FailedMessiah.com

Israeli Secular School Forces 12th Grade Girls To Cover Their Knees Because Showing Knees Is “Immodest”

12th-grade girls at the secular Ben Zvi public high school in Kiryat Ono near Tel Aviv were having their yearbook photos taken Thursday when school officials ordered them to pull their skirts down to cover their knees because showing knees is "immodest."

Another Word On Suicide, Tabloid Journalism, And Unlicensed Hasidic "Therapists"

Did an hasidic unlicensed mental health therapist – who, I'm told, specialized in telling the women she "treated" that the solution to their mental health issues was to become more religious and more hasidic – play a role in the suicide deaths of two sisters from the Belz hasidic community of Brooklyn?

Israel’s Haredi-Controlled State Rabbinical Courts To Publicly Shame Recalcitrant Husband Over Get Refusal

Israel’s haredi-controlled Supreme Rabbinical Court is about to do something that is for it a highly unusual step – publicly shame a man to try to compel him to give his long-estranged wife a Jewish bill of divorce known as a get.

Ruled Non-Jewish 3 Years Ago By State-Employed Chabad Rabbinical Judge Later Accused Of Corruption And Fixing Divorces, Israeli Woman Decides To Fight Back Now For The Sake Of Her Newborn Daughter

“No convert can sleep peacefully in Israel. [All converts at any time can find themselves hauled into a haredi-controlled state rabbinical court and] interrogated about their lifestyle, and sometimes the conversion can be declared invalid. Now we see added to this circle the children of converts who were born and raised completely Jewish.”

3 More Sentenced In Jewish Divorce Extortion Plot

Three more members of the New Jersey-Brooklyn get (Jewish divorce) extortion ring headed by Rabbi Mendel Epstein were sentenced today, but only two got prison terms.

In Defiance Of Court Ruling, Haredi Kotel Rabbi Blocks Women From Holding Hanukkah Candle Lighting Ceremony

Women of the Wall (WoW) wanted to hold their own official state-sponsored Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Kotel (Western Wall) or have the official male-only ceremony modified to allow female participation, but the haredi state-appointed rabbi of the Kotel, Shmuel Rabinowitz, refused to do either.

Jennifer Lawrence Hunger Games Movie Posters Censored Over Fears Of Haredi Vandalism, Violence

Posters advertising the opening of the new Hunger Games film starring Jennifer Lawrence are posted throughout Israel, and the posters all feature Lawrence’s photo – except for for the ones posted in Jerusalem and in the haredi city of Bnei Brak. In those cities, Lawrence has been photshopped out.

Kabbalah Centre Sued Over Alleged Attempted Rape By Its Leader

The now-former co-director of the Kabbalah Centre International gave a student Vicodin and alcohol, then touched her inappropriately and tried to have sex with her, an attorney told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury today.

Two Brooklyn Haredi Men Sentenced To Prison For Traveling To New Jersey To Violently Extort Divorce Consent From Recalcitrant Husband

Two Brooklyn, New York, men were each sentenced today to more than three and a half years in prison for crossing state lines as part of a plan to violently coerce a recalcitrant husband to grant his wife a religious divorce, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced today.

Haredi Man Sentenced To Four Years In Prison For Traveling To New Jersey To Violently Extort Divorce Consent From Recalcitrant Husband In Rabbi Mendel Epstein Case

An associate of the "Prodfather" Rabbi Mendel Epstein has just been sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in a kidnap-extortion scheme meant to get a woman a get (Jewish bill of divorce) from her recalcitrant husband. 

Israeli Orthodox Rabbis Hold Conference On Rabbinic Sex Abuse

In the wake of a series of recent cases of rabbinic sex abuse, most prominently the case of leading Zionist Orthodox Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg, who headed a yeshiva and several other institutions in Sefat, Zionist Orthodox rabbis are holding a one-day conference today in Jerusalem on rabbinic sex abuse, how to recognize it, and how to combat it.

Picture of the Day: Gender-Segregated Israeli Bank

A bank in the haredi city of Bnei Brak has a gender-segregated service counter, which appears to be a violation of Israeli law.

Nursing Mother Denied The Right To Remarry, Baby Declared A Bastard, By Haredi-Controlled State Rabbinical Court

The number of children labeled as mamzerim – bastards; a status that prevents a child and his or her descendants from marrying a “pure” Jew – by the state rabbinate tripled between 2008 and 2013. Here's a report that helps explain why.

How Should A Chabad-Lubavitch Yeshiva Student Find His Future Wife?

