Uncategorized
Rabbi Chaim Druckman, giant of Israeli settlement and Religious Zionist movements, dies at 90
(JTA) — Rabbi Chaim Druckman, whose mission was to unite the people of Israel, was father to a movement now poised to sow some of its deepest divisions in decades.
Druckman, who died Sunday at 90 after contracting COVID-19, was a giant in the religious Zionism movement, which sought to integrate the two preeminent philosophies that saw themselves as bulwarks against Jewish disintegration: Orthodox Judaism and Zionism.
In the 1950s, he established the hesder movement, which blended Torah study with military service. For tens of thousands of religious Jews, his innovation resolved a dilemma that had beset Israel’s founders: What was the most meaningful way for young Orthodox men to spend their first years of adulthood?
“We study Torah to fulfill our national obligation and serve in the army to fulfill our religious obligation,” Druckman often said.
Over the years, he led yeshivas and youth movements to extend that vision, and in 2012, he won the Israel Prize, Israel’s national award, for his lifetime of contributions to religious Zionist education.
Yet as much as he sought to bridge divides, he was as frequently positioned at their fault lines, in recent years disparaging non-Orthodox Jews and mentoring extremists who seek the marginalization of non-Jewish and non-Orthodox minorities in Israel. He also at least twice defended and sought to rehabilitate religious leaders convicted of sexual abuse, including of children.
Druckman was born in 1932 in Kuty, in what was then Poland and what is now Ukraine. He and his parents went into hiding during the Holocaust and then fled to the Soviet Union. He entered British Mandate Palestine in 1944 posing as the child of another couple and was reunited with his parents after the war.
He soon became a disciple of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, the rabbi who helped shape the nationalist outlook of the National Religious Party. Kook’s teachings drove Druckman to become one of the first leaders of the religious Zionist movement to embrace the settlement of lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. He was at the seminal 1968 Passover seder in Hebron that is widely seen as the launch of the religious settlement movement and is believed to have coined the name of its principal body, Gush Emunim, which means bloc of believers.
Druckman became a figurehead of the settlement movement, although he lived most of his life in Mercaz Shapira, the Israeli village near Ashkelon where he ran the influential Or Etzion Yeshiva. He served in the Knesset in coalitions led by Likud and Labor prime ministers, from 1977 to 1988 and then from 1999 to 2003, with short periods in the opposition.
In the wake of the massive influx immigrants after the fall of the Soviet Union, Druckman as a senior religious court judge led an effort to ease conversion to Orthodox Judaism. His suasions backfired, leading haredi Orthodox judges to seek the nullification of thousands of conversions he had supervised.
However much he preached reconciliation among Jews, he stood hard and fast against any attempt to dismantle settlements, going so far as to advise soldiers to refuse orders to take part in the removal of settlements. He also stood by Jews accused and convicted of violent crimes associated with tensions over the settlements, including murder and terrorism, raising funds for those accused and welcoming them back into society.
He also stood by people who were accused of sexual abuse multiple times. He was rebuked in 1999 for failing to report credible reports of sexual assault by a yeshiva head he supervised, Zev Kopilevich, and he later championed another rabbi convicted of sexual abuse, Moti Elon. While he conceded in 2013 that the government was right to rebuke him, he also dismissed as “gossip” just this month multiple allegations of rape against another yeshiva head, Zvi Tau.
Until recently, Druckman championed Naftali Bennett and his Jewish Home Party as the natural heir to the National Religious Party tradition — but in 2021 when Bennett chose the path of reconciliation once championed by Druckman, joining a unity government with secular parties, Druckman cut him off and instead embraced the extremist Religious Zionist Party led by Bezalel Smotrich.
Druckman played a role in brokering the entry of the Religious Zionist Party into the government that Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to bring to power in coming days. The entry of Smotrich and a colleague, Itamar Ben-Gvir, into the government is likely to precipitate a crisis with Diaspora Jewry. They favor restricting Israeli laws to favor the Orthodox, annexing the West Bank and loosening laws that restrict troops from killing or physically harming Palestinians.
At Druckman’s funeral on Monday, Smotrich said Druckman “reproached” him frequently for his excesses, but in a recent interview with Yisrael Hayom, the nationalist daily, Druckman made clear that many of the ideas Smotrich champions had his blessing, including his proposal for a state based on religious law and his plans for anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
Tens of thousands of people attended Druckman’s funeral Monday in his home village of Mercaz Shapira. Israel’s leaders at his funeral remembered him as a unifier.
