FailedMessiah.com

Throw Women Of The Wall To The Dogs, Israel’s Haredi Deputy Education Minister Tells The Knesset

Israel’s haredi Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush told the Knesset plenum today that Women of the Wall should be “thrown to the dogs."

We Will Never Recognize Non-Orthodox Judaism, Israel’s Interior Minister Says

"So long as we are in the position of power and influence, we can never give recognition to the Reform [a catch-all phrase that in haredi parlance means all of the non-Orthodox Jewish movements]. Although they are Jews, they will not get any recognition. In Judaism there is only one stream – the religious path of Moses and Israel."

Who Is Getting Screwed In The New Kotel Deal? Allegedly, Every Non-Haredi Jew In The World

This deal, if it goes through, affects the status of the central national holy place of the Jewish people and will make it officially, for the first time – and, God forbid, perhaps irrevocably – the sole preserve of haredim who will be able to banish anyone or any Jewish group which does not follow haredi understanding of halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) and custom. What has until now been a de facto usurpation by haredim, done without any national deliberation at all and without consent, would become official government policy. This is what is at stake here for all of us.

Powerful Haredi MK To Block Official Government Funding For New Egalitarian Prayer Area At Western Wall

The haredi head of the Knesset Finance Committee will block funding for the egalitarian prayer area to located at Robinson’s Arch not far from the traditional Kotel (Western Wall) area.

London Haredim Warn Wedding Photographers Not To Photograph Women Dancing

UOHC warns that it is against halakha for photographers to photograph women dancing or women acting in a women's play or show.

Government Targets For Haredi Employment Not Being Met, Less Than Half Of Israeli Haredi Men Employed

Government targets for increasing male haredi employment have not been met, a senior official at the Economy Ministry said yesterday.

Women Of The Wall, Non-Orthodox Movements, Set To Fold In Kotel Prayer Area Negotiations

The coalition government of Israel will tentatively vote Sunday on a plan to open an egalitarian prayer area at the Kotel (Western Wall). But the proposed egalitarian prayer space is dramatically scaled back from what the non-Orthodox groups and Women of the Wall (WoW) originally wanted.

Belz Issues Women's Driving Ban – Again

The Belz hasidic movement has a relatively new community near Lakewood, New Jersey and it has banned all women in it from driving. It also mandates that men cannot walk in public outside their homes without wearing a frock coat and a hat, and has all sorts of rules people who live in the community must follow. Is this legal? If it is in any way linked to housing sales or rental, it likely isn't. When Belz tried a similar women's driving ban last year in London, England linked to its schools there, the British government almost closed the schools, and the Belz driving ban made international headlines.

Leasing A High End German Car Luxury Turns Into Major Mistake For Abused Jewish Woman

Maybe your next car shouldn’t be a Mercedes-Benz, even if you can easily afford one.

Haredi Sefardi Chief Rabbi Allegedly Tries To Gain Exclusive Control Over Senior Rabbi-Judge Appointments In Order To Block Zionist Orthodox Candidates

The haredi Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef allegedly tried to rig the appointment process for rabbi-judges to the Supreme Rabbinical Court in order to block a Sefardi Zionist Orthodox rabbi who is supportive of women, Yair Ben-Menachem, from being appointed.

To Stop Children From Getting Cancer Or Going OTD, Pray Clothing Manufacturers Repent, Haredi Ad Says

A haredi newspaper ad in Lakewood, New Jersey asks haredim to pray that clothing manufacturers repent and only produce "modest" clothing, in the hope that causing this to happen will stop "all sicknesses including…cancer… and children who go off the Derech [i.e., who become non-Orthodox]."

Chief Rabbi Lashes Out At Gender Integrated Grammar Schools

The haredi Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said male and female 9-year-olds cannot be properly educated in together in the same school and doing so is against halakha (Orthodox Jewish law).

Rivky Stein's RICO Lawsuit Against Recalcitrant Husband, His Family And Business Dismissed

Rivky Stein repeatedly failed to respond to discovery ordered by the court, and yesterday a federal judge tossed out her RICO lawsuit as a result. 

Haredi Get Kidnapper-Torturer Gets 7-Year Sentence

Rabbi David Wax was arrested for kidnapping and torturing a recalcitrant husband until the husband agreed to give his wife a Jewish bill of divorce known as a get. Wax later informed on Rabbi Mendel Epstein, leading to Epstein and nine others being arrested for a similar Jewish divorce kidnapping ring. Today, Wax was sentenced in federal court.