According to Chabad's relationship expert Rabbi Manis Friedman – the man who equated being raped as child to have a case of diarrhea, who called for genocide against Palestinian civilians, even against Palestinian children, and said young people leave Chabad and go OTD because they hate their parents – it's like shopping for shoes. You go from store to store to store until you find the pair that fits, all the while acting completely selfishly and only for your own best interest. And then, when you meet a young woman and that meeting goes well, you marry her, because you've found your correct pair of shoes. 

Is Rivky Stein's RICO Lawsuit Against Her Get-Refusing Husband And His Family Dead?

Rivky Stein filed a RICO lawsuit against her estranged get-refuer husband Yoel Weiss, Weiss' family and their company World Wide Plumbing. But unless she filed the necessary information with the court today, the lawsuit appears to be dead.

Netanyahu Promises To Fund Non-Orthodox Groups, Haredim Lash Out

Haredi politicians lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today after Netanyahu promised the General Assembly of Jewish Federations that Israel would begin funding the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel.

Mikvah Voyeur Rabbi's Former Synagogue Loses Bid To Appeal In What Attorneys Say Is A "Big Victory" For Rabbi's Victims

The DC Circuit Court denied a request to appeal filed by mikvah-peeping Rabbi Barry Freundel's former synagogue, Kesher Israel in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. The synagogue, which is being sued by Freundel's victims, wanted to move the suit to federal court. The victims opposed the move and the District Court’s new ruling supports them. The case has been remanded back DC Superior Court, something the victims' attorneys call a  "big victory" for the victims. 

Women Of The Wall Calls For Boycott Of Official State Hanukkah Candle Lighting At Western Wall

Even though it is a national ceremony paid for and run by the state, Rabinowitz only allows men to light the Hanukkah candles and say the blessings. The ceremony is held in the men's prayer section of the Kotel front plaza and women are completely excluded from any participation in it other than standing behind a tall walled-in fence and hoping to hear – but not see – some of what transpires.

In Haredi Rabbinical Court, Battered Woman Loses Custody Of Her Children Because She Left Abusive Husband To Live With Non-Jewish Man

A haredi-controlled Israeli state rabbinical court awarded permanent custody to a father whose two children were removed from his home by government welfare services just months before due to alleged parental neglect.

Agudath Israel Of America Censors Out Woman's Face – In Its Own Children's Cartoon

The haredi umbrella organization Agudath Israel of America decided to teach its members' kids some history through a cartoon. But Agudah used clever 'camera angles' and a distorted woman's headdress to hide the face of a prominent female historical figure rather than show it – even though women, even very religious women, commonly posed for photographs in those days and in that location, and even though those photos show these women did not veil or otherwise cover their faces.

London Beth Din Calls For Shunning Of Longtime Get-Refuser

For 15 years, John Abayahoudayan has refused to give his wife Rivka a get (a Jewish religious bill of divorce). Even though she has a civil divorce, under halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) she can't remarry or cohabit with another man until the get is given. Now the London Beth Din with the cooperation of the Sephardi Beth Din have issued what is for English Jewry an "unprecedented" public call for Jews to shun Abayahoudayan. "The Beth Din and I would like to send the strongest possible message that when individuals abuse the halachic process in a way which causes deep emotional and personal pain and suffering, we will do everything in our power to try to stop that abuse and support those affected," Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said.

Rally Against Get-Refuser Planned For Sunday

Adina Porat has been waiting for a get for 8 years. Her recalcitrant husband Dovid abandoned his family and fled from Israel to the US in 2008. He changed his name to Eli Shur and is working as a life coach in Dayton, Ohio. If you can get to Dayton Sunday, go and join with the other protesters to let Dovid/Eli know that he must give his wife a get (Jewish bill of divorce).

How Many Modesty And Technology Bans Does New Square Enforce? More Than You Can Count On All Your Fingers And Many Of Your Toes

How many bans does the Skvere hasidic village of New Square, New York enforce? More than you can easily count, and far more than you would ever likely willingly agree to live under.

Should Girls Be Excluded From Lakewood Haredi Schools Because Their Sister's Sleeve Is Too Short?

Haredi leaders often enforce community modesty or related standards by punishing an entire family for the violations of one of the family members. Father has an unfiltered smartphone? Kick all of his children out of haredi schools. Mother drives a car without rabbinic permission or wears too fashionable (but still modest) clothing? Throw out her kids – or, at the very least, throw out the girls. But what if one female sibling wears a sleeve that is a bit too tight or a bit too short in the eyes of some rabbis, or wears a pair of what the rabbis or their wives deem to be too-stylish shoes? In Lakewood, New Jersey, that can get all of her sisters banned from every haredi girls school in the city. And some haredim aren't willing to take this rabbinic abuse anymore.

