Who Is A Jew In Israel?

NY Times reports:

One day last fall, a young Israeli woman named Sharon went with her fiancé to the Tel Aviv Rabbinate to register to marry. They are not religious, but there is no civil marriage in Israel.

The rabbinate, a government bureaucracy, has a monopoly on tying the knot between Jews. The last thing Sharon expected to be told that morning was that she would have to prove — before a rabbinic court, no less — that she was Jewish. It made as much sense as someone doubting she was Sharon, telling her that the name written in her blue government-issue ID card was irrelevant, asking her to prove that she was she.

Hamas Claims Another Life

Israel Foreign Ministry Reports:

Roni Yihye, 47, father of four and a student at Sapir College, was killed Wednesday afternoon (27 Feb) when a Kassam rocket exploded in a parking lot near the campus in southern Israel.
Over 40 Kassam rockets were fired by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza on Wednesday afternoon.

One struck a Sderot factory cafeteria shortly after some 100 workers had left the room. Four longer-range rockets landed in Ashkelon, one exploding near Barzilai hospital, where those wounded in the Kassam attacks receive treatment. A power line was torn in the attack, causing a power outage in the southern part of the city.

Hamas has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's rocket attacks.

National Security Leaders Conclude Iran Is A Threat

Iran continues to enrich uranium.

Top foreign leaders, Democratic and Republican national security experts, and leading editorialists have responded to the recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran with the conclusion that Iran remains a threat that must be thwarted.

As Iran continues to advance its uranium enrichment capabilities in defiance of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, it is clear that sanctions must be stepped up to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

Israel Briefing: IDF Says Hamas Could Take Over West Bank in Days

The IDF warned Hamas could take over the West Bank in days.

A top Israeli military official, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni, warned on Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was not seriously working to stop terrorist activity in the West Bank, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“Although there are no rocket attacks emanating from the West Bank, we’ve found rockets produced here, and this tells us that there are [rocket production] labs in the region,” Shamni said. “Without the massive IDF presence in the West Bank, Hamas would take over the institutions and apparatuses of the Palestinian Authority within days.”

So What Is Kosher?

From OUKosher.org

The word kosher means proper or acceptable, and it has informally entered the English language with that meaning. But kosher laws have their origin in the Bible, and are detailed in the Talmud and the other codes of Jewish traditions. They have been applied through the centuries to ever-changing situations, and these rulings, both ancient and modern, govern OU Kosher certification.

Jewish School Team Faces Replacement Over Championship on Sabbath

DENVER — State senators have taken up the cause of a Jewish school's basketball teams whose playoff runs may be halted because its players can't play on their Sabbath.

Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy's boys team could be headed for a regional championship on Saturday, March 8, if it wins one more game Thursday. But the Denver school's religious beliefs prohibit students from playing on the Jewish Sabbath between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.