FailedMessiah.com

Large Number Of Israelis Of Jewish Descent Not Recognized As Jews By Haredi Rabbis Leave Israel For Diaspora, Expert Says

A disproportionate number of Israelis who leave Israel to live elsewhere in the world are immigrants from the former Soviet Union – immigrants whose Jewish status was questioned by the country’s haredi-controlled chief rabbinate and government agencies acting on the chief rabbinate’s determination of status, an expert on emigration trends reportedly told a conference held in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, today.

The Case Of The Missing – And Possibly Stolen – $7,000 16th Century Hebrew Bible

Was it a crime of opportunity? A rare Hebrew Bible printed in eight volumes in about 1540 has gone missing – and may have been stolen – in the heavily hasidic town of Monsey, New York.

Video: Is Israel About To Experience A Third Intifada?

Why is the Temple Mount is becoming such a dangerous flashpoint? What are the prospects for a third Intifada, Palestinian uprising?  Here are two brief and well-reasoned answers to those questions, one from a Palestinian, and the other from a former member of the US State Department's Israeli Palestinian negotiating team.

Inside A Satmar Women's Mikvah

"…Every month for four years, between two births and getting to know my husband, whom I’d met only once before agreeing to the match…I sat in the bathtub and lifted my legs so that the mikveh lady could inspect my toenails.… I winced as she put a needle through my earring hole to remove chatzitzaot there… I seethed inside when, on one of my last visits, after I covertly let my hair grow out to a stubble, the mikveh lady demanded to know if I had shaved on the day before. If I didn’t, she said, she’d bring a shaver to do it right away.…"

Orthodox Shul In Israel To Give Women Aliyot Tomorrow

Nachat Ruach, an Orthodox congregation in the town of Shoham near Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, has decided beginning tomorrow to allow women to be given aliyot (to be called up to the Torah) and to read from the Torah scroll for the entire minyan.

Knesset May Pass Law That Would Allow Israeli Beit Dins To Punish Diaspora Get-Refusers

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, may pass a new bill that would allow Israel beit dins (religious courts) to apply sanctions to recalcitrant husbands who live abroad and who refuse to give their wives a Jewish divorce known as a get.

Physicists Propose Existence of Parallel Universes

In a newly published study, physicists propose that parallel universes really exist and that they interact and influence one another by a subtle force of repulsion.

Rabbi Todros Grynhaus Deported

Accused haredi child molester Rabbi Todros Grynhaus, who jumped bail in England and fled to Israel in early 2013, has apprently been deported to Britain.

No More Special Exclusive VIP Treatment For Haredi Rabbis At Airport, Government Is Forced To Say

In response to a petition filed against it in the High Court of Justice in January, the Government of Israel has finally decided to end the special VIP treatment top haredi rabbis get at Ben Gurion International Airport – special VIP treatment non-haredi rabbis and regular Israelis could not get.

Right-Wing Rabbi Shot In Terrorist Assassination Attempt Shows “Very Light” Improvement

The bullets punctured one of Rabbi Yehuda Glick’s lungs, his throat, one hand hand, and fractured ribs and caused even more harm to his small and large intestines.

Terrorist Who Allegedly Shot Right Wing Rabbi Worked At Right-Wing Center Popular With Jewish West Bank Settlers

Muataz Hijazi spent more than a decade in prison for terrorist arson attempts and for violent attacks while in prison against prison guards and against another inmate. He slashed two guards in their faces with a razor blade, hurt a third guard, and poured boiling water over the entire body of another prisoner, and was only released in 2012. Even so, he was employed at the right-wing Menachem Begin Heritage Center as a cook.

Condition Of Right-Wing Rabbi Shot By Terrorists Yesterday Reportedly Worsens

The condition of right-wing activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who was shot Wednesday night in an Islamic Jihad terrorist assassination attempt outside an event at the Menachem Begin Heritiage Center in Jerusalem, has reportedly taken a turn for the worse.

Picture Of The Day: Haredim, Sukkot And Parking

Taken this Sukkot in a sukkah in Brooklyn, New York (apparently belonging to the Shomer Shabbos Synagogue located at 53rd Street and 13th Avenue in Borough Park – the same haredi minyan factory-synagogue that for years refused to ban notorious haredi child molestor Jerry "Yechiel" Brauner.

Israeli Security Services Shoot, Kill Terrorist Who Allegedly Tried To Assassinate Right-Wing Activist Rabbi

Israeli security forces shot and killed the man who is believed to have tried to assassinate a well-known right-wing activist, Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Yehuda Glick, last night outside the annual Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement event held at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, and they have arrested at least one accomplice.

