יום רביעי, 8 יולי 2026Wednesday, July 8, 2026
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יום רביעי, כ״ג תמוז תשפ״וWednesday, July 8, 2026
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court

Politics / Police and Crime / News Briefs / Settlements

Early Morning Raid on Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar

By Malkah Fleisher

General Security Services forces raided the yeshiva Od Yosef Chai in the Samaria-region community of Yitzhar in the early hours of Wednesday morning, detaining one student for failing to appear in court.

Op-Eds

The GOP's Anti-Sharia Plank

By Karen Lugo

The GOP's "no foreign law" platform provision represents something beyond concern over the practice of buttressing sketchy legal reasoning with extra-American sources; the GOP statement also objects to Sharia law or any other foreign legal code that threatens to creep into judicial decisions disguised as validated ethnic customs.

Politics / News Briefs / Religious & Secular in Israel / Religion

Israeli Gay Couple Seeking Divorce from Rabbinical Court

By JTA

The first Jewish Israeli male couple to marry has filed for divorce in a Tel Aviv rabbinical court that never recognized the marriage. It is unknown if the rabbinical court will provide a divorce for Uzi Even, the first openly gay Knesset member, and Dr. Amit Kama, Ynet reported.

News Briefs / Settlements

Forced Evacuation of Migron Completed

By TPS / Tazpit News Agency

Following the High Court of Justice's ruling from last week, the residents of the community of Migron, in the Benyamin region, were forcibly removed from their homes this morning. Large police forces arrived at the community early this morning, knocking on doors and serving the residents a court order to evacuate their homes. A few families offered passive resistance, but most of the fifty families left on their own accord.

Politics

Running For Judge With An Orthodox Background And A Universal Perspective

By dvora

Just days before the entire world stands before the great Judge on Rosh Hashanah, Democrats of the 5th district of Brooklyn will be casting their votes in the primary election for civil court judge. Shlomo Mostofsky, private attorney and former president of the National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), is currently campaigning to secure the post as judge.

News Briefs / Settlements

Remaining Bat Ayin Minors to be Released From Police Custody

By Jewish Press News Desk

Honenu, the Israeli legal rights and aid organization announced that the two remaining minors from Bat Ayin who were arrested by police on suspicion of being involved in the August 16th firebomb attack on the Arab taxi will be released on Friday morning.

News Briefs / Settlements

High Court Rules Migron Must Be Evacuated in One Week

By JTA

Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the Judea and Samaria outpost of Migron must be evacuated by Sept. 4.

News & Views

Judge Rules Rachel Corrie's Death an Accident

By Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Judge Gershon of Haifa District Court ruled today that the death of Rachel Corrie was an accident. In a 62 page court document, the judge stated there was no fault in the military investigation which the Israeli military undertake immediately after Corrie's death. The Israel Defense Force has been cleared of responsibility.

News Briefs / Settlements

Migron Outpost Residents Say They Will Stay Put Until Court Hearing

By JTA

Residents of Migron said they will not leave the Samarian outpost until the Israeli Supreme Court rules on a request to halt their evacuation.

Global / News Briefs

Samsung to Pay Apple More Than $1 Billion Dollars

By Jewish Press News Desk

A US Jury found Samsung guilty of patent infringment of key features of Apple's iPhone and iPad. The jury awarded Apple over $1 Billion dollars for damages ($1,049,393,540 to be exact). While in the issue of Samsung's claims against Apple, Samsung was awarded nothing.

News Briefs

French-Jewish Mother in Custody Battle with Saudi prince Dies in Fall

By JTA

A Jewish mother from France locked in a custody battle with a Saudi prince fell to her death from an apartment window in Paris. Candice Cohen-Ahnine died last week, less than a month before she was to see her 11-year-old daughter for the first time in four years. It is unclear whether Cohen-Ahnine's death was […]

News Briefs

Demjanjuk's Estate Bids Again to Restore his Citizenship

By JTA

The estate of convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk again has asked an appeals court to help posthumously restore his U.S. citizenship. In a filing Monday, Demjanjuk's estate asked the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati to take up the case. In June, a three-judge panel of the court ruled that Demjanjuk’s […]

Israel

Arab–Israeli Scam Exposed in Court

By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency

Attempt to extort employers, former residents of Gush Katif, foiled.

