Prof. Dan Mahler passed away on April 16, 2024. Dan Mahler was a freedom fighter, an honorary member of the Hofesh (Freedom) – The largest secular Israeli NPO, and one of its founders. Dan Mahler was also an educated man, broad-minded, and with many interests. He was a plastic surgeon and medical consultant; He was […]

We heard the intriguing truth not long ago, in one of the Islamic demonstrations in favor of the Hamas terrorist organization: “You believe that death is the end, we believe that death is the beginning!” – cried the brainwashed protester. How can you convince someone, given that they believe that death is a beginning – […]

And again… elections in Israel. What do you know. And the “new star” this time is an extreme-right party. The name? “Religious Zionism”. The agenda? Depends on whom you ask. The candidates of “Religious Zionism” have two faces. One face they present to their usual voter base. With them they discuss religion, religious laws, religious […]

For a large part of the Jewish believers – “God” has long since become a mere excuse to believe in the “Rabbi” and worship him. In fact, this is, in a sense, the definition of a “cult” or a “sect”, but if you ask the religious followers of one rabbi or another, they will of […]

The recent couple of weeks have been chaotic in Israel. Even though the struggle against Covid-19 seemed to succeed – new challenges have popped, in particular the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its implications inside Israel on the relationships between Jews and Arabs. This is not the proper place to describe the […]

There is a new sport in town: Making claims by supposedly asking a question. It started as a known advertisement technique. Are you looking for a quiet and inexpensive washing machine? Why do people buy XXX beverage? The late English comedian Benny Hill once had a quite amusing video clip about this. It naturally slipped […]

Tens of thousands of Breslev Hasidic Jews intend to fly to Ukraine, to the town of Uman, in order to attend the yearly ceremony near the grave of their rabbi. This is generally an extremely crowded event, and the people in charge of public health in Israel want to prevent this madness from taking place, […]

Some twenty years ago, Israeli media showed a large women conference, organized by ‘Shas’ – the Haredi religious political party in Israel. During the conference, there was an “on-line blessing” transmitted by cellular means from the late Rabbi Kaduri – a renowned Mizrahi Haredi rabbi and “kabbalist”, considered by many ill-educated religious people as some […]

The story of the young Israelis in Cyprus previously-accused of raping a British woman — demonstrates an important issue of religions. Watching the story evolving on TV, one could not escape the religious aspects popping up here and there. Many of the boys were suddenly shown with a “Kippah” (a Jewish traditional head cover) on […]

The following partially-translated article appeared in one of Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious newspapers, “Yated Ne’eman” (name roughly translated into “Faithful Tent-Peg”) on May 2000. It was written by Rabbi Chaim Shaul Karelitz, one of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish ultra-Orthodoxy at the time, and largely reflected the Jewish ultra-Orthodox attitude towards the state […]