Hi everyone, my name is Yoav Heller, and I am the new shaliach of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), assigned part time to UJS. Beginning today, each week I will be recommending an article from the Israeli press in my blog as part of the Verb - the home of intelligent Jewish debate. I will provide some background to each article to give you some broader knowledge about the topics being discussed.
We will alternate each week between political pieces and articles which will bring you different angles of Israel society and culture.The first article is from YNET and concerns the decision of Eli Yishai, the Interior Minister, to block the ministry’s website for payments on Saturdays (Shabbat). Yishai is the head of the Shas party, which is an ultra-orthodox Sephardic party. This decision is another escalation of the debate between religious and secular views in Israel regarding the nature of the Jewish state.
Yishai, who is a very modern politician, knows how to use the media to promote these controversial decisions, in order to raise the conflict to a high scale and score points within his voters. The second article is an opinion piece, also from YNET, which reacts to the decision by Yishai, an article which gives you an idea of the common arguments and fears of seculars in Israel.
Following this, an interesting and practical question for UJS and Jewish students: the UJS website hosts dozens of events around the country which students can access and pay for any time. What are your thoughts on this?
Enjoy the articles, and please fill free to use the comment box below to ask questions or send your reactions to the articles, along with ideas for topics which might interest you for the future.