Jewish / Global / Religion

British Judge Permits 10 Year-Old Jewish Girl to Convert to Christianity

By Jewish Press Staff

The Decision comes after the girl's mother applied for a court order in November 2011 to prevent her ex-husband from having the girl baptized.

News Briefs

Members of Congress File Brief Supporting 9-Year-Old Boy's Jerusalem Passport Case

By JTA

A bipartisan slate of 58 members of Congress signed a friend of the court brief in a case involving a 9-year-old boy who was born in Jerusalem but was denied a request to have Israel listed on his passport as his place of birth. Menachem Zivotofsky was born in western Jerusalem. Neither President Obama nor […]

News Briefs

Hearing on Motion to Dismiss Set in Hebrew National Class-Action Suit

By JTA

A hearing on a motion to dismiss a consumer fraud case against the company that produces Hebrew National products has been scheduled for Nov. 30 in a federal court. The hearing will be held at the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. ConAgra Foods Inc., which owns the Hebrew National brand, on July 26 filed the […]

Analysis

The Circumcision Debate in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

By Veli Sirin

Legal obligations and guarantees of human rights should be universally applied – but these should include mutual respect between religious and non-religious people, and members of differing religious communities. Germany would do well to examine thoroughly, respectfully and seriously, the beliefs of its Jewish and Muslim citizens about the circumcision of their sons, not to mention the unquestionable medical advantages.

Analysis

Egypt's Power Struggle and the Fate of Christians

By Aidan Clay

Egypt's Coptic Christian minority fears that the restoration of parliament, which will grant greater powers to Islamists, will be used to institute Sharia law and stifle religious freedom.

Global / News Briefs

Chancellor Merkel Pledges to Keep Circumcision Legal

By Jewish Press Staff

After what German diplomats have described as a "disastrous" damage to Germany's image abroad, especially in light of its Nazi past, it appears that Berlin has finally gotten the message.

Analysis

France Penalizes Boycott of Israeli Products

By Peter Martino

The decision was the final ruling in a legal battle that went on for years. On 9 July 2005, the Palestinian Authority called for a worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign against the Jewish State. The Cour de Cassation, the Supreme Court of France, reaffirmed that publicly calling for the boycott of Israeli products is a case of incitement to discrimination on the basis of nationality.

Global / News Briefs

Orthodox Rabbinical Group Urging German Jews to Defy Court Ruling on Circumcision

By JTA

Europe's main Orthodox rabbinical body is urging Jews in Germany to uphold the commandment to circumcise newborn sons, despite a court ruling in Germany that said circumcising young boys could be considered a criminal act.

Op-Eds

Getting Serious About Get-Refusal

By Dr. Rachel Levmore

It’s human nature to hide our heads in the sand. That may be because we are mostly optimistic. We believe everything will be all right even when we know we are taking a chance.

Israel

Olmert Acquitted Of Major Charges

By Steve K. Walz

JERUSALEM – A panel of three Jerusalem regional court judges acquitted former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday of all corruption charges in the Rishon Tours and Moshe Talansky matters. The judges, though, found him guilty of breach of trust in the Investment Center affair, which took place during Olmert’s tenure as minister of industry, trade and labor nearly a decade ago.

News Briefs

Over 10,000 People Sign Petition Against German Ban of Bris Mila

By Jewish Press News Desk

On Saturday Night, July 8th, the 10,000 person signed the petition against the German court's ban on Brit Mila. The petition can be found here: http://jewishpress.com/petition-against-germanys-ban-on-brit-milah/ Members of the JewishPress.com staff plan to present the petition to the German Embassy in Israel this week.

Politics / Global / News Briefs

German Muslims Now Call on Parliament to Save Circumcision

By Jacob Edelist

Around 20 organizations representing four million Muslim residents of Germany, announced that the parliament must ensure religious freedom by removing legal doubts about circumcision since the June 26 court ruling. The ruling was also criticized in no uncertain terms by the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Dieter Graumann.