“All of us were your sons, all of us were your students,” President Isaac Herzog said, according to the Times of Israel.
—
The post Rabbi Chaim Druckman, giant of Israeli settlement and Religious Zionist movements, dies at 90 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s
Imagine receiving a love poem that reads: “Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, browsing among the lilies,” going on to say that they are a “mount” that the author wishes to “betake” himself to.
That particular line is from the Song of Songs, the sexiest book in the bible. But it doesn’t sound all that different from the poetry that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly wrote to journalist Olivia Nuzzi during what she claims was a purely “digital” affair between the two of them.
“Yr open mouth awaiting my harvest,” the former presidential candidate and current Secretary of Health and Human Services texted Nuzzi according to Ryan Lizza, her ex-fiancé; he released the “poetry” in a series of tell-all Substack posts about the affair.
The nature metaphors go on, as he allegedly instructs Nuzzi to “drink” from him: “‘Don’t spill a drop,’” he exhorts Nuzzi. “I am a river. You are my canyon. I mean to flow through you.”
This thinly-veiled description of a blow job is going viral online, where people cannot stop making fun of RFK’s literary stylings. “This is why we need better education in the humanities,” joked one post.
But the quality of love poems — or sexts, or erotica — is often in the eye of the beholder. (Though there are a few timeless classics, like The Book of O.) From inside the relationship, already dizzied by lust or love, the sexual descriptions can read as head-spinningly romantic even if, from the outside, they’re painfully awkward to read.
Perhaps this is also why the Song of Songs is usually interpreted allegorically, as a description of God’s love for the people of Israel, in Judaism. Later, Christians interpreted the book as a paean to the love between Jesus and the church. If it means what it seems to mean — if the breasts the author is lusting after are literally breasts — it’s just too racy. And, perhaps more importantly, too cringe.
The book is traditionally believed to be by King Solomon, one of the most venerated kings of ancient Israel, known for his wisdom. (Not incidentally, he is also known for his hundreds of wives and concubines.) And, of course, it’s included in the Bible, a holy text. And yet it is full of both open discussion of breasts and beauty, as well as metaphors that are about as subtle as RFK Jr.’s.
“His fruit is sweet to my mouth,” goes one line in the Song of Songs. “He brought me to the banquet room and his banner of love was over me.” Interpret that how you will, but eating sweet fruit seems thematically similar to opening one’s mouth to receive the bounty of a harvest.
Erotic texts were, in the era the Song of Songs was likely written, often part of the religious ceremonies of other traditions, particularly in fertility cults in the area. Still, how do you justify a great wise king discussing his lover’s breasts and dreaming of how her “rounded thighs are like jewels” — especially a king that was supposedly a titan of monotheism? Well, Rashi — one of the most famous Jewish textual commentators — interprets the breasts in the line “My beloved to me is a bag of myrhh, lodged between my breasts” as referring to “the two staves of the Ark.” Which seems like a stretch.
Of course, no one is trying to interpret RFK Jr.’s alleged poetry to be about God; he is nowhere near as venerated as King Solomon, and some of the other lines are less metaphorical. Plus, hundreds of years haven’t passed to blur the meaning of his words. But even with the centuries of interpretations, Solomon’s meaning is as clear as a freshwater stream. Or a river.
The post RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Bank of Israel Cuts Rates for First Time Since January 2024 as Inflation Eases After Gaza Truce
The Bank of Israel building is seen in Jerusalem, June 16, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Bank of Israel cut interest rates by a quarter-point on Monday, its first reduction in nearly two years, citing a moderation in inflation following the ceasefire in Gaza while expressing caution over the prospect of future cuts.
The cut in the benchmark rate to 4.25% from 4.5%, widely expected by analysts and financial markets, came after other global central banks had already begun to ease monetary policy and last month’s US-brokered truce between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas took hold.
“The Monetary Committee’s policy is focusing on price stability, support for economic activity, and stability of the markets,” the central bank said in a statement.
“The interest rate path will be determined in accordance with the development of inflation, economic activity, geopolitical uncertainty, and fiscal developments,” it said.
The committee lowered the key rate by a quarter-point in January 2024 at the outset of the Gaza war but has taken a conservative stance since then, opting for caution during the two-year conflict while price pressures rose, largely due to supply constraints.
But Israel‘s inflation rate has eased, and held steady at 2.5% in October to stay within an official 1-3% annual target range.
