I’m an American rabbi. Israel no longer recognizes my religious authority.

“And so everything in this world depends on the mitzvos we do,” he was saying, using the Yiddish pronunciation of “mitzvot,” the Hebrew word for “religious commandments.” “There are no exceptions. You do the mitzvos, and your life will be well and the world will have peace, and we will bring on — God willing — the messiah. But if the Jewish people aren’t doing their mitzvos, this brings on calamity upon our people.”

.. “Wait a minute,” another kid chimed in. “What about the Holocaust? Are you saying the Holocaust . . .”

“I am absolutely saying the Holocaust!” the bearded man interrupted. “Everything you learned about the Holocaust is wrong. The Nazis were nothing but an instrument of Hashem [God]! Hashem brought the Holocaust on the Jewish people, and do you know why? It’s because the Jews of Europe fell away from a life of piety. They were abandoning their kashrus, they were desecrating the Sabbath!”

..  The blacklist really encompasses all rabbis who don’t subscribe to the narrow worldview of the Rabbanut, which holds that the only valid form of Judaism is one that adheres solely to the strictest interpretations of Jewish law and the most traditionalist social values.

..  grieve for the way those authorities undermine Jewish unity in the interest of their political power.

.. Israel has no separation of synagogue and state, and since 1948, ultra-Orthodox Jews have had the sole authority over personal-status issues in Israeli law. Moreover, ultra-Orthodox groups wield considerable power in the Israeli parliament and exert great influence over legislation. This lethal mixture of politics and religion is tearing apart the Jewish world through this list and similar exclusionary tactics

 

El Al can no longer ask women to move seats on religious grounds

A court rules on a case of airline discrimination in Israel

 In 2015 flight attendants on El Al, Israel’s national carrier, asked Renee Rabinowitz, an 81-year-old holocaust survivor, to move seats after she boarded her flight in New Jersey. An ultra-orthodox Jewish male passenger had objected to having to sit next to her. Haredim, it was explained, are forbidden from close contact with females who are not relatives.
.. At the time, Ms Rabinowitz told the Guardian that she was flying from Newark to Tel Aviv in business class, when a “Haredi-looking gentleman came and sat down next to me”.
.. I asked him what his problem was and I said I was 81. He started to tell me about how the Torah prohibits it.I was pretty upset but I also didn’t want to sit next to this man who didn’t want me to be there for 11 hours. The thought was not pleasant so I decided to move of my own accord.

I asked him what his problem was and I said I was 81. He started to tell me about how the Torah prohibits it.

I was pretty upset but I also didn’t want to sit next to this man who didn’t want me to be there for 11 hours. The thought was not pleasant so I decided to move of my own accord.

.. Following the incident, Ms Rabinowitz sued the carrier for discrimination. On June 22nd a court found in her favour, confirming that the practice of asking women to move seats on religious grounds is illegal.