Editorial

Not The Supreme Court’s Finest Hour

By Editorial Board

The traditional view of the United States Supreme Court as the ultimate, objective, arbiter of our system of government and thereby protector of our liberties took an enormous hit last week when the court upheld the constitutionality of Obamacare.

Sultan Knish

Lies We Can Believe In

By Daniel Greenfield

The American chief executive has a great deal of power and a chief executive who dons imperial robes is a danger with few precedents. There have been conflicts between the branches, but even FDR made a pretense of bowing to some outside authority. Obama never has, with the exception of the King of Saudi Arabia.

Jewish / Global / Religion

It's Official: No Circumcision in Germany - Jewish Hospital Bans the Brit

By Malkah Fleisher

The Jewish Hospital in Berlin has suspended all religious circumcisions of children following a ruling delivered by a German court banning the practice.

US / News Briefs

Wife's Attorney: Guma Aguiar's Disappearance Staged

By Jewish Press Staff

The day after the disappearance, a police spokesman told reporters that Aguiar got into the boat alone, “but that’s not to say he didn’t meet up with anyone.” Now the attorney for Guma Aguiar's wife is saying that the Brazilian born billionaire could have staged his own disappearance to flee his marital and financial problems.

US / Politics / News Briefs

Chief Justice Roberts Saves Obamacare

By Jacob Edelist

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Democrat-appointed justices to rule 5-4 that Congress has the power to impose the healthcare mandate under its power to levy taxes.

Editorial

Is The Gray Lady Losing It?

By Editorial Board

Over the past several years the editorial page of The New York Times has taken on an increasingly desperate tone. There is no doubt that the advent of the Internet and conservative talk radio came at great cost to the Gray Lady, which for some time now has seemed incapable of framing issues in the methodical – if wrongheaded – manner it once did. But the level of shrillness in recent days is completely off the charts.

Global / News Briefs / Religion

German Court Criminalizes Religious Circumcision

By Jacob Edelist

A Cologne district court ruled on Tuesday that parents may not have their sons circumcised for religious reasons, essentially criminalizing religious circumcisions.

News Briefs

Search for Guma Aguiar Called Off

By JTA

The search for Guma Aguiar, a Florida businessman and philanthropist who has given millions to Jewish nonprofit organizations, reportedly was called off. Aguiar, the CEO of Leor Energy who lives in Fort Lauderdale, was last seen on the evening of June 19. His yacht washed ashore in Fort Lauderdale the following day, according to reports. […]

News Briefs

Manchester Muslim Couple Accused of Targeting Jews

By JTA

A Muslim couple in Manchester, England, allegedly purchased items for homemade bombs to be used against Jewish targets, a court in that city was told. “It was jihad at home,” prosecutor Bobbie Cheema told the Manchester crown court on Thursday, according to the Guardian. “Between them they acquired substances, common for gardening, that can be […]

Politics / Media

GOP Chasidic PR Man Quits over Views on Israel, Reporting Abuse

By Michael Orbach

During a lengthy and heated interview with the Jewish Channel, Yossi Gestetner was quizzed about some of his past work for a tiny anti-Zionistic organization in Brooklyn. He also defended New Square arsonist Shaul Spitzer and was a spokesperson for a rally to benefit Nechemya Weberman, who is currently on trial for molestation.

News Briefs

Chabad of North Hollywood Construction Halted by Neighbors

By Jewish Press News Desk

Dozens Sherman Oaks residents are complaining that the new Chabad House on Chandler Boulevard is "just too big for the surrounding blocks of single-family homes, some starting at more than $1 million," the LA Times reports. The new building is slated to be 12,000 square feet, on a 9,568-square-foot parcel which is zoned for residential […]

Politics / The Knesset

Beit El Caravillas Herald Ulpana Destruction, Massive Expansion

By Malkah Fleisher

In line with the government’s plan to destroy 5 buildings in the Ulpana Hill neighborhood of Beit El, six caravilla mobile homes were delivered on Monday to house evicted families. Community leaders hope out of the ashes may come the biggest development in years.

