Lead story on Human Right Watch condemns Palestinian authorities

For those who claim that the human rights organizations only criticize Israel, the lead story on the Human Rights Watch website features a new 149 page report that condemns the Palestinian Authority and Hamas for political repression and torture.

"(Ramallah) – The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas authorities in Gaza routinely arrest and torture peaceful critics and opponents, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. As the Palestinian Authority-Hamas feud has deepened, each has targeted the other’s supporters."

TIDE Event in Israel

As I have mentioned, in my view there's little Torah Im Derech Eretz in Eretz Yisroel. Militarism is the biggest reason for this. Draft exemption rules require that a man never work a day in his life in order to be exempted from the draft. So while people like to complain about Charedim not working, they need to know a big cause of that is the draft, perhaps the primary cause. So why don't Charedim just go to the army? Answer is because the environment is not kosher in about 50 different ways. 

One would think that having a country full of Jews would allow for TIDE. However, that would only apply if it's a religious country, which it definitely is not. 

Nevertheless, now and again, little slivers of Torah Im Derech Eretz surface. Next month in Jerusalem, the Taub Center is hosting a series of lectures on the Israeli labor market. The Taub Center is a non-profit non-governmental social policy organization. It seems to be fashioned like an American organization, hence the TIDE. Here are some details on the event:

http://taubcenter.org.il
Date: November 04, 2018 / 8:30-16:30 / Mishkenot Sha'ananim

The Herbert M. Singer
Annual International Policy Conference

Envisioning the Future of Israel’s Labor Market

For registration, click here

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem

The conference will be conducted in Hebrew and English with simultaneous translation

Introduction

Motty Elisha, Head of Employment, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services

Prof. Avi Weiss, President, Taub Center

First Session: Productivity, High Tech and the Start-Up Nation

Chair: Prof. Avi Weiss, President, Taub Center
Keynote Lecture: Prof. Eugene Kandel, Hebrew University, CEO Start-Up Nation Central
Discussion:

Dalia Narkis, Chair, Manpower Israel

Michal Tzuk, Former Deputy of Employment, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services

Additional speakers to be announced

Second Session: The Geographical Matching and Concentration of Firms, Workers and Places of Residence

Chair: Prof. Eric Gould, Chair, Labor Policy Program, Taub Center
Keynote Lecture: Prof. Edward Glaeser, Harvard University
Discussion:

MK Itzik Shmuli (The Zionist Union)

Efrat Dagan, Global Staffing Lead, Google

Lunch (Dairy)

Behind the Scenes with an Arab Israeli Start-Up Founder
Taub Center Podcast Launch 

Aziz Kaddan, CEO and Co-Founder, Myndlift

Third Session: Workforce Diversity

Chair: Yulia Eitan, Head of the Employment Administration for Special Populations, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services
Discussion: 

Rivi Beller, CEO, VeHadarta

Moishi Friedman, Co-Founder and CEO, Kamatech

Ayman Saif, Former Head of the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors, Prime Minister’s Office

Space is limited, and advanced registration is required

For directions to the event with parking options, click here.

Eretz Yisroel, Zionism,and Medinas Yisroel in the Philosophy of RSRH

Eretz Yisroel, Zionism,and Medinas Yisroel in the Philosophy of RSRH by R' Eliyahu Klugman

1991, Rav Eliyahu Meir Klugman, biographer of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, wrote an article summarizing the views of Rav Hirsch on Zionism. He closed with the following thought:

Yet, after all has been said, Medinas Yisroel is a modern, secular, parliamentary state. Clearly, it is not the Jewish State, projected by our prophets, for which we have been taught to yearn (as Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch so lucidly explains), and that would express our national identity as the Am HaTorah and the beginnings of the Messianic Redemption.

It follows clearly from Rav Hirsch’s teachings, then that we cannot embrace it in its present form with any enthusiasm. Rather it can only be viewed as a political fact and we must work within it to further the true interests of the Jewish people, the Am Hatorah, as we would in any political setting in which we find ourselves – but we cannot recognize it as an expression of the Jewish national identity and the coming of Moshiach.