The central bank acknowledged inflation has moderated in the past two months but that “forecasters project that there will be some increase in inflation at the end of the year, and that it will then decline and stabilize around the midpoint of the target range.”
It added that the labor market remains tight and wage pressures continue to rise while home prices are declining.
At the same time, the Bank of Israel pointed to a sharp rebound in economic activity in the third quarter, gaining an annualized 12.4%, but that “its level remains lower than its long-term trend.”
Since the prior rates decision in late September, the shekel also has appreciated versus the dollar, euro and other trading partners.
“The data from recent months have … created a clear need for a cut,” said Ron Tomer, president of the Manufacturers’ Association.
“The Bank of Israel’s decision to lower the interest rate is a responsible step that helps curb the appreciation and restore competitiveness to the economy,” said Tomer, who called on the bank to cut again before its next meeting in early January.
The Oct. 10 ceasefire in the two-year Gaza war has eased the conflict and, although looking increasingly fragile, has for now reduced geopolitical risk and eased price pressures.
“Today’s interest rate cut joins a series of steps and clear signs — Israel is on the path to tremendous economic growth,” said finance minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Uncategorized
Saudi Arabia to Open More Alcohol Stores as Curbs Ease, Sources Say
An employee pours a draft non-alcoholic beer at the A12 cafe in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Staff
Saudi Arabia plans to open two new alcohol stores, including one serving non-Muslim, foreign staff at state oil giant Aramco, as the kingdom further eases restrictions, according to people briefed on the plans.
The launch of outlets in the eastern province of Dhahran and one for diplomats in the port city of Jeddah would be a further milestone in efforts, led by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to open up the country.
The kingdom, which is the birthplace of Islam, last year opened an alcohol store serving non-Muslim diplomats in the capital Riyadh – the first such outlet since a ban was brought in 73 years ago.
STORE PLANNED IN ARAMCO COMPOUND, SAYS SOURCE
The new store in Dhahran will be set up in a compound owned by Aramco, one of the three people who talked to Reuters said.
That store would be open for non-Muslims working for Aramco, added the source, who said Saudi authorities had informed them of the plan.
Two of the sources said a third liquor store was also in the works for non-Muslim diplomats in the city of Jeddah, where many foreign countries have consuls.
Both stores were expected to open in 2026, but no timelines had been released, two of the sources said.
The government media office did not immediately reply to questions over the plans for the stores in both locations, which were previously unreported. Aramco declined to comment.
There was no officially announced change made to regulations after the opening of the Riyadh store in a nondescript building in the diplomatic quarter known to some diplomats as the “booze bunker.”
The Riyadh store’s customer base was recently expanded to include non-Muslim Saudi Premium Residency holders, two of the sources said. Premium residencies have been awarded to entrepreneurs, major investors and those with special talents.
Before the Riyadh store, alcohol was largely only available through diplomatic mail, the black market or home brewing.
In other Gulf countries, apart from Kuwait, alcohol is available with some restrictions.
REFORMS COVER EVENTS, WOMEN’S DRIVING
While alcoholic drinks are still off limits for the vast majority of the population, under bin Salman’s reforms both Saudis and foreigners can now take part in once unthinkable activities from dancing at desert raves to going to the cinema.
Other reforms have included allowing women to drive in 2017, easing rules on the segregation of men and women in public spaces, and significantly reducing the power of the religious police.
The kingdom has been easing restrictions to lure tourists and international businesses as part of an ambitious plan to diversify its economy and make itself less dependent on oil.
In May a media report, picked up by some international media after appearing on a wine blog, said Saudi authorities had planned to allow alcohol sales in tourist settings as the country prepares to host the 2034 soccer World Cup.
The report, which was denied at the time by a Saudi official, did not give a source for the information.
That report had sparked a vigorous online debate in the kingdom, whose king also holds the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques – Islam’s most revered places in Mecca and Medina.
Social liberalization has proceeded at a breakneck pace but the leadership has taken a more gradual and cautious approach on the question of alcohol.
Saudi Arabia has been aggressively expanding its local tourism portfolio with the giant Red Sea Global development, which includes plans to open 17 new hotels by next May.
These ultra-luxury resorts remain dry.
Asked by Reuters this month if there were any plans to ease restrictions on alcohol to help attract foreign visitors, Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb said: “We do understand that some of the international travelers want to enjoy alcohol when they visit the Saudi destinations but nothing has changed yet.”
Pressed on whether “yet” meant that could soon change, he said: “I will leave it to you on how to elaborate on it.”