Analysis

Dershowitz: Zimmerman Prosecutor's Conduct Entirely Unprofessional

By Alan M. Dershowitz

Even if Angela Corey's actions were debatable, which I believe they were not, I certainly have the right, as a professor who has taught and practiced criminal law nearly 50 years, to express a contrary view. The idea that a prosecutor would threaten to sue someone who disagrees with her for libel and slander, to sue to university for which he works, and to try to get him disbarred, is the epitome of unprofessionalism.

Politics / News Briefs

Bill to Save Ulpanah Hill Defeated

By Jewish Press Staff Reporter

The Knesset on Wednesday rejected the proposed bill to save the Ulpanah Hill neighborhood, which was ordered by the High Court to be demolished at the end of this month. In a preliminary reading, the Knesset voted the bill down by 69 to 22.

Analysis

Observations on the Proposed Law on Compensating Palestinian Land Owners

By Dr. Aaron Lerner

Minister Benny Begin and others who oppose the law argue that it will be voided by the Supreme Court and that the law will damage Israel on the international front. If the Supreme Court indeed voids the law this will no doubt bring praise for Israel from the international community – not condemnation. And rest assured the court will rule on the law in lightning speed.

Op-Eds

Attorney: Ulpana Court Ruling an Outrage

By Menahem Gurman Esq

Only a heartless person, bereft of morality, lacking any understanding of the concept of the rule of law, and driven by an intolerable urge for destruction can determine that the Ulpana Hill homes must be destroyed. This is an unacceptable outrage in the Jewish state which must show a minimal degree of morality, justice and respect for the law.

Israel / Politics

Ninety Year Old Man Joins Hunger-Strike Against Ulpana Neighborhood Relocation

By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency

Avraham Nocham, an artist, explained that he has decided to join the strike out of empathy and identification with the strikers’ objectives. "I am very sensitive to these issues. Many times the development of these incidents is frightening. I have come to join the struggle and strike in hope of a positive outcome."

Israel / Global

Darshan-Leitner Wins Prize for Fighting Terror in Court

By Malkah Fleisher

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, received an award Tuesday night for her role in fighting terrorism through international courts and defending the civil rights of Israeli terror victims. Having dealt a heavy blow to Syria, now she's after the Bank of China.

Israel / News Briefs

Indictment Filed Against Arrested Ramat Migron Residents

By Jewish Press Staff Reporter

On Monday an indictment was filed against two youths from the Ramat Migron outpost charged with assaulting a policeman. The two were arrested just before Shabbat last week, after, according to police, they refused to leave the outpost despite a closed military zone order effective on the site. According to police they violently resisted their removal from the site.

Police and Crime / News Briefs

Honenu Reports: Violent Police Pull Earlocks in Ramat Migron Arrests

By Jacob Edelist

Despite a court decision, police announced that the site was under a closed military zone order and the resident youths must leave. Simultaneously, policemen began to attempt to grab some of the youths. According to people on the scene, during the arrests police pulled on the boys' earlocks and were otherwise extremely violent.

Israel / US / Global

Bombing Victims' Win $323 Mil. from Syria, Ramsey Clark Calls Suit 'Baseless'

By Solomon Burke

The family of Daniel Wultz, 16, a Florida resident who was killed in a Palestinian suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv won a $323 million judgment in a U.S. court against Iran and Syria. Attorney Darshan-Leitner said the Syrian government's aircraft, ships and corporations can be impounded to force Syria to comply with the court's ruling.

Sports

Cultural Intersection: The Globetrotters in Jerusalem

By Rich Brownstein

Despite a few uncomfortable moments, I came away from the game with a very thankful 13-year-old, with great father-son memories, and happy, knowing that, given the opportunity, the Globetrotters are still fully capable of being America's ambassadors to the world.

News Briefs

Jewish-Egyptian Businessman Suing Coca-Cola for Using his Family's Confiscated Property

By JTA

Jewish Canadian-Egyptian businessman Raphael Bigio is seeking a full U.S. appeals court to rehear his lawsuit against Coca-Cola for using his family’s property in Egypt. Bigio and his family filed the brief Wednesday in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. He is suing the Coca-Cola Company headquartered in the United States for […]

Israel / News Briefs

Court Delays Destruction of Ulpana Apartments

By Malkah Fleisher

The Supreme Court on Sunday ruled that the buildings of Givat HaUlpana in Beit El targeted for destruction because of an ownership dispute would receive a 60 day reprieve.

