Libi BaMizrach

(Note: I know this article is long, but I believe it is important.  I am looking for those who will help me achieve the goals stated herein - please contact me if you would like to join with me in moving this forward.  YLO)  In an  essay published a few months ago , I described the growing tension between the Charedi and non-Charedi (secular and national religious) public. I contended that the Charedi community must acknowledge that the events of October 7 have dramatically transformed Israeli society and significantly affected the interactions between the Charedim and other societal groups, as the status quo will no longer stand. If you have been following the news, you know all my predictions have come true. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to cut funding to all yeshivos and kollels whose students do not serve in the army. The battle lines have been sharply drawn: the overwhelming majority of the Israeli public is no longer willing to put up with t...

When I first saw that Rabbi Avi Shafran's recent essay " Why a Gaza hostage deal is Dividing Religious Jews About a Sacred Tenet of Judaism " (reproduced below) was being run in the virulently anti-religious, far-left Israeli newspaper Haaretz (I could not find it any other media publication) I was surprised. . . until I read the essay. HaAretz was indeed the ideal place for this flawed and biased article, which distorted the positions of Haredim while attacking the National religious parties headed by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. Briefly, the article claimed that the recent support of the Haredi parties for President Biden's hostage deal was purely a reflection of the deep concern that Haredim feel about the hostages and the primacy of the mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyim (releasing captives) apparently far more than their counterparts in the National Religious world. From constant prayers for the captives to signs about them in Meah Shearim and other fantasies th...