Communicated: TefillaChillul Tefila Bifarhesia, as well as halachicly challenged verbiage and dress, are external manifestations of a critical lack of personal yiras shomayim which has lethal consequences.
Britain’s Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations reportedly has severed ties with a synagogue whose rabbi has been accused of inappropriate conduct with women.
To date, no official charge has been filed with the police in this case.
The British-Jewish umbrella organization took the extraordinary move on Monday by publishing a letter that said that Rabbi Chayim Halpern’s Divrei Chaim Synagogue in London was “no longer affiliated” with the Union, according to The Jewish Chronicle, .
Following complaints by women who reportedly said Rabbi Halpern had acted “improperly” during counseling sessions, the Union had previously announced a plan to convene a special Beth Din, a rabbinical court, consisting of independent dayanim, or judges, to examine the complaints.
The letter, signed by the Union’s general secretary, Chaim Schneck, offered no explanation for the latest turn of events, the Chronicle reported.
Rabbi Halpern resigned last month from his position as a dayan-judge with the Union but has maintained his innocence, saying that his marriage counseling sessions were conducted according to Jewish law.
A number of London rabbis have declared that Rabbi Halpern was “not fit and proper to act in any rabbinic capacity.”
Rabbi Halpern is the son of Union president Rabbi Elchonon Halpern and was considered one of the powerful figures within the Union rabbinate, according to the Chronicle.
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The Kaspersky Lab has revealed that the first quarter of 2013 almost a million network attacks were detected in Israel. In fact, every third Israeli computer is under malware attacks at any given moment. Kaspersky Lab and its representative in Israel Power Communications presented this data on Wednesday, in Tel Aviv. Last year, six million [...]

The recommendations determine new rules for sharing the security burden equally.

Judging by the sheer onesidedness of the parts I’ve read, I cannot see how the report can serve as a foundation for discussion.
Arab stone throwing and other violent disturbances near Efrat continues. Following in the footsteps of the pipe bomb found near the northern entrance last week, a girl was hurt Thursday when rocks were thrown at a car she was riding in. A number of cars were hit and damaged near Efrat’s northern entrance. Last week [...]
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed deep disappointment with the members of Detroit City Council and local clergy who met with and embraced the antisemitic and racist leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, during his visit to the city last week. During his visit to Detroit, Farrakhan was invited by Rev. Wendell Anthony, President [...]
A number of bills targeting Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program have advanced in the U.S. Congress. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved and sent to the full House a bill backed by Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the chairman of the committee, and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), its senior Democrat, that would [...]
Former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz was appointed the new president of Bar-Ilan University. Hershkowitz’s appointment was approved unanimously on Monday during a meeting of the university’s board of trustees. He will begin serving in October, at the start of the 2013-14 academic year. The Haifa native succeeds Moshe Kaveh, who [...]
Former Iranian president Akbar Rafsanjani on Wednesday strongly criticized the leadership of his country, following his disqualification as presidential candidate this week. “I don’t think the country could have been run worse, even if it had been planned in advance,” the 78-year-old Rafsanjani reportedly told members of his campaign team. “I don’t want to get [...]
An eyewitness fought back tears as he recalled seeing the killers attacking the man “like a piece of meat.”
Observers of the world body in Geneva said the annual hypocrisy reached a new low this year.
It now turns out that if a foreign corespondent is a self-centered, name dropping blowhard, he is also likely to be an Israel hater.
We interrupt this thoughtful column to share with you the above image, which I just received by email from my wife (and which you, I’m sure, have first seen back in 2006, because the media are always behind with these things). “For the first time, women are now being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.” [...]
Some 25,000 Belz chassidim packed the wedding ceremony of Rabbi Shalom Rokeach, Grandson of the Belzer Rebbe, and Chana Batya Pener, May 22, 2013, in Jerusalem. Pretty amazing images. It says something about these people’s comfort with one another in close quarters. I find it very difficult to be standing or sitting so close to [...]
Let everyone know of the shelter at Chabad
The US considers a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria an international issue, so much so that a US official attending a hearing on an anti-outpost Peace Now petition.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY-10) on Wednesday responded to the withholding of the Leahy Amendment to protect LGBT families in immigration reform legislation: “As the House sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), I am extremely disappointed that an amendment to ensure equal treatment for same-sex, bi-national couples was withheld, without a vote, during the [...]
A number of bills targeting Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program have advanced in the U.S. Congress. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved and sent to the full House a bill backed by Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the chairman of the committee, and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), its senior Democrat, that would [...]
Former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz was appointed the new president of Bar-Ilan University. Hershkowitz’s appointment was approved unanimously on Monday during a meeting of the university’s board of trustees. He will begin serving in October, at the start of the 2013-14 academic year. The Haifa native succeeds Moshe Kaveh, who [...]
Two New Jersey men, indicted in March for arson and attempted murder and terrorism, pleaded not guilt in a New Jersey court this week. Anthony Graziano of Lodi and Aakash Dalal of New Brunswick, both 21, were arrested after the northern New Jersey’s Bergen County bombings, one of which injured Beth El Congregation Rabbi Nosson [...]
An Israeli soldier was killed in a mine explosion in the southern Golan Heights. The soldier was taking part Tuesday in a minefield-clearing operation, according to the Israel Defense Forces, and was killed when an old anti-tank mine exploded. Two other soldiers were injured. The mine reportedly was cleared and marked before it exploded. The [...]
“A majority of the claims made by the person who wrote the anonymous letter were refuted by Mr. Domnitser,” the report said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has named Ira Forman, who led President Obama’s reelection campaign in the Jewish community, as his envoy to combat anti-Semitism. The State Department announced the appointment Monday, the same day it released its 2012 report on religious freedom that recorded a “continued global increase in anti-Semitism.” Forman replaces Hannah [...]
Vandals spray painted the Jerusalem home of a long-time board member of the Women of the Wall (WOW) with vicious graffiti, the first time opponents to WOW have resorted to vengeance. Some of the graffiti sprayed on the door and stairwell of Peggy Cidor’s apartment read in Hebrew: “Women of the Wall are wicked,” “Peggy, [...]
An anonymous letter sent to the Claims Conference’s Frankfurt office in 2001 identified five cases where restitution was approved for ineligible claimants.
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