Parenting Our Children

Above And Beyond The Court System

By Yehudit Levinson

After my recent article about the difficult trials divorcing couples face within the court system (Family Issues 1-13-2012), especially when there are children involved, I received a heartfelt e-mail from a grandfather in tremendous pain over the demise of his son’s marriage and the subsequent custody battle over his beloved grandchild.

Op-Eds

The Paradox Of Israeli Politics: Vote Right, Get Left

By Adina Kutnicki

Many supporters of Israel are bedeviled by a glaring contradiction in Israeli political life. How can it be that, regardless of which party wins an election, leftist policies are invariably implemented?

US / News Briefs

NJ Court: Non-Jew Can Sue for Anti-Semitic Remarks

By Malkah Fleisher

A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that a man who alleges he endured anti-Semitic slurs from his former supervisors can sue them – even though he is not Jewish.

News Briefs

Court: Non-Jew May Sue for Anti-Semitic Slurs

By JTA

A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that a man can sue for enduring anti-Semitic slurs from former employers despite not being Jewish. Myron Cowher, a former truck driver for Carson & Roberts Site Constructions & Engineering Inc., sued the company and former supervisors after allegedly enduring anti-Semitic comments for more than a year. His […]

Analysis

Free Speech Found Guilty by Europe

By Soeren Kern

Lars Hedegaard, the president of the Danish Free Press Society, has been acquitted by the Danish Supreme Court on charges of "hate speech" for critical comments he made about Islam. But the acquittal was based on a legal technicality; in its ruling, the Supreme Court stressed that the substance of the charges against Hedegaard -- public criticism of Islam -- is still a crime punishable by imprisonment.

News Briefs

Hebron Residents May Appeal Eviction Ruling

By Jewish Press News Desk

According to Walla News, Hebron's Jewish community Sunday morning said they will consider an appear of the ruling by the Jerusalem District Court which ordered the evacuation of Jewish residents from a three-story building in Hebron. The court determined that the acquisition of the house was a forgery. Walla cites Hebron residents who ardued that […]

Israel

EU Condemns Israel For Returning Property to Owners, Evicting Squatters

By Malkah Fleisher

The European Union on Saturday condemned the eviction of Arab squatters from a house in Beit Hanina on Wednesday, despite an eight-year court case proving that the land they occupied belonged to Jews. One squatter family left voluntarily, one refused, was evicted by police.

Religious & Secular in Israel

Conservatives to Ordain Gay and Lesbian Rabbis in Israel

By Jewish Press Staff Writer

The Board of Trustees of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary voted to accept gay and lesbian students for ordination. “The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary views the serious process leading to this decision as an example of confronting social dilemmas within the framework of tradition and halachah,” Board of Trustees Chair Hanan Alexander said in a statement.

News Briefs

NY High Court: Ramaz Nurse Can Sue Under Whistleblower Law

By JTA

A former school nurse at the Ramaz School in New York who says she was fired for reporting a possible case of child abuse can sue the school under the state's whistleblower law. The New York State Court of Appeals (which is that state's highest court) ruled on April 12 in a 3-2 vote that […]

Editorial

The President And The Supreme Court: Philosophy And Politics

By Editorial Board

Much attention has properly been paid to President Obama’s unprecedented remarks about the Supreme Court, which, he worries, may find his signature health care law unconstitutional. It will be recalled that the president spoke after the oral argument in the case in which the justices asked many highly critical questions about the constitutionality of the law and comments from many legal observers that the law is in trouble.

US / The Knesset

Knesset Speaker: Elections in September; New Law Will Reduce Power of High Court; Pollard Will Go Free

By Jacob Edelist

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin says elections for Israel's next government will be held this coming September. There's one major reason why Rivlin is interested in going to the voter soon: he hopes that the in the next Knesset he'll get the votes to pass his new bill, seeking to level the playing field between the High Court and the Knesset. He also believes Peres will bring Pollard home.