Haredi Women’s Political Party To Post Until-Now-Forbidden Breast Cancer Awareness Ads In Haredi Areas Across Israel

"They simply don't talk about the disease because it's allegedly immodest. It's incomprehensible that the [haredi rabbis'] modesty consideration exceeds the [haredi rabbis'] consideration for saving lives” – but it does.

Haredi Modesty Sheet For 1st Grade Girls Says Sleeves Cannot Be Tight Enough To Show The Shape Of Their Arms

Bais Yaakov of 18th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, a haredi girls school, sent the following modesty sheet home with girls as young as first grade Friday. It tells the girls that sleeves that cover the elbow but which are tight enough to show the shape of the arm (!) are against halakha (Orthodox Jewish law), and make other similar assertions most haredi rabbis would have found laughable 75 years ago. It also adds a new humrah (stringency): it's better for righteous women and girls to wear sleeves which cover their entire forearms. 

RCA Passes Resolutions Against Ordination Of Women, Racism

The membership of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the largest organization of Orthodox rabbis in the US and Canada, has resolved to educate and inform our community that RCA members with positions in Orthodox institutions may not: 1. Ordain women into the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title used. 2. Hire or ratify the hiring of a woman into a rabbinic position at an Orthodox institution. 3. Allow a title implying rabbinic ordination to be used by a teacher of Limudei Kodesh in an Orthodox institution.

Disingenuous Deal To Create Equal Egalitarian Prayer Space At The Kotel Almost Dead

From day one, Failedmessiah.com reported that the proposal by Natan Sharansky to create and egalitarian Western Wall prayer area to the south of the Kotel proper equal in size, importance and visibility to the Kotel proper would never take place. I explained why. And now even the non-Orthodox leaders who fell for Sharansky's ruse have been forced to admit FailedMessiah.com was right.

According to Israel’s Interior Ministry, Having Smicha From An American Rabbinical School Does Not Sufficiently Prove Jewishness To Get Citizenship Or Extended Visas

According to Israel’s Interior Ministry, even prominent US rabbis must prove their Jewishness – especially, it seems, if they are female rabbis or beardless men, even Orthodox beardless men.

Haredi Yeshiva Student Discovers There Aren't Enough Yeshiva Teaching Jobs To Go Around – And The Girls He Dates Don't Like It

A haredi yeshiva student writes the Ashkenazi non-hasidic Yated Ne'eman newspaper's Shidduch Forum (arranged marriage forum) asking a question: should he be honest and tell his shidduch dates that there are not enough yeshiva teaching jobs to go around, and he might have to join the American workforce some day?

Israel's Haredi-Controlled Rabbinic Courts And Haredi Rabbis Allegedly Hurt Battered Women And Their Children In Effort To Control Them

Fleeing to a secular battered women's shelter can be used against an Orthodox woman in rabbinic court. Several years ago, one battered haredi woman had to be moved to a secular shelter for security reasons. “The week after she went to a nonreligious [shelter], her husband’s lawyer went to the rabbinic court.” The lawyer argued that the children were being subjected to secular influences at the shelter. “The court immediately decided to take the children and give them to the father.” It took three months for the mother to get her kids back.

Video: An Agunah's Story

Adina Porat and her children explain how her estranged husband, Dovid Porat – now known as Eli Shur and living in Dayton, Ohio – had tortured them all for the past 8 years. 

Haredi Rabbi Charged With Molesting And Sodomizing Girls Who Came To Him For Advice

Yet another Orthodox rabbi has been arrested and charged with allegedly using his rabbinical position to sexually assault females who came to him for advice.

Haredi Girls' Schools Refuse To Give Graduates Documentation In Order To Stop Them From Going To University

Two haredi girls seminaries, one affiliated with the Gur (Gerrer; Ger) hasidic movement, are refusing to give graduates their full academic records or transcripts. Instead, the girls are given the equivalent of a diploma only. This illegally stops the girls from enrolling in institutions of higher learning like colleges and universities. And until forced by a potential lawsuit, the Government of Israel turned a blind eye.

British Chief Rabbi Launches Attack Against Rabbi Avi Weiss’ Proxy, Jewish Feminists

Chief Rabbi of Great Britain Ephraim Mirvis sent a vague confidential warning to rabbis telling them not to invite “inappropriate speakers…[whose outlook]…encourages practices which run contrary to our normative United Synagogue approach” to speak at their synagogues and institutions.