'Modesty' Israeli Haredi-Style: A Court Order Isn't A Court Order – Even Though It Is

For years, the Sefardi haredi mayor of Beit Shemesh, Rabbi Moshe Abutbol, has refused to order city workers to remove illegal gender-segregation and modesty signs posted by haredim. Last year, a court was so fed up with Abutbol's behavior that it fined the city. Abutbol still refused to remove the signs and, because this is Israel where rule of law isn't always followed, nothing happened – until now.

Satmar Continues To Illegally Gender-Segregate Kiryas Joel Park

The Satmar hasidic village of Kiryas Joel's illegally gender-segregated playground is still gender-segregated, as these signs show. The Yiddish sign warns men and women to stay on their respective sides of the park divider and not mingle or stop to talk with the opposite at the park's the dividers. The New York Civil Liberties Union promoted its out of court settlement with Kiryas Joel over this behavior – a settlement FailedMessiah.com immediately said would not hold. And it hasn't – despite NYCLU insistence that it was a good deal that would last. The English sign warns non-residents that the park is private and they are not welcome to use it. Failure to leave could result in an arrest for trespassing. 

Nathan Lewin Spins For The “Prodfather”

Ashkenazi haredi Rabbi Mendel Epstein bragged he would use an electric cattle prod on the genitals of a recalcitrant husband to force him to give his wife a Jewish bill of divorce known as a get. Now Nathan Lewin claims Epstein did no wrong – at least no wrong that deserved FBI intervention.

Video: Non-Orthodox Jewish Children Are Born 'Impure," Causing Incest And Sexual Misbehavior To Be Widespread, Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi Says

Not only does kiruv (outreach) Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi (also spelled: "Mizrahi") blame sexual immorality and incest on mothers' lack of mikvah (ritual bath) use and other failures by parents to observe the halakhic laws of niddah (laws related to a woman's menstruation, during which time she is impure), he says half of all children today would acquiesce to their parents' deaths in order to inherit their parents' money.

Video: Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi On Rape

You 'wanton' women who walk around in short skirts and painted faces bring rape on yourselves, and every time you entice men by your dress or your actions you will be tortured in hell for it, Sefardi haredi kiruv (outreach) Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi (also spelled: "Mizrahi") says.

Rabbi Barry Freundel's Haredi Voyeurism Victim

One of Rabbi Barry Freundel's self-made voyeurism videos was unlike the other 51. Rather than being taken in the mikvah (women's ritual bath), it had the backdrop of an apartment. Who was this woman? Whose apartment was this? And how did Freundel have the access to secretly video record her naked in her most private intimate moments?

Israel’s New A-G Will Be A Ba’al Teshuva

Former cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close friend. He is also a ba’al teshuva, a person who became Orthodox in adulthood. And now he's about to be Israel's new attorney general.

Leader Of Douma Arson-Murder Ring Is New Breslov Hasid, Wife Is Member Of Haredi Taliban Women Burka Cult

After the arson-murders, Ben-Uliel and his wife and 1-year-old daughter reportedly moved to Jerusalem and became, so they told friends, followers of Rabbi Eliezer Berland’s Breslov hasidic movement, Shuvu Banim. Berland has been on a more than two-year flight from justice, running from country to country to avoid deportation and extradition to Israel, where he is wanted for questioning in the rapes and sexual abuse of several young female followers, most of whom were married at the time of their alleged assault, and at least one of whom was a minor at the time the alleged sex assault took place.

And Now FailedMessiah.com Readers, A Hillary Clinton Email Mentioning…Us

Many of you may remember when the Satmar-linked Brooklyn Yiddish-language newspaper Der Tzitung photoshopped Hillary Clinton out of the iconic White House situation room photo taken during the Osama Bin Laden assassination. FailedMessiah.com broke that story, which was picked up by a blogger with the Jewish Week, the Jerusalem Post, and hundreds of other newspapers, magazines and TV and raidio networks worldwide. How did Hillary Clinton react to being cut out by Der Tzitung? Now thanks to her email release, we know.

Hasidic Couple Busted In Ukraine For Drug Smuggling; But Was It A Setup By A Gur Hasidic Modesty Squad?

The former couple’s divorce was recently finalized and she quickly became engaged to a man the divorced couple’s rabbi had assigned to them as a (likely unlicensed) marriage counselor meant to prevent them from divorcing. The engagement caused widespread anger in the Gur community and even in the woman’s own family.

Timeline Of A Jewish Feminist Revolution

How did we go from an Orthodox Judaism that excluded women to a Orthodox Judaism that is now beginning to ordain them in less than 50 years? Like this.