Parenting Our Children

Postpartum Depression

By Dr. Batya L. Ludman

Mrs. D., the mother of two children under the age of four, came to see me – she was in the seventh month of her third pregnancy. This baby was unexpected. She had “difficulty” after her last pregnancy, and already tearful, she wanted me to get to know her now, so that I could help her later, when the depression hit. She was not sure she would be able to handle it all again.

Editorial

Panic On The Left

By Editorial Board

President Obama’s extraordinary public broadside on Monday against the Supreme Court, in reaction to questions posed by the justices during the course of three days of oral argument in the Obamacare case, is further confirmation that liberal supporters of Obamacare, including the president himself, are beginning to panic.

Editorial

Campaign Rhetoric

By Editorial Board

For those of us with an abiding concern that a reelected Barack Obama, free of the fear of the dynamics of another political campaign, will revert back to his full-court press against Israel to make a deal with the Palestinians – even at substantial cost to its national and security interests – the president’s widely reported overheard comment the other day to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was anything but reassuring.

NY / Local

Supreme Court: Jerusalem Passport Issue A Matter For Lower Courts

By dvora

The U.S. Supreme Court returned to the lower courts the issue of whether Americans born in Jerusalem may list “Israel” on their passports – a ruling that drew praise from Jewish groups. The decision delivered Monday was a success for the family of Jerusalem-born boy Menachem Zivotofsky. His family for years has sought to force the State Department to agree to state on his passport that he was born in Israel, citing a law passed by Congress in 2002.

Front Page

Israel’s Dictatorship Of The Judiciary

By Kenneth Levin

Much of the Israeli Left – including cultural and political leaders, journalists and academics – has in recent months engaged in hyperbolic, defamatory claims that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to destroy Israel’s democracy through proposed legislation such as that aimed at modifying how Israeli Supreme Court justices are selected.

Israel

High Court: Obeying the Law Not Enough to Establish Jewish Ownership in Judea and Samaria

By Solomon Burke

An aide to National Union MK Jacob Katz "Katzele" told the Jewish Press that many nationalist Knesset members are concerned that "the Supreme Court is trying to change the meaning of the Ottoman Law itself, instead of asking the Israeli government to pass its own version."

Editorial

The Vishnitzer Rebbe, ZT”L

By Editorial Board

The Jewish Press joins Klal Yisrael in mourning the death of Rav Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the Vishnitzer Rebbe in Bnei Brak since 1972 and a major Torah personality for more than sixty years.

Interviews and Profiles

Bet Din On The Clock: Nathan Lewin Wants Jewish Courts To Run More Efficiently

By Shlomo Greenwald

Like other chassidic dynasties, Bobov was not immune to one day experiencing a schism. When Rabbi Naftali Zvi Halberstam, the fourth Bobover Rebbe, died in 2005, a dispute arose over who would succeed him. Some chassidim sought to appoint his younger half-brother, Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam, as the next rebbe; and others sought out the fourth rebbe’s sons-in-law: Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger as the rebbe, and Rabbi Yehoshua Rubin as the Bobov rav (serving as head of the bet din and as the posek).

Knesset Corner

New Knesset Law Gets Tough on 'Get' Refusers

By Jeremy Saltan

The law states that the Rabbinical Court must determine a court date for a Get within 45 days of a divorce sentence. If the Get is not given within that time, the court will issue a restriction order and hold another hearing within the following 45 days. The court will meet within 90 days of giving a restriction order to discuss it and decide if it must be extended. The court will be able to use these extensions as they see fit.

News Briefs / Religious & Secular in Israel

Migron Settlers Signed Evacuation Agreement 'With a Gun to our Head'

By Tibbi Singer

Some 13 years after its establishment, and six years after the court case on the settlement's legality began, all the residents of Migron, a large outposts in Judea and Samaria, arrived Sunday night at their local synagogue and signed an affidavit to be submitted to the court, committing to leave their homes voluntarily and without any forced eviction in three and a half years.

Op-Eds

Demonstrations And Remonstrations On Agunah Day

By Dr. Rachel Levmore

Those who are subjected to emotional suffering tend to be kept out of society's line of sight. All the more so when society is either the cause of the suffering or can alleviate it and does not do so.