In Wake Of Alleged Mikvah Voyeur Rabbi Arrest, Controversial RCA Rabbi Resigns From Conversion Court After RCA Puts Women On Committee To Revise Conversion Standards

"…[T]he RCA has just appointed a committee “that will review its current Geirus Protocol and Standards (GPS) conversion process and suggest safeguards against possible abuses.” The committee consists of six men and five women, bolstering the trend on the Orthodox left to create quasi-rabbinical functions for women. Is there a role for women to play in “suggest[ing] safeguards against possible abuse”? Probably, although it really is self-understood. But what role can they play in “review[ing]” the GPS conversion process? That is halacha, minhag, psak – a purely rabbinical role.…"

IDF Orders Outside Vendors, Employers At Job Fair To Follow Orthodox-Friendly Dress Code, Bans “Immodest” Pictures In Brochures, Tank Tops, Short Skirts After Orthodox Soldiers Complain

Israel’s Ministry of Defense is now mandating that all companies that send representatives to IDF job fairs held for soldiers preparing to go off active duty must ensure their female representatives do not wear tank tops, short skirts or any other type of revealing clothing, and has also forbidden these employers (and vendors and universities) from bringing any published material that contains any pictures that Orthodox soldiers would consider to be “immodest.”

OU Israel Job Fair Allegedly Charged Unemployed Job Seekers An Entry Fee

The Orthodox Union's Israel branch allegedly charged unemployed job seekers 50 shekels to enter its Jerusalem job fair this past spring.

Alleged Voyeur Rabbi Encouraged Single Jewish Women To Use His Mikvah, Source Says

Accused voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel allegedly encouraged sexually active single Orthodox Jewish women from the Washington, DC-Baltimore area to use the mikva (ritual bath) he controlled – the mikvah in which Freundel allegedly had a hidden video camera positioned in the showers.

Dov Hikind And OU Sponsor Job Fair – Charge Unemployed $20 Each To Enter

Orthodox New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind and the Orthodox Union (OU) sponsored a job fair last week at the Young Israel of Midwood synagogue in the heavily haredi neighborhood of Midwood, Brooklyn and charged unemployed people $20 each to enter.

Leading Right-Wing Activist Rabbi Shot At Begin Center Event

Rabbi Yehuda Glick. a leading right-wing activist and advocate for Jewish control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, was shot tonight in an apparent terrorist attack at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.

UNICEF: Israel Has 4th Highest Child Poverty Rate In The Developed World

“This report is a warning light to Israel. We must make children our focus to prevent further deterioration and bring about long-term change,” Jonny Cline, UNICEF’s Israel office executive director, reportedly said. A large number of the poor children, however, are members of haredi families whose male adult members refuse to work.

Haredi MKs Disrupt Knesset Finance Committee, One Assaults Knesset Security Officer, Another Ejected After Accusing Zionist Orthodox MK Of Stealing Money From Haredi Yeshivas

On the very same day that Israel’s State Comptroller Yosef Shapira uncovered massive haredi tax evasion and money laundering, Member of Knesset Rabbi Moshe Gafne of the Ashkenazi haredi Untied Torah Judaism Party was ejected from a meeting of the Knesset’s Finance Committee after he screamed slurs at its chairman, MK Rabbi Nissan Slomiansky of the right-wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party, while another haredi MK assaulted a Knesset security officer.

Haredim Commit Massive Tax Fraud, Israel’s State Comptroller Finds

Shapira found that haredim exchange money “under the table,” concealing transactions and employment from tax authorities, and use haredi haredi charities and kosher supervision beit dins (religious courts; Badatz [name of haredi community or town]) to launder money and hide it from tax authorities. He also found that haredi kabbalists collected hundreds of millions of shekels in cash from followers seeking blessings, and paid no taxes on that income.

As Women Panic And Refuse To Use Mikvahs After Voyeurism Scandal, Rabbis Paternalistically Tell Them There's Nothing To Worry About

Untrained Modern Orthodox and Centrist rabbis claim to have "swept" mikvahs to check for hidden video recording devices, many of which they wouldn't know how to find, and tell women that everything is all better now. Meanwhile, haredi rabbis won't talk on the record and don't believe something like Rabbi Barry Freundel's alleged mikvah voyeurism could happen to haredim.

Israel: 1 Million People Prohibited From Marrying ‘Pure’ Jews By Haredim, Moderate Rabbis Say

According to Tzohar, over 700,000 Jews living in Israel have been banned from marrying by the haredi-controlled Chief Rabbinate because their Jewish ancestry cannot be clearly verified due to records destroyed during WW1 and WW2 and by the communist regimes that ruled Eastern Europe in WW2’s aftermath. Another 300,000 people living in Israel are descended from Jews but are not halakhicly Jewish. It is untenable to allow these people to suffer and to be excluded from full participation in Israeli society because of extreme and strict interpretations of Jewish law adopted and pushed by haredi and “haredi-lite” rabbis.

