDROWITZ RULED EXTRADITABLE

I haven't seen this in print yet but apparently Avrohom Mondrowitz was found today by an Israeli court to be extraditable.

What this means is that – barring any appeals – Mondrowitz will be extradited to Brooklyn to stand trial.

It is expected that Mondrowitz will appeal.

UPDATE: The Ha'aretz report posted an hour or so after my report says…

Forbidding the Inevitable

Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger has issued a decree forbidding single women from…

Why Are There So Many Haredi Criminals?

In part, this:

The applicability of the principle of] dina de'malkhuta dina in our times, when there is no king but rather what is called democracy needs…

Religious Soldiers Refuse To Attend Training Class Taught By Women – Jailed

Three hesder yeshiva soldiers refused to attend a training class after they realized the instructors were – shudder – women. The soldiers' yeshiva backed the soldiers' decision to refuse the order to attend the class.

What were the soldiers supposed to learn? The very sexual subject of observation balloon operating.

Shmuley Boteach Attacks Hitchens

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is a slobbering, slurping. self-promoting fool. He proved that many times over during his 'debate' last week against Christopher Hitchens. Shmuley did so poorly that literally more than a dozen bloggers in attendance, some of whom are religious, left with utter contempt for Shmuley's intellect.

So what's new since last week? This …

MOSHE RUBASHKIN & SON GUILTY; Head of Crown Heights Community Council Felon – Again

That's right. Moshe Rubashkin is now a felon for the second time, and the Crown Heights Community Council – headed by Moshe Rubashkin – is headed by a felon awaiting sentencing.

Crown Heights residents elected Moshe Rubashkin head of the CHCC only a few months after his parole. Rubashkin served more than one year on federal bank fraud charges.

But Rubashkin, who at one point promised to leave the check writing to other council leaders, was in fact involved in another fraud.

Details in the extended post below…

The Jewish Burka, Part 5…

A Mother in Israel has posted more of her translation of the Ma'ariv article about Rabbanit Keren, the woman who has inspired over 100 haredi women to weak burkas. Rabbanit Keren, it turns out, is a Litvak. But many of her followers appear to be Breslover BTs.

Here's the money quote:

Our Fathers Worshiped Idols, Part 2…

Remember the seal found by archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar? It shows two idolatrous priests offering incense to the Babylonian god Sin, the sun god. Mazar found this seal in Jerusalem and read the inscription on the seal as "Temach," a family mentioned in the Tanakh as returning from Babylonia with the first wave of returnees to build the Second Temple.

This apparently shows Jews returning from Babylonia worshiped idols in Jerusalem.

But, other scholars say, Mazar is …

2 Hasidic Brothers Steal Home, Cash From Elderly Non-Jew

Two hasidic brothers, Moses Brach, 30, of 182 Lynch Street in Brooklyn, and his brother, Joel Brach, 27, who lived at 137-68th 70th Avenue in Flushing and is now thought to be hiding in Israel, are accused of stealing the home and life savings of an elderly man with dementia.

Moses Brach, who works at his family's fish market located in Borough Park, was arraigned last week on a four count indictment. Both brothers face…

UPDATED: The Jewish Burka –Ma'ariv Interviews The Woman Behind It All

Ma'ariv has an interview with Rabbanit Keren, the woman who has 'inspired' dozens of haredi women to wear veils and burkas.

What does this self-styled holy woman believe? How does she live her life?

What did Ma'ariv find? Well…

Hitchens v. Boteach

Christopher Hitchens debated Rabbi Shmuley Boteach at the 92nd Street Y last week. Every report I've seen says Shmuley was, too say the very least…

You Be The Rabbi

A person has, God forbid, passed away. Doctors want to perform an autopsy. They have good grounds to do the procedure and believe the knowledge they will gain from the autopsy will help other patients – and, perhaps, avoid more death.

The family of the deceased asks their Orthodox rabbi a question…

What's Better Than A Jewish Burka? Photoshop

Haredi website Ladaat.net printed a picture of the Winograd Commission but blotted out the face of one of the commission members.

Why?

Because Ruth Gavison is a …

Why The Jewish Burka?

Miraim Shaviv, who for a time blogged on the iconic Protocols blog, and then at Bloghead, has been for quite some time the comments editor at the Diaspora's iconic Jewish newspaper, the venerable London Jewish Chronicle.

In a column this week for the Chronicle, Miriam explains why she thinks haredi women, albeit in yet small numbers, are wearing the burka:

To Convert or Not Convert – Part 2

Can you ever imagine a case where you, sitting as a judge on a beit din, would convert a potential convert whom you believe will not be completely mitzva observant? In other words, either s/he will not be Orthodox or s/he will affiliate Orthodox but not really follow much of Jewish law?

If you would convert such a person, why would you do it?

I can think of several reasons why I might sign off on such a conversion: