Rabbis for Religious Freedom and Equality in Israel
A trans-denominational rabbinical network
The Reform synagogue in Ra’anana was vandalized last night [LINK] in conjunction with the Western Wall controversy. Death threats were conveyed by placing a knife branded with a reference to Maimonides’ Laws of Killing, Chapter 4:10 – “If there is the possibility, one should kill them with a sword in public view. If that is …
Continue reading “Israeli Reform synagogue vandalized, death threats conveyed with a knife”
Originally published in the Jerusalem Post and the Jewish Daily Forward This week we marked Tisha b’Av (the ninth of Av), a date commemorating a series of horrific events throughout Jewish history. According to rabbinic tradition, these spanned from the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem in 587 BCE to the 1942 liquidation of …
Originally posted in the Jerusalem Post HERE Leading Israelis, quite properly, have been paying increased attention to recognizing the importance of Mizrahi (Sephardi) music, poetry, culture and overall contributions to Jewish life. Both the Education Ministry and Culture and Sports Ministry have created new committees and prizes to stress the significances of Mizrahi contributions to …
When Rav Amar, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, pushed his way into the egalitarian section by Robinson’s Arch, he also spoke out about Conservative and Reform Jews being ‘Reshai’im’ (evil ones). Yet the Talmud defines a Rasha as one who says ‘what is mine is mine and what is yours is mine.’ Apparently this is …
Click HERE for the RRFEI bulletin: ‘Reform and Conservative Movements write the Police Inspector General’ The government spent three years negotiating a Kotel compromise that includes building a dignified worship space at the Kotel (Western Wall) for mixed gender egalitarian prayer. Jerusalem’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar appears to view the Kotel compromise as …
Continue reading “What is Yours is Also Mine by Rabbi Pamela Frydman, RRFEI Chair”
Click HERE for the RRFEI bulletin: ‘Reform and Conservative Movements write the Police Inspector General’ Click HERE for the original Hebrew version of the letter below Reform Movement Conservative Movement 14 Sivan 5776, 20 June 2016 Chief of Staff Ronnie Alshich Israel Police Inspector General National Headquarters Via Bar Lev 1 Jerusalem lishkatmafcal@police.gov.il Honorable …
Sinat hinam, free flowing hatred between different branches of Judaism is not new, but it is once again virulent. As we watch the cauldron of intra-Jewish hatred boil over in the Israeli government and the Haredi and Orthodox Zionist establishments, many of us are at a loss for how to proceed toward Jewish unity. Perhaps …
Continue reading “Standing Up to Hate by Rabbi Pamela Frydman, RRFEI Chairwoman”
In his monumental work on Jewish law, Menachem Elon writes: “… Nahmanides coined an apt and pointed term that illuminates the meaning of ‘doing what is right and good;’ A person who acts according to the technical and formal sense of the Torah’s laws, i.e.: who carefully follows only the explicit rules but not those …
Continue reading “Hateful comments expressed in Israel regarding liberal Jews”
Since last week’s RRFEI bulletin [link], the flames of religious detraction against the Kotel agreement have been rising. This has been covered widely in the Anglo Jewish and international media; below, RRFEI provides you with the original Hebrew pronouncements of: the Chief Rabbinate, the Ashkenazi Council of [Great] Torah Sages [link], the Sephardic Council of …
Continue reading “Rising flames of resistance to the Western Wall agreement”
Last week, more than 500 posters were put up in Israel in the neighborhood of Meah Shearim and other ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods that include the following quotes: “We are shamed. Disgrace has covered our faces. Strangers have come into My Temple, Beit Adonai. The cry of the great rabbis of our time is that the Western …