Pollard the spy is no Zionist hero

Early this month, Israeli President Shimon Peres sent a personal missive to Barack Obama, asking for clemency for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. The very next day, Obama rejected the plea, practically by return mail.

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Time to rethink the Tanach?

How much of the Tanach is literally true?

This was the focus of a talk at the London School of Jewish Studies last week. The panel - Menachem Leibtag, Shmuel Klitsner and Jonathan Bailey, all leading American-Israeli modern Orthodox scholars - was in agreement. The Torah is God-given, but not all the stories necessarily happened exactly as written.

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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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What are the Orthodox afraid of?

It would be easy for those of us who belong to the Orthodox community to be angry at the furore surrounding the Big Tent.

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Meet my daughter, Jonathan

With 10 weeks - perhaps less – to go before I have a new baby, it's hard to say I've done much to prepare.

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This was a morally repulsive argument

Let us give Larry Derfner the benefit of the doubt that he does not wish to see terror attacks inflicted upon his fellow Israelis. That much is clear both from the original blog post and from his subsequent apology.

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Not rioting, just dreaming

After a month in Israel, I'm about ready to join a demonstration against the cost of living here myself. Even armed with pounds (admittedly not worth as much as they used to be) this is a really expensive country.

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Drop-outs can repair the rifts

Since the 1960s, the Orthodox world has been justifiably proud of the ba'al teshuvah movement - the large numbers of assimilated Jews who have become frum, bolstering the observant community.

Until relatively recently, however, the flow of people moving the other way, out of Orthodoxy, has been the movement's dirty little secret.

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Banished - the female face

Contrary to popular mythology, Jewish women in the Middle Ages were not confined to the role of home-maker, powerless in a male-dominated world. According to Avraham Grossman's modern classic, Pious and Rebellious, a survey of Jewish women's lives in Europe between 1000 and 1300, many women worked and their economic power helped improve their position in their families.

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Yes, Hamas is already taking over

Should the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement be welcomed or opposed? This depends on which of the two parties ends up dominating the other.

For the moment, the factions may have agreed to co-operate for domestic reasons and to help smooth the way towards the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state in September.

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Let us vote for next chief rabbi

It is still two and a half years until the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, retires, but the process of choosing his successor is already in full swing.

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New ways of wishing 'gd Shbs'

It is 11 years since a number of Israeli rabbis came out against their followers using the internet, and at least half-a-decade since they attempted to ban internet-enabled mobile phones.

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Left-wing criticism is not right

What is really behind the objections to Jewish Leadership Council chief Mick Davis's criticism of Israel? Is it what he said? To whom he said it? Or is the real issue, perhaps, who said it?

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Rabin's legacy sits to the right

Fifteen years after his murder, Israelis don't care much about Yitzhak Rabin.

None of the main television channels planned to cover the commemoration ceremony for the slain leader this year - the state broadcaster, Channel 1, only reversed tack following a Facebook campaign. Last Saturday night, the organisers of the memorial could not even fill Rabin Square, the site of Rabin's murder on November 4, 1995. They will most likely have to move to
a smaller location next year.

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Mr Ahmadinejad, throw that stone

According to the Arab press, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to end his tour of Lebanon by symbolically lobbing a rock at Israel over the border fence.

The thinking, presumably, is that this would be a great PR coup - that the image would cement Mr Ahmadinejad's reputation as the Islamic world's foremost opponent of the Jewish state. But would it really?

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Street life is never comfortable

It was miserable timing. Two weeks ago, the JC revealed that a number of activists in the UK were trying to establish a left-leaning Israel group, which would support Israel but not shy away from criticising its government. The initiative, which is being spearheaded by Hannah Weisfeld, formerly of the Jewish Community Centre for London, was directly inspired by the liberal American lobby group, J Street, which, since it was founded in 2008, has increasingly challenged the more conservative Jewish establishment.

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