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By Rabbi Dov Lippman B'YACHAD PARTY ENTERING THE COALITION? B'yachad city councilman, Jacky Edri (pictured), has met with Mayor Abutbol about the possibility of the B'yachad party rejoining the Mayor's coalition.  Edri has stated that he believes he can accomplish more for his community from within the coalition.  B'yachad chairman, councilman Shalom Lerner, has publicly stated that he would not join the coalition and that the Mayor cannot be trusted to follow through on any promises made in a coalition agreement.  This dispute does raise the prospect of B'yachad splitting if Edri decides to enter the coalition on his own.  The opposition members did meet this past week after a summer vacation and did showed solidarity, together with Edri, indicating that a move to the coalition might not be happening so quickly.    CITY MANAGER SEEMINGLY CLEARED IN HOLYLAND SCANDAL City Manager, Motti Chuta (pictured), was not named among the people the police are...

Gamachim – Chesed Programs @ Lema’an Achai When I went to the beach yesterday, I took off my glasses to take the plunge. My kids said “ Aba , the sea is that big blue thing between the sand and the sky. And you’re heading in the wrong direction!” I am very short sighted. Therefore, when a tiny screw fell out of my glasses, a few years back, I was rendered totally useless. My solution was a “glasses components gamach”, a chap who had a small collection of bits & pieces of spectacles and, yes, tiny screws and a tiny-screwdriver, specifically for glasses. No charge. And within a few minutes, I was back to a world of clear vision.    If you look in the local ShemeshPhone telephone directory, you will note a Pink Pages section, called “Gamachim”. It consists of 14 pages of dense type, listing every conceivable “gamach”, from Blood Banks, Matresses and Fans, to Ladders, Cat Traps and Tax Advisors. “Gamach” is a hard word to translate. An abbreviation of “gemilat chasadim”,...

As I arrived at Istanbul Airport in Turkey this week, there was a loud crowd and a disturbance going on. On a previous visit I made to Turkey via this airport, there had been a large crowd of Erdogan supporters enthusiastically greeting his latest Israel hate-fest, with flag burning and viciousness. This time, I took my kippa off, and quietly videod the "happening". Question: Care to guess what the event is? Answer: A French footballer had made a transfer to a Turkish team. This was his popular welcoming to Turkey! 

As I checked into a local flight within Turkey today, the man at the Turkish Air check-in counter saw my Israeli passport and said: "I am half Iranian, and half Turkish. "And I hate Ahmadinejad. He is crazy and dangerous. Everyone in Iran is waiting for Israel to bomb him. As for Erdogan, he is also crazy and I hate him also. I hate the Iranian Government, and the Turkish Government. They support Hamas, and Hizbollah - terrorists. Erodogan will lose the next election, because he has gone too far, and the people of Turkey are not with him. They don't like it. Ahmadinejad is planning an earthquake in Tehran, because he knows that Israel will not be able to bomb the him afterwards. I have this from reliable sources." He picked up my passport and continued... "Well done to you for using your Israeli passport here. I have given you the best seat on the aircraft." And he had indeed!  

The case of Rabbi Motti Elon, the charismatic National Religious rabbi, has now been investigated by the police in Israel , who are apparently recommending prosecuting Rabbi Elon for child abuse and other sex crimes. Meantime, shocking details are emerging from the ultra-orthodox community of Komemiyut , located near Kiryat Gat, regarding a decades long cover-up of a child molester in the community, Shimshon Walzer   – who is reported to have attacked dozens of children. The alleged perpetrator is now in the USA , and is unlikely to return to face his investigators.       Of the 40 cases in which there is suspicion of abuse by Walzer, the police have reportedly collected complaints and testimony from 16 purported victims, who were aged between 7 and 16 when the acts were committed. Two complained against an additional suspect (who was a minor during the time of most of the alleged offenses). Many of the witnesses, now married and living outside the moshav,...

I have just 'landed' back home, after a marvelous week with the family on vacation in the Upper Galilee. During a 'tiyul' (hike - pictured above) there were several (between 10-20, I guess) loud "booms" over a period of a few hours. Some sounded very close - perhaps within a few hundred meters. In the North of Israel, one is used to hearing aircraft breaking the sound-barrier with "booms", and also to hearing army excercises accompanied by various explosions. However, these didn't sound like either...and we also heard air-raid warning sirens at some local villages. The hike was particularly easy and flat, with water to dip in (prominent No Swimming notices were totally ignored), and is popular, with literally bus-loads of walkers around us. A few people fidgeted, and seemed somewhat concerned, but, de facto, everyone continued their walk and splashing, business-as-usual. My ten year old son asked what might be happening.... I open...

by David Morris (Published this week in Connections Magazine) Child abuse happens in all cultural, ethnic, and income groups. Child abuse is harm to, or neglect of, a child by another person, whether adult or child. Child abuse can be physical, emotional - verbal, sexual or through neglect. Abuse may cause serious injury and may even result in death. The tendency to abuse children is not connected to any other known social category. It is not more prevalent in poor communities than in rich. It is not connected with cultural sophistication or lack thereof and nor is it connected to levels of religiosity. In short, there are no grounds for you to believe “it couldn’t happen here, surely!” Child abuse, unfortunately, happens wherever, in Bet Shemesh, Ramat Bet Shemesh, Modiin, amongst both religious and secular populations. Indeed, 70% of reported child abuse cases in Bet Shemesh, are from within orthodox communities. In a seminar about child abuse, arranged by Lema’an Acha...