Special needs pupils gain new skills

Special-needs pupils at the strictly Orthodox Side by Side school are learning more than tikkun olam when delivering weekly food parcels to people in need.

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Minister offended after Orthodox Israeli refuses to shake her hand

A Belgian minister has complained that a Charedi counterpart refused to shake hands at an official meeting with her because she is a woman.

Laurette Onkelinx was in Geneva at the World Health Assembly conference with Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman when she offered her hand as a greeting.

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Strictly-Orthodox middle class emerging in Israel

There is a new, outward-looking strictly-Orthodox middle class emerging in Israel, one of the country's leading think tanks has reported.

Challenging the received wisdom that the Charedi community as a whole is becoming more withdrawn from mainstream society, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) has found that a growing demographic within the group is "not afraid to integrate into the Israeli p

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Woman's memoir lifts lid on New York Chasidic life

A woman who has renounced her Chasidic background is set to send shockwaves around New York's strictly Orthodox community after writing a tell-all memoir about her upbringing.

Deborah Feldman turned her back on life in Brooklyn's Satmar community two years ago, after being pushed into an arranged marriage at 17 years old and becoming a mother at the age of 20.

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Charedim plan free school

Plans are being drawn up for the first strictly Orthodox Jewish free school.

Rabbi Nesanel Lieberman, currently head of the Toras Hashem Primary in Hendon, is working to open another school in north-west London in September next year.

The free school model has been criticised in some Orthodox circles because only half the places can be reserved on the basis of faith.

But Rabbi Lieberman h

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Israel's real Charedi revolution

Is Israel really in danger of being overrun by Charedi religious extremists?

It certainly feels like it.

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Charedi bus battle will motor on

So much has been spoken and written about the goings-on in Bet Shemesh, and more generally about their ramifications for the wider issue of the relationship between Israel's Charedim and the rest of Israeli society- and indeed between Charedim and the rest of the Jewish people - that you might think nothing more remains to be said. I believe, however, that there is more to say.

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Charedi leaders must fight to save soul of their community

It is now several weeks since a Charedi man in Israel spat at an eight year old Orthodox girl because he deemed her dress immodest. In response to secular and mainstream criticism, a demonstration was held in Jerusalem where some Charedim wore yellow stars or mock concentration camp uniform, claiming they were being treated by secular Israelis as European Jews were by the Nazis.

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We need to change this divide in Israel with love

"If the Nazis searched out every Jew in hate, we will search out every Jew in love."

These were the recent words of our Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, during a summary of what he learned from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory.

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Women, Charedim and the future of Israeli society

When I first heard of the recent protests over the exclusion of women by the Charedim in Israel, I wasn't surprised. At first I thought to the issue of segregated buses: "It happens anyway, at least this way it will remain within their community".

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Bus fuss evokes US civil-rights protest

Never, since the days of Rosa Parks, half-a-century ago, has a single bus-ride turned a citizen in to the heroine of thousands. A fortnight ago, Tania Rosenblit refused to sit in the back half of a bus where passengers normally segregate according to gender.

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