Monday, December 19, 2011

In Israel's past bastions of secularism, religious debates flare


The disagreement over worship traditions at Matzuva is just one example of the conflicts that have developed in the past several years at dozens of kibbutzim around the country. In some the issue is which stream or tradition to follow, while at others the dispute is over whether to build a synagogue on the kibbutz and where to put it: at the center of the community, or off the beaten path. Economic issues are also involved: The Religious Services Ministry spends hundreds of thousands of shekels every year to build synagogues in kibbutzim that want it.[...]

Dr. Moti Zeira, director of Oranim College's HaMidrasha Educational Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Israel, ascribed the current conflict to increased religious observance in Israel and a change in the kibbutz population. He said kibbutzim were influenced by the move toward increasing religious observance that began in the 1980s. "Young kibbutz members who became observant and stayed on kibbutz demanded venues for worship, posing a challenge from within that strikes a sensitive nerve," Zeira said. At the same time, many kibbutzim are absorbing new members, or nonmember residents, who want religious services.[...]

5 comments :

  1. From the article: "He said kibbutzim were influenced by the move toward increasing religious observance that began in the 1980s."

    The kiruv movement really hit Israel in 1967, for obvious reasons.

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  2. I lived on a secular Labour kibbutz in Grade 11 in the mid 80's. My first Friday afternoon there I approached the director of my program and asked where the shul was and what time davening would be. He looked at me in horror: "We don't do that here!"
    Last I heard a few years ago the same kibbutz built a guest house and included a small room for davening to encourage frum guests to book. How times change.

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  3. Politically incorrectDecember 19, 2011 at 9:45 PM

    It's been a big mystery who Mrs. Debbie Maimon is who writes some of the most dishonest propaganda pieces around, even by Yated standards. The truth doesn't mean very much to her when she is given the task of defending Sholom Rubashkin and painting anyone not fighting for him as ante-Semitten on a quest of alilas dam. There are so many articles she wrote to that effect that they are too numerous to recount. All of her Yated pieces are regurgitated by the various Chabad media outlets. To think that Pinny's fetter Elya would have any inkling az es kumt tzu dem.

    http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=25453

    Here is one of her latest ones. She is all over the UFCW union for being corrupt, which indeed they are, but tries to skew the results of an independent testing lab because chalilah that anything incriminating should be allowed to get out about Rubashkin, even letoyeles.

    Remember the lab test that Rubashkin poultry had something like 300+ % more sodium than legally allowed? Maimon tries to spin it that an independent lab is lying in cahoots with the union to misrepresent salt residue from kashering. This is not only absurd but sort of like Moish Finkel's lies about low sodium salt in reverse.

    It is a known deceptive practice in the industry that producers inject extra salt into meat for enhanced taste, preserving old product and other shady benefits. Rubashkin just liked to take advantage of this more than your average shyster.

    So who is Maimon? Her husband is Rabbi Avraham Maimon. They are Turkish Sefardim who claim to shtam from the Rambam.

    http://www.powerprofiles.com/profile/00005166484638/YATED+NEEMAN+INC-MONSEY-NY

    Rabbi Maimon is the Yated office manager.

    There doesn't appear to be a shul at his house when checking satellite maps but he does list the house as Congregation Even Shelema.

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  4. It is known practice not only for Chabad to register their houses as synagogue in order to avoid paying property taxes.

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  5. How exactly is it a big mystery that Debbie Maimon, who writes under her real name, is writing about Rubashkin? I'm trying to come up with a scenario that is less mysterious than this one is, but I can't.

    Listing a house under a shul's name doesn't mean there's a shul in the house, it means the house is owned by a shul.

    ReplyDelete

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