Hasidim Allegedly Physically Attack Girls In Arad, Try To Take Over Secular School

Secular parents say hasidim broke through that separation barrier Sunday and tried to take over the area used by the secular tutoring center. As they were doing so, the hasidim also physically assaulted four young female Sherut Leumi (national civilian service) volunteer tutors, screamed at them, said they were not Jews and forced them out of the building.

We Won’t Recognize Conversions Done By Local Orthodox Rabbis, Chief Rabbis Warn Netanayahu

Israel’s haredi chief rabbis warned Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu today that they would refuse to recognize any conversions to Judaism done outside the conversions courts they control under the new conversion reform bill now making its way through the Knesset voting process.

US Attorney Opens Special Hotline, Website And Email Account For Potential Victims Of Alleged Voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel

Also, in the first public comments she has made in the media about the case, Washington, DC Chief of Police Cathy L. Lanier told a DC television station today that the investigation into alleged voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel is expected to take “some time.”

Haredi Mega-Thief Eliyahu Weinstein Receives Summons In Prison For Yet Another Alleged Fraud

Eliyahu Weinstein stole hundreds of millions of dollars in fake stock schemes, fake real estate deals and in related frauds, and is now serving a 22-year prison sentence. Weinstein received a summons in federal prison for yet another alleged fraud. This new fraud involves Weinstein convincing someone to put their home up as collateral for loan Weinstein wanted to take out. Weinstein would invest the money in a 'sure thing,' and the person would get all his money back plus a hefty profit. But there allegedly was no 'sure thing,' and Weinstein simply took out the loan and kept the money. The person's house in now in foreclosure.

An Alleged Victim Of Rabbi Barry Freundel Speaks Out In Her Own Words

A college student who was in the process of converting to Judaism under the auspices of alleged voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel and who took two "practice dunks" in the mikvah because Freundel told her to do it, writes about the pain the revelations of Freundel's secret videotaping of naked women in the mikvah (ritual bath) has caused her.

Leading Right-Wing Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Equates Conversion Reform With Destruction Of Second Temple

The conversion reform bill will “bring a complete destruction the magnitude of which cannot be described.…[It permits] any kind of conversion a person wishes, Reform, Conservative, light, half, whatever one wishes,” Aviner insisted, adding that the bill allows Arab Israelis to determine who is and who is not Jewish. “There will be Jews and sub-Jews,” Aviner said, “an entity that has not existed since the destruction of the Second Temple and now, what was not seen then will occur today.”

Israeli Cult Leader Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison For Incest, Sex Abuse

An Israeli polygamous cult leader who had 21 wives and 38 children, many of which he sexually abused, was sentenced to 30 years in prison today by the Tel Aviv District Court – an extremely harsh sentence by Israeli standards.

Men's Mikvah Safety Use Protocol

A guide for how to make mikvahs safe places for boys. As it now stands, mikvahs a place in which sexual assault of children is often not an unusual occurrence.

Lemon Juice Sues Satmar Rebbe’s Aide Over Fake Twitter Account, Arrest

The Brooklyn hasid who really changed his legal name to Lemon Juice several years ago is suing a top aide of the Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe for impersonating him on Twitter and using that fraudulent Twitter account to tweet a photo of a child sex abuse victim taken as she testified against an unlicensed Satmar therapist, Nechemya Weberman, who sexually abused her over a several year period beginning when she was 12-years-old.

Cops To Fugitive Breslov Rabbi: Tell Your Misbehaving Followers To Leave Holland Now – Or Else

After multiple incidents of misbehavior by followers of Shuvu Banim Breslov hasidic sect leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland – including a group of his hasidim illegally squatting and camping in a children’s outdoor playground park in Amsterdam, driving away local children and littering the park with refuse while they insulted an laughed at local non-Jewish residents – the Netherlands has reportedly told Berland to have his followers – many of whom are Israeli ex-convicts – leave the country immediately.

Hasidic Children's Torah Textbook Says Balaam Gave Moabite King The Evil Idea To Build A Walmart Store With "Impure" Pictures So Jewish Children Will Have "Impure" Eyes

Bilaam (Balaam, the non-Israelite prophet the Torah says was hired by King of Balak of Moab to curse the Israelites) gave King Balak a "bad idea" to "build a goyisha store like Walmart" with "impure pictures" so the Jewish children will have "impure eyes," a hasidic children's textbook in the Monsey area says. The larger text in the shaded box near the cartoon of a gentile youth with his arm on the shoulder of the hasidic boy reads "when Jews God forbid befriend goyim [gentiles] they get punished by God."

More Arrests Possible In Rapfogel Scandal, Former Board Members May Be Targets, AG Says

New York State’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman appears to be targeting former Met Council board members who may have turned a blind eye to or participated in the embezzlement of at least $9 million from the Met Council.