Report: Netanyahu Tells Haredi Politicians He Will Stop Women Of The Wall From Reading Torah At The Kotel

Despite a 2013 court ruling supporting the equal prayer rights of Women of the Wall (WoW) at the Kotel (Western Wall), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached an agreement with haredi political parties to issue a ban prohibiting WoW from reading from a Torah scroll at the holy site.

Parents, Don't Let Your Daughters Grow Up To Love To Eat Bagels Or Pizza Without Responsible Adult Supervision

As a service for your daughter's proper development, a Bais Yaakov school in Baltimore offers to provide a "hechsher" (supervision) on your daughter's Saturday night out with her girlfriends. Of course, if you allow your child to have a night out with her friends that isn't under Bais Yaakov's direct control, you've allowed her to break a school rule. Or something like that.

Mikva Attendant Calls Cops On Woman Who Wanted To Immerse Alone Without The Attendant Watching Her

A woman who wanted to immerse in private in two state-owned and run mikvas (ritual baths) in Jerusalem was denied the right to do so by state-employed female mikva attendants last Thursday night. Worse yet, and state-employed staff at the second mikva called police to have the woman removed.

Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Calls For Female Kosher Food Inspectors, Top Haredi Rabbi Not So Sure

"I think we should open wide doors and let women into the world of kashrut in Israel, here and now,” Rosen reportedly said, adding that the only reason some rabbis prohibited this was due to "modesty issues."

Rabbi Jay "Yaakov" Goldstein Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison In Jewish Divorce Kidnapping-Torture Plot

Rabbi Jay "Yaakov" Goldstein was sentenced today to eight years in prison for his role in Rabbi Mendel Epstein’s kidnapping and torture coercion ring.

"Sex Pest" Breslov Hasidic Leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland Set Up By Shady Israeli Politicians, Angry Former Followers, Attorney Claims

Berland, the head of the Shuvu Banim Breslov hasidic sect, has been fleeing Israeli justice for two years. He is wanted in Israel on rape and abuse charges. Most of his alleged victims are young married women who were his followers, but at least one of the victims was a minor at the time the alleged sexual assault against her took place.

Rabbi Mordechai Wolmark Sentenced To More Than 3 Years In Prison For Get Extortion

Rabbi Martin "Mordechai" Wolmark sentenced to 38 months in prison, $50,000 fine, for his role in the Rabbi Mendel Epstein get (Jewish bill of divorce) extortion-kidnapping ring. Epstein is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow.

New Haredi Garment Factory Opens With Major Contract – From The IDF

Even though haredim – including Gur hasidim – refuse to serve in the IDF or in Israel’s civilian national service, one of the contracts the new hasidic factory was awarded calls for it to sew uniforms for the IDF.

High Court Allows Women’s Group To Sue Haredi Radio Station Over Exclusion Of Women

Earlier today, Israel’s High Court of Justice approved a 104 million shekel (about $26.9 million) class action suit against a haredi radio station that refuses to allow women to be on-air personalities or be interviewed for any extended period of time.

London Beth Din Warns Of Hasid Get-Refuser

Shmiel Kahan has allegedly refused to grant his wife a Jewish bill of divorce known as a get, leaving her trapped in a marriage with her estranged husband. And the London Beth Din wants you to know it.

Haredi Politicians Move To Block Bill Mandating Israel’s State Sharia Courts Include At Least One Female Judge

“…I'm a captive in the hands of the Jews.…[Haredi] MKs vetoed it and said that according to the coalition agreement they have a veto on religious issues. They’re also using their veto for Muslim affairs, for fear that tomorrow it will serve as a precedent in the rabbinical courts."

Recalcitrant Get-Refuser From The Diaspora Found Cavorting In Israeli Hotel With Girlfriend, Rabbinic Court Bans Him From Leaving Israel

A recalcitrant Frenchman who refused to grant his wife a Jewish bill of divorce known as a get was found vacationing in a hotel in the Dead Sea area of Israel cavorting with a girlfriend-escort. But even though he is not a citizen of Israel and even though he and his estranged wife both live in France, the man was served with an Israeli court order banning his exit from the country which caused him to issue his estranged wife a get.

