Doc's Talk: Lomda, a Bridge To Equal Burden

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Lomda, a Bridge To Equal Burden

Nurit Greenger

A debate has gripped the state of Israel, in which its citizenry demand equal share of the burden of serving in the military. That requires passing a law, along which ultra-Orthodox men, known as Chareidi, must be drafted into the Israeli army, ending an exemption that has lasted for 64 years and has enraged all other citizens who are obliged, by law, to serve in the military.

For Israel's Charedim, the preservation of their right to study in yeshiva and kollel, rather than serve in the military, represents a battle for the preservation of the Jewish people; putting the value of the body against the worth of the soul.

The debate has brought to light the Israeli Chareidi faction's struggle for survival.

No matter what the outcome of the legal battle for equal share of the burden will be, for a Chareidi man, remaining sitting all day between the walls of study rooms does not provide the means to survive. With the government of Israel cutting short the welfare allotment for the Haredim faction's family, today amounts to $500.00 a month, many have found themselves lacking vocation skill and simply unable to support their rather large family. Time of despair have hit many. Additionally, getting a job without having a record of military or national service disqualifies one from getting a job and thus leaves a Haredi man between the rock and hard place.

But there is a solution its doors have been opened twenty-one years ago. It is Lomda, the Chareidi Institute for Vocational Training, located in the heart of Jerusalem, Israel - (www.lomda.org). Lomda is the first Chareidi vocational school in Israel; it began with teaching women only and today there are 900 men and women students and the need to accommodate more is at all time high. The women learn during the day and the men in the evening.

Last week, at a breakfast meeting that took place at the spacious and charming Beverly Hills home of Sandra Stein, I met the Lomda Institute management team: Rabbi Asher Klitnick, the Director of Development, Rabbi Moshe Shapoff, Director Institutional Advancement and Michael Winnett, Director of Academic Affairs. The three Chareidi men have presented to the audience a new side of the Chareidi society.

Though, the Hareidim place in Israeli society is one of the most burning issues in Israel today, to hear a Rabbi calling on his students to participate in the work force is very rare. That is exactly what Rabbi Klitnick does. He is a firm believer that the overwhelming majority of the Chareidim must combine work with Torah study. What Rabbi Klitnick is doing is attempting to cure a problem in Israel by helping the Chareidim learn a vocation and enter the workforce. With having a job the share in the burden will be solved. The idea is simple: to help as many Chareidi men and women to be self sufficient, earn a living and gain the respect of the rest of the nation. Having a vocation that leads to having a job means being able to support one's family with dignity, and thus helping Israel's economy. It also helps achieving A'havat Israel-the love for Israel, national unity and more collaboration between the Chareidi and secular factions in Israel.

Lomda gives the Chareidim the fishing rod to be able to fish; learn a vocation that will make them self sufficient.

Lomda helps the Chareidi and secular factions to finally meet on mutual grounds and become a more united nation.

It is a simple equation; when the Chareidim become a work force the economy of Israel strengthens, as there is less welfare recipients and more contributors who pay tax, rather than receive the taxpayers' money.

So how does it all begin? It is simple.

In time of need, which has become the call of each day, a Chareidi men or women come to Lomda to learn how to create livelihood. The rule is not to pull the Chareidim out of the yeshiva. When the yeshiva rabbi sees that the student is not going to become a biblical scholar or a rabbi, he will suggest to seek a vocation. A vocation can be acquired at Lomda. At the school the applicants receive the necessary guidance, get assessed as to what skill they have along which they can learn a profession that will put food on their table. Whatever vocation they learn they will be compatible in the marketplace.

According to the law of the land, one has to have served in the military or to have gone through national service program to be able to get a job; that means give back to the country. And here is where the ends meet. No job to survive without sharing in the burden.

Such integration, that was lacking since Israel became a state, requires patience. It is not an overnight transformation.

Jews who made Aliya, immigrated to Israel from all four corners of the world, did not become Israelis over night. It behooves the Israeli to see the Chareidim as new Olim-immigrants. After all they have lived as a separate society, not as part of the nation as a whole, for 64 years. A graduate from Lomda will be able to become an equal citizens, a real Israeli.

The school offers many courses across the vocational spectrum such as, bookkeeping, computer and high tech, graphic arts, photography, filming, advertising, real estate, finance, electrical, technicians, culinary arts and baking, publishing and others; it even offers a wine making course which already produced eighteen successful wine makers. The school holds an amazing 85% success rate of graduates receiving an official government vocation certificate and then finding a job. Lomda's future is shining and bright; it has already huge positive effect on the Chareidi community and is helping the Chareidi faction to make inroads in the Israel economy and society.

There are eight levels of charity and the greatest level, above which there is no greater, is the support for fellow Jew until he needs no longer to be dependent upon others. ~Maimonides.

When a Chareidi man or woman obtain a profession they begin a new trend. They set an example for the entire family and their community. With it, the new generations will already have a mindset of earning a living combined with studying Torah. No more living on the dole rather an open door to better future.

The Lomda Institute needs to amass more scholarships so it can take in more students. A scholarship could be from $1,000 and up to $6,000 depending on the course. If a student takes a Bachelor Degree course the government of Israel will subsidize his or her studies, but not a vocation course.

And this is what Lomda Institute needs: to help to put as many Chareidi men and women on their feet so they can integrate in Israeli society and help bring about Shleimut Am Yisrael-the unity of the nation of Israel, for the state of Israel, the whole.

For more details call Rabbi Asher Klitnick at Lomda, 17 Strauss St., Jerusalem, Israel: +972-(0)2-622-2210 and +1-718-510-7161/e-mail: aklitnick@gmail.com

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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