Video of Groundbreaking Haredi Yeshiva Goes Viral & Other Orthodox Jews in the News

Sixty Senior Rabbis Call for End to ‘Evil Crime’ of Live Animal Shipments
One of Israel’s most senior rabbis has ruled that anyone buying meat from animals shipped from overseas to Israel for slaughter in cruel conditions is a partner to a crime. In a letter released Thursday by animal rights activists, Rabbi Yehuda Deri, chief rabbi of the southern city of Beersheba and a member of the Chief Rabbinate’s Council, called on every rabbi in Israel to protest the long-distance shipments of sheep and cattle for fattening and slaughter in Israel.

Five Takes on the Weekly Parsha
This parsha is intense. Stoning, harlots, blasphemy. As an Orthodox Jew who chose this lifestyle in her teens, I skim a parsha like this and think, “Wait, what did I sign up for?” Then I get to the end and see maybe the most misunderstood line from the Torah and suddenly feel better.

Eschewing Insularity, Haredi Yeshiva Head Teaches Math, Science, and Respect
Rabbi Menachem Bombach has been bucking tradition for several years by teaching secular subjects along with religious ones in his junior yeshiva in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit, for which he has been both praised and vilified by his co-religionists. He has also taken a far more dramatic step — at least when seen through the prism of his community’s norms — by teaching his students about Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s memorial day for its fallen IDF soldiers.

The Mocked Hasidic Child Could Have Been Mine – Or Yours
In a since-deleted video, an Orthodox child cries as a grown man makes fun of his sidelocks. Despite the fact that the video was both anti-Semitic and a violation of the child’s privacy, it went viral, with millions watching and almost 100,000 people “liking” the video before it was finally removed.

Boy, 14, Attacked Outside Yeshiva in New York
A 14-year-old boy was punched and cursed at outside of a yeshiva and high school in Queens, New York. The attack on Sunday evening occurred outside the Yeshivath Shaar Hatorah Grodno, the Forest Hills Post reported.

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