Israel’s AG Demands Defense Minsiter Explain Decision To Ban Vetted Palestinian Workers From Jewish-Owned Buses

Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has now demanded that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon of the Likud Party explain his decision to ban pre-vetted Palestinian workers from Jewish-run bus lines in the West Bank – a ban some Jewish Israelis, including at least one Member of Knesset, have called "apartheid."

Israel's President Commemorates Massacre Of Arab Civilians By Israeli Border Police By Calling For Equality And End Of Discrimination Against Arab Citizens Of Israel

On Sunday's anniversary of the massacre of 48 Arab civilians by Israel Border Police, Israel's president calls for equality, and end to discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel and parity in funding for Arab comminities. "…We must state plainly - the Israeli Arab population has suffered for years from discrimination in budget allocation, education, infrastructure, and industrial and trade areas. This is another obstacle on the road to building trust between us. A barrier which we must overcome. Poverty and a sense of deprivation provide a breeding ground for nationalist and religious extremism, and we ourselves fan these flames when we do not insist upon the principle of equality between citizens of the State of Israel.…"

Israel Continues To Illegally Detain African Asylum-Seekers, Despite High Court Rulings

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants has petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice, demanding the release of 138 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers who have been illegally held in Israeli detention facilities for more than two years, despite High Court rulings against such facilities and detention.

Haredi Man Arrested In Israel For Smuggling, Allegedly Used Haredi Charity As Cover

A haredi man living in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, Shimon Alfasi, was arrested for allegedly smuggling goods in shipping containers being shipped to a haredi charity in the city.

Conversion Reform Bill Passes Knesset Committee

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously removed those administrative changes from the cabinet’s schedule in order to appease haredi political parties with whom he hopes to form a new coalition government after the next election, and use their numbers to push out Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party and the right-wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party – who are in many way’s the rivals of both Netanyahu personally and his Likud Party – from the coalition.

Government’s Ban On West Bank Palestinian Workers Riding Jewish-Run Buses Called “Apartheid” – By Israelis

“Not only has Defense Minister Ya’alon destroyed our relations with the United States; now he is also destroying our relations with the entire democratic world. This is an official, governmental stamp of approval for a policy of apartheid in the territories. Segregation between Palestinians and Jews will only entrench Israel’s status as a pariah state in the world."

Decades Of Alleged Satmar Voter Fraud Documented But Never Prosecuted

It's too hard to figure out who committed the crime, a DA who benefits from the Satmar bloc vote claims. So therefore, no prosecutions.

Racist Extremist Rabbi To Step Down From West Bank Position

The racist extremist Chief Rabbi of of the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba and adjacent Hebron, Dov Lior, is stepping down – but not out. Instead of retiring, the 80-year-old Lior will reportedly move to the disputed Beit Orot neighborhood on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem.

What Jewish Law About Abortion Says About Orthodox And Haredi Rabbis

"…Therefore, in an extremely pressing situation, such as when the fetus suffers from Tay-Sachs or other severe defects, or the fetus is known to be a mamzer, or continuing the pregnancy could cause blindness or deafness to the mother [or is a risk to her life] - one can rely on the lenient opinion of the poskim [and abort]…"

Doctors Perform First Transplants Of Circulatory Death Human Hearts

The St Vincent's Hospital Heart Lung Transplant Unit has carried out the world's first successful distant procurement of hearts donated after circulatory death. These hearts were subsequently resuscitated and then successfully transplanted into patients with end-stage heart failure. And this should mean that soon, brainstem death – which many haredi rabbis do not recognize as death – will no longer be necessary for heart transplantation.

11-Year-Old Jewish Girl Goes Missing In North Bondi

Michelle Levy is white, about 150cm (4 ft 9 in) tall, has a thin build, long red hair, blue eyes and freckles. She was reportedly wearing a white party dress with black, orange and yellow flowers and a black sash when she went missing.

Don't Worry About Climate Change, Agudath Israel's Spokesman Says, Study Torah And Do Mitzvos And Everything Will Be Just Fine

"…Enviro-zealots are convinced that the current climate change signals the end of the world (or, at least, the destruction of the world as we know it), and that humanity is at fault for the impending doom (and has the power to head it off).  Some of us, though, feel that a passuk we recite daily – “Tremble before Him, all the earth; indeed, the world is fixed so that it cannot falter” (Divrei Hayomim 1 16:30) – reassures us that Hashem has built self-correcting mechanisms into nature, and that our zeal should be reserved for Torah-study and mitzvos.…"

RCA's Lack Of Transparency With Regard To Abuse Complaints Against Its Rabbis Needs To Change, JOFA Says

“The system of oversight is unknown, and that’s what needs to change,” said Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. “Rabbinic institutions need to figure out how to relay complaints and concerns about rabbinic authority, abuse, problems with synagogues.”