Video: Police, Guards Block Women Of The Wall From Bringing Menorah To The Kotel

Women of the Wall tried to bring a menorah to the Kotel (Western Wall) tonight, but the Kotel's guards, who work for the Kotel's state-employed haredi rabbi, wouldn't let them bring it in. Police also were involved in violation of the law and of the attorney general's legal opinion. But a female Member of Knesset, Ksenia Svetlova, used her parliamentary immunity to get the menorah (which is much smaller than the large menorah used in the official  but illegal gender-segregated state ceremony in the men's section) into the women's section. And Israel's right-wing government is yet again silent as the law is broken by haredim in its name. 

Ex-Haredi Woman Fired By Pizza Shop At Über-Haredi Rabbis’ Insistence

A young ex-haredi woman who worked as a shift supervisor for King Slice Pizza in the Jerusalem’s Bukharian Quarter for more than two years was fired at the insistence of über-haredi rabbis.

Powerful Haredi Rabbi Forces ‘Immodest’ Haredi All-Female Gym To Close, Claiming It Poses “Spiritual Danger” To The Haredi Community

Since the gym opened, its owners, Sara and Yehuda Ganot, have had their cars repeatedly vandalized. Gym equipment has been stolen, as well, and the gym’s locks were vandalized. On top of that, pashkvils (wall posters) railing against the gym have been posted in the neighborhood, and women trying to use the gym have been harassed by locals to dissuade them from working out. Security camera footage shows local haredi yeshiva students vandalizing the gym.

Women's Secular Education Is Worse Than The Fires Of Auschwitz, Haredi Rabbi Tells Girls School Heads

"In previous generations were major attempts, like Siberia and the like, as well as all the other troubles that the Jewish people have. It seems as if…the furnaces of this generation burn more intensely than the furnaces of Auschwitz.”

If You Want To Make Money, Steal! Supreme Ashkenazi Haredi Rabbinic Leader Tells Women’s Education Conference

Rabbi Hezekiyahu Mishkovsky of the Orchot Torah yeshiva told the conference a story about a haredi scholar who told Steinman his daughter wanted to get an academic degree. “Why?” Steinman asked. “Because she wants to earn more money to support her family,” the man said. (Many haredi husbands don’t work and are instead full time yeshiva students well into middle age, and wives are often haredi families’ main breadwinner.) "I have a better idea how to make a fortune,” Steinman replied. “Steal.”

Ashkenazi Haredim Ban Secular Education For Women, Will Now Refuse To Accept Teachers’ Diplomas From Universities

The rabbis called any secular academic studies done outside a strict haredi framework a “danger” because those studies often have inappropriate content that opposes the "true spirit" of haredi Judaism and ordered such academic studies banned.

A-G Rules Kotel Hanukkah Candle Lighting Ceremony Must Be Gender Integrated

Israel’s Attorney General has warned the state-appointed haredi Chief Rabbi of the Kotel and other Holy Sites Shmuel Rabinowitz that under law, women must be included in official state ceremonies – including the upcoming official state Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony held at the Kotel (Western Wall).

Rabbis Allow Elderly Man To Have Second Wife While First Wife Still Living

The man told the rabbinical judges he wants to marry a second wife so he can live with a woman, “who can make him a cup of tea.”

Photo: Forced Gender Segregation At Israeli University

The Ono Academic College in Kiryat Ono, Israel is soon hosting a joint law conference with Columbia University's school of law. But its so-called haredi campus has rather extreme gender segregation.

Agunah Allowed To Remarry Without Get, Über Haredi Rabbis Lash Out

It's the Litvaks and the Modern Orthodox vs. the Hungarians and the hasidim, and this time the Litvaks and the MOs won – and so did a long-suffering agunah.

Is The Haredi Monopoly Over? State Rabbinical Courts Back Down, Allow Ex-O Woman To Divorce Outside State Rabbinate’s Control

“This wasn’t a war against Judaism or against the rabbis. This was a battle against the monopoly of the state courts, a monopoly which they abuse and in so doing harm women, the rights of women, and do injury to the equal status of women." In response to the decision, women's rights group plans to open its own rabbinical divorce court.

Mishpacha Magazine Censors Out Women From Haredi Ad

Mishpacha Magazine, the allegedly moderate haredi publication, has censored out two women from a Partners in Torah ad.

Small Feminist Group Files Suit Against Haredi Kotel Rabbi Who Won’t Let Them Read From A Torah Scroll

In a petition filed with the Israel’s High Court of Justice today, a group of feminist activists argues that the government-funded and appointed Chief Rabbi of the Kotel (Western Wall) Shmuel Rabinowitz’s refusal to allow them to use publicly owned Torah scrolls or bring their own privately owned scroll to the holy site violates their legal right to equal treatment in the public sphere.