Natan Slifkin's Blog, page 11

Happy Purim?

I'm often something of a Purim grinch, but this Purim I'm feeling particularly depressed. Israel is neither getting our hostages away from Hamas or at active war with them. The explosion of left-wing antisemitism in academia and the streets of America is about to be matched by an explosion of right-wing antisemitism led by people such as Tucker Carlson and facilitated by people such as Joe Rogan. Qatar, sitting behind much of the anti-Israel campaigning worldwide, is untouchable; Trump won't utt...

Torah vs. Daas Torah, Yet Again

What’s really astonishing about the “Gedolei Torah” of the charedi community is not just the total lack of concern for the wellbeing and lives (and Torah studies) of non-charedim, and not just the short-sightedness and complete lack of plan for the long-term survival of their community and the country, but also how they completely pervert the Torah itself.

In a post from a while back, Torah vs. Daas Torah, I noted how the Gedolim cited a Torah source in order to prove that tzniyus is an importan...

Saving Charedim, Saving Israel

Ten years ago, the Israeli edition of Mishpacha magazine ran a shocking feature story about poverty and financial collapse in the Israeli charedi community. The only thing still keeping the community going since then is the enormous funding and welfare payments and tax exemptions from the government, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars annually. Obviously this can’t last forever. Even if Likud manages to stay in power forever via consenting to charedi demands, eventually the money will ru...

"No Other Land"

As you’ve probably heard, the winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary is No Other Land, a film about the IDF destruction of a Palestinian village and oppression of its residents. It was created by Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, together with Yuval Abraham, an Israeli activist.

I have not seen the film and this post is not about the contents of the film. Instead, it’s about the issues surrounding it.

Many Jews deny that there is any significant problem of unjustified IDF and settler violence ...

(Don't) Just Say No

We all expect the young men and women of the IDF to demonstrate great bravery. We want them to risk their very lives and face the horrors of Hamas and other terrorists. We want them to go into Gaza and Lebanon and risk everything.

But what bravery do we ourselves exhibit?

There’s something very simple and basic that all of us need to do. Some people are too shy or nervous or afraid. But we need to step up.

The charedi lack of participation in the IDF, and even more so the undereducation and deliber...

Anti-Zionism with Integrity

Rav Dov Landau, the leader of the charedi Lithuanian community, is not very popular outside of the charedi world. And this is with good reason. After all, he’s against charedim serving in the army or even helping soldiers. And this is aside from the problem of charedim being underemployed and draining the economy.

Still, I’m actually going to praise him for something.

The World Zionist Organization is, unsurprisingly, a Zionist organization. The WZO was founded by Herzl at the First Zionist Congr...

The Palestine Problem

In the previous post, Palestine Is Not For Sale, I quoted from David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, which has an interesting account of Churchill’s dealings with the Arab leadership regarding Palestine. In another section, this account reveals so much not just about the core of the conflict, but also the patterns of behavior which later repeat themselves:

Churchill approached the complex, emotion-laden and muddled que...

Palestine Is Not For Sale!

I don’t know if this rates as cultural appropriation, but Palestinian activists are producing their own version of Mordechai Ben David’s legendary hit “Jerusalem Is Not For Sale.” This will be taking place tomorrow, in Boro Park!

I’m not sure what songs they will be singing other than the title song. Maybe "Just one jihad and we'll all be free!" And perhaps they’ll do an adaptation of the Abie Rotenberg classic, "Come with me, little shahidele."

But seriously, folks. Apparently this protest is in ...

An Expert on Zionism

You may recall my series of critiques on the obsessive anti-Israel work of Irus Braverman, a professor at the University of Buffalo. She takes wildlife conservation practices which are the norm in every part of the world—even among Palestinian and Arab conservationists—and claims that when practiced by Zionists, they are actually part of a secret Jewish conspiracy to commit “violence” against Palestinians. I’m including my critique of her work in my forthcoming book The Lions of Zion, but I was ...

Gedolim Against Israel

In all the fuss over the Trump plan, there was something very important that some people missed. The leader of the Lithuanian stream of charedi Judaism, Rav Dov Landau, came out with some astonishing statements. As a reminder, over the past year and a half, he has not only opposed charedim serving in the IDF (whether they are in yeshiva or not), but also claimed that those who do want charedim to help relieve the crushing burden on everyone else are evil. He has also opposed charedim visiting in...