A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

A nonprofit, independent news source to inform, inspire, educate and connect the St. Louis Jewish community.

St. Louis Jewish Light

Soldiers from the Israeli armys haredi Orthodox unit called the
Netzah Yehuda Battalion praying.

Controversy grows in Israel over extension of Tal Law granting haredim army exemptions

By Linda Gradstein, JTAPublished February 1, 2012

JERUSALEM—When Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, granted a few hundred haredi Orthodox Jews an exemption from army service, it's likely he never dreamed that 63 years later, tens of thousands of haredi Israelis would claim the exemption—or...

Haredi Orthodox men clash with police in the Israeli city of
Beit Shemesh, Dec. 26, 2011.
Photo: Kobi Gideon / Flash90 / JTA

Where do Israeli Haredim stand on Haredi violence?

By Uriel Heilman, JTAPublished January 4, 2012

The cascade of condemnations started pouring in almost as soon as the Israeli TV report aired. Its subject was  an 8-year-old girl harassed by Haredi men on the way to her Modern Orthodox girls' school in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh. The Israeli...

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