British Government Orders Haredi School To Stop Asking About Parents’ Sex Lives

Rabbis at the government-funded haredi Hasmonean High School in London can no longer inquire about parents’ sex lives and then use parent’s answers as a litmus test for admission of their children.

Women Of The Wall Won’t Try To Read From Torah At Kotel This Month, Group’s Leader Says

Because of the serious security situation, the head of Women of the Wall (WoW) Anat Hoffman told the haredi chief rabbi of the Kotel (Western Wall) Shmuel Rabinovitch that WoW will not try to smuggle a Torah scroll into the women’s section of the Kotel when they hold their monthly women’s prayer session there Wednesday.

High Court Backs Fines For Woman Who Refused To Accept Jewish Divorce

Earlier today Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a groundbreaking ruling in support of a state rabbinical court that had imposed sanctions on a woman who refused to accept a Jewish religious divorce, known as a “get” in Hebrew and Yiddish, from her estranged husband.

Haredi Rabbi Busted On Clergy Sex Abuse Charges

The rabbi, who is from the town of Ofakim, has not yet been named. He is suspected of sexually assaulting two women who came to him for counseling and advice.

New Fashion Designer Takes Young Israeli Haredi World By Storm

Bracha Benhaim is a very talented fashion designer with her own eponymous brand. But she’s also something else – an 18-year-old haredi girl.

Belz Hasidic Girls School That Threatened To Expel Students Whose Mothers Drive Cars Gets Sharply Negative Inspection Report From British Gov’t Inspectors

Government inspectors found there was "insufficient evidence to demonstrate that pupils are able to contribute positively and more widely to society outside their faith community.”

Nearly Naked Orthodox Women

“I don’t care what religion you are — if you don’t keep your husband excited, someone else will,” says Malky, who asked that her last name not be used for privacy reasons, and says she was inspired by Kourtney Kardashian’s naked pregnancy shoot. “It’s not against Halakha [Jewish law] to keep your husband satisfied.”

Is Extra Funding From The Government For Gender-Segregated Classes Illegal?

Israel’s Ministry of Education told the High Court of Justice last week that it will gradually reduce extra funding now given to official state Zionist Orthodox elementary schools to help defer the cost of gender-segregated classes. But that gradual reduction comes only because the government is restructuring how it funds all schools, not because the government admits the extra funding for gender-segregation is illegal and discriminatory.

MO Synagogue That Fired Woman For Out-Of-Wedlock Pregnancy Claims It Didn't Do It

"…Congregation Shearith Israel categorically denies Ms. Shultz's allegations of discrimination or of doing anything wrong. In addition, Congregation Shearith Israel did not terminate her employment. She continues to remain employed in the exact same title, receiving the exact same compensation and benefits that she had been receiving all along. Her claim of loss is fabricated and inaccurate.…"

Video: Inside The Haredi "Taliban" Burka Cult

A Ynet reporter, Ariella Sternbach (right), got inside the haredi women's burka cult and was able to film some of the members at home an din prayer groups. Here's the video.

MO Synagogue Fires Employee For Out Of Wedlock Pregnancy

Alana Shultz was a program director at the Modern Sephardic Orthodox Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan since 2004. But Schultz was fired because she got pregnant out of wedlock, violating the synagogue’s alleged morals.

Haredi Girls School Caught With Apparently Illegal Modesty And Conduct Code For Parents And Students

"Denim or other clothing made from similarly 'trendy' fabrics e.g. leather and lyrca are related to the casual, free, way of life of non-Jews and as such are not permitted."

Gender Segregated Tashlich

Cast your sins on the water where your women can't see them. Hasidim in London have set up gender-segregated tashlich that includes gender-segregated walking routes to the water sources being used.

Are You A College Student Who Would Like To Prevent Women From Becoming Agunot?

Are you an undergraduate student at Barnard College, Cooper Union, Columbia University, New York University, University of Maryland, or University of Pennsylvania? If so, ORA, the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot has openings in its campus fellowship program.

Mikvah Peeping Tom Rabbi Barry Freundel Issues Public Apology To Victims – And Especially To Other Rabbis

“I am aware that my actions have had very negative repercussions not only in the D.C. area, but throughout the Jewish world,” Freundel continued. “In particular, I would ask for forgiveness from other rabbanim [rabbis] and Orthodox scholars, who may have had to fight harder than normal to uphold halakhic [Jewish legal] standards of observance in the face of criticism.”