Analysis / Israel

2/29/12: Will Israel’s Supreme Court Tilt Right Under New Chief?

By Mati Wagner

The Supreme Court’s interventionist approach was pioneered by Aharon Barak, who served as the court’s president from 1995 till 2006. Dorit Beinisch, who is retiring from the court this week after serving as president since her mentor's retirement, upheld the tradition of judicial activism, keeping the court at the center of Israeli public debate and making it a lightning rod for Orthodox and right-wing critics. That could change as Beinisch is replaced by Asher Grunis, a conservative justice who has made a name for himself as a supporter of judicial restraint.

News Briefs

Court clears Orthodox Jew for not carrying ID on Sabbath

By JTA

(JTA) -- An Orthodox Jew was found not guilty by a Hague appeals court of failing to produce an ID card on the Sabbath. The man had faced a fine of nearly $200 for failing to prove his identity when requested to do so by police under a Dutch law. Orthodox Jews are not permitted to […]

Analysis

Galileo and the Likud

By Ariel Harkham

PM Netanyahu's recent opposition to two Knesset bills underscores a worrying drift in Israeli political culture from the most basic democratic governing principles like separation of powers, and checks and balances.

Midrash Stories

The Return Of Shimon ben Shetach

By Rabbi Sholom Klass

When Alexander Yannai, king of Judea, was prevented by the sages from becoming the high priest, he issued an order that all the sages of Israel be killed. Many were and the remainder fled. Rabi Shimon ben Shetach, considered the greatest of them all, was saved by his sister, Queen Shlomit Alexandra.

Israel / Jewish / US / Global

Jewish Groups Welcome Supreme Court’s ‘Ministerial Exception’ Ruling

By Ron Kampeas

The AJC said the “unfettered right of religious institutions to decide who shall convey their religious messages is as much an element of church-state separation as the ban on government sponsorship of religious messages.”

Israel

Terrorists Attempt Attack on Court During Sentencing of Fogels' Murderer

By Malkah Fleisher

A major terror attack at the Salem Military Court was prevented by IDF soldiers, just as the court was set to sentence the convicted murderer of almost all the members of a Jewish family from Samaria.

Parenting Our Children

Courtroom Drama

By Yehudit Levinson

There was a time when I thought we would never reach this stage. However, I can now say that we are "courtroom-drama free" – at least in regards to our blended family. The scars remain, the experiences no doubt have changed us, but the constant upheavals no longer control our daily lives.

Tales of the Gaonim

The Rambam

By Rabbi Sholom Klass

On the twentieth day of Teves we mark the 808th yahrzeit of Rabeinu Moshe ben Maimon, the Rambam (Maimonides). The Rambam (Maimonides) lived from 1135 to 1204. His scholarly works are world-renowned and it is about him that we say, “From Moses to Moses there never arose so great a person as Moses.”

Op-Eds

Where’s The Outrage?

By Ziona Greenwald, J.D.

When the disproportion of terrorist acts committed by Muslims – and the resulting hordes cheering the carnage on the Arab street – lead clear-minded observers to conclude that jihadism is the dominant strain in the Islamic world, we are accused of painting with an unfairly broad brush, discounting the silent (and invisible) majority of Muslims who oppose violence and crave peace.

Midrash Stories

The Translation Of The Torah (Continued from last week)

By Rabbi Sholom Klass

Ptolemy, King of Egypt, had requested of Elazar Kohen Gadol, that he send sages to his country to translate the Torah. Elazar complied by sending 72 sages. They were wined and dined and then the king put to them 72 questions, to test their wisdom.

Marriage and Relationships

Single Mothers Deserve Better

By Dr. Yael Respler

Note from Dr. Respler: In A Plea To My Husband’s Ex (The Magazine, 12-9-2011), I mistakenly left out one important detail. Her husband has legally sanctioned visitation rights to his children, and despite this his ex-wife has largely prevented their children from having contact with their father. The father has been advised by his rebbeim and many legal experts to refrain from returning to court to fight for his relationship with his children. He is following this advice. This letter is in response to my reply to that letter.

Serials

Getzlight - Chapter I

By Ruchama Feuerman

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