1.
If two weeks ago there were two newspapers - Yom Yom and Mishpa - that functioned as the PR department of Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri, this week the phenomenon is repeating itself.
Two weeks ago, a family enthusiastically covered Deri's appearance at the 'Bnei Torah' camp, and this week Deri sang praises to the family about... his fight against discrimination against seminary girls from Eastern religions.
Attorney Yoav Lalum already made it clear during the week that when it comes to discrimination at Elad's seminars, Deri wasn't really helpful. But that didn't stop a family letter from dedicating two entire pages, the opening pages of the news issue, to hymns, while conducting an interview with the movement's chairman.
The issue is important: preventing discrimination. The good news is really not good news.
As the reporter also admits in the body of the article, things have happened before. Already in Netanyahu's second term (Gideon Sa'ar as Minister of Education), then-Knesset member Avraham Michaeli submitted a bill to prevent discrimination. The reporter refrains from mentioning that the Shas chairman at the time was Eli Yishai.
The proposal was then taken off the table due to pressure from United Torah Judaism. So, what is the good news about the bill that Deri asked MK Yoav Ben-Zur to put back on the table? And won't United Torah Judaism torpedo it, just like it did then?
Well, Eli Yishai submitted a bill, Aryeh Deri submitted a bill - and where is the good news?
2.
The one who slightly corrected the distortion was the news editor, Eliezer Shulman, who mustered up courage and included, on the left side of the spread, a personal column, in which he cooled the fire of enthusiasm and applause.
""Don't be surprised by the announcements," Shulman wrote honestly. "Who knows better than Aryeh Deri how long a bill has to go before it reaches the law book of the State of Israel.
""First, a majority must be gathered for it in a preliminary reading. Then it is transferred to the relevant committee... after the committee formulates... it returns for a first reading to the Knesset plenum. Again, a majority must be gathered for a vote, and then the bill returns to the committee to prepare for a second and third reading.".
That's exactly what the previous chairman tried to do - and failed.
3.
Sarah Pardes did a great job of interviewing Meir Shimoni, the director of the Haredi district of the Ministry of Education, in such a turbulent week in terms of events surrounding discrimination against girls in seminars.
In the interview, Shimoni welcomes the idea of the regional seminars, and sees it as the epitome of everything, in terms of solving the seminars' problems.
""I want to create an educational continuum from elementary education to seminary, so that the entire saga surrounding the avoidance of accepting girls into seminaries will disappear into the abyss of oblivion. This is a complex process that requires a restructuring of systems and intensive cooperation with local authorities and seminary administrators. On this issue, the mayors, politicians and, of course, the Haredi rabbis are with us.".
Shimoni did not yet know, at the time of the interview, about the firm opposition of the Grand Rabbi Shteinman and the Grand Rabbi Kanievsky to the outline - an opposition that made a mockery of the entire interview.
Moreover, I have a hard time agreeing with the last sentence. "If this happens, there is no doubt that he will be the ultimate candidate for the Haredi Nobel Prize.".
If the great men of Israel object, a family newspaper will not award a Nobel Prize. And even if they did agree, it was not Shimoni who forced the solution on Elad, but a court.
Thanks to the petition of Attorney Yoav Lelom from the 'Noar Kahalacha' association.
But no family newspaper would dare to award a Nobel Prize. Not even mention it in the article.
4.
So it's true that Aryeh Zisman's column - 'Mekor Ne'eman' - in Beited Ne'eman is intended for the spicy news of weekly politics. Still, there are times when you deviate from your custom and incorporate a personal piece into a column, even if it's a political column.
""The 'Loyal Source' section is primarily intended to bring the weekly news in brief with additional behind-the-scenes angles," admits Zisman. But from his personal perspective, the "news" of the week does not come from political waters.
His news moved me to tears.
""Time: The beginning of the week, Sunday - 1st of Elul. Place: Rabbi Akiva Street, Haifa. Context: The house where the column's writer lives. Time: 10:30 in the morning. The feeling: A moment that must be cherished and preserved for the rest of one's life.".
""Each of us," continues Zisman, "has special and uplifting moments that we preserve and create in our hearts. These moments surface and emerge from time to time, and we of course enjoy remembering and reliving them (depending on our mood) after a while. We had such a moment on Sunday this week.".
It turns out that Zisman has an only son, a younger brother to four sisters. This week he left home on his way to the small yeshiva. "The son left happily, with a big smile on his face. It was clear that he was as excited as we were, but he tried to hide it. Over the course of the year, he prepared himself well for this moment. The prayers, the study, the seriousness, were evident in the Sad in his every move and daily routine.
""And now the moment we had been waiting for has arrived. The child, who was just born 13 and a half years ago, leaves the house...on his way to a yeshiva (Kiryat Ata).
""We wiped away a small tear with a prayer: May God grant success through him.".
From this platform, we wish Aryeh Zisman much happiness and blessings of success for his only son. From personal information, as a native of Kiryat Ata, the small yeshiva there, headed by Rabbi Postevsky, is one of the best.
5.
The title of best column of the week goes to journalist Haim Walder Meitad Ne'eman's article - 'Presidents and Spirit'.
It seems that no one has ever attacked President Reuven Rivlin so sharply.
Walder describes the chorus of voices raised against the president in recent weeks, which culminated mainly in contempt for the man. He recalls Claudius, the fourth emperor of the Roman Empire, who was appointed to office only because all his other brothers... were poisoned. He, he said, was not even worth the poison.
Claudius was emperor only in title, but in practice he was subject to "the whims of his secretaries and servants who did as they saw fit." Very reminiscent of the presidential palace today.
Walder explains that Rivlin's choice was a kind of "no choice.".
""Eight years ago, Reuven Rivlin ran against Shimon Peres for the position of president of the state. It was a giant battle between someone who stopped doing something and someone who never did, for a position that had no content.
""Rivlin, we must admit, is a warm, nice person with a sense of humor. Over the years, he has been one of those who are neither helpful nor harmful. A kind of Claudius... He prays every Shabbat in a synagogue in Beit HaKerem and usually takes his wife kugel and salted fish on two plates from the kiddush... In short, a secular Chalmer...""
And in simple words, Walder concludes: "Forget it, Robbie, did you get a job? Everyone will cheer for you, even though they know there's nothing underneath it. Just don't have a Moishe Groys...""
A smiling smiley is needed, to conclude.
6.
Another story joins the list of "moyeftim" that happened to those who threw away their cell phones after reading Kobi Levy's "Shor Moed" section in "Yom Liom" this week.
Oh, oh, what a story. A must read.
""Mr. Levi, I'll tell you an amazing story! Our own benefactor, a good and righteous guy, purchased an iPhone and made sure to block it from all sorts of embarrassing things.".
A young man approached him and said to him in a harsh tone: 'You are breaking a fence that the sages have established, and whoever breaks a fence will be a snake... You holding an iPhone even when it is filtered is blasphemy.' The next afternoon, the young man with the iPhone discovers a 1.20 m long viper in his yard.
"He ran his sons out of the house and called a snake catcher. Everything went smoothly.".
But wait, that's not the end.
""Two days later he bought two small hamsters and his children played with them. The next morning he discovered a bloated snake...it turned out that the snake had swallowed the two hamsters and was dozing off to its heart's content in the yard...the man shuddered and trembled with fear and threw the device away.
""I have no doubt that if he had ignored the second signal as well, it would have ended very badly. Isn't that amazing?""
I'm amazed. Why doesn't journalist Levi Maduro keep such a powerful story in his loyal pocket?.
The young men were, of course, amazed to hear such a story of righteous men.
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