The Meron misfortune reflects a larger problem that Israel has with haredi politics, in which Aryeh Deri is a key culprit. The Shas leader should be shamed out of Knesset.

When there is a desecration of G-d’s name and danger to public health, one does not shy away from criticism of haredi leaders.

Haredi leadership seems to prize communal autonomy above all, even at the expense of exposure to deadly illness. Yanki Kanievsky is a metaphor for such “unbearable lightness,” the preposterous and perilously cavalier haredi assertion of freedom.

The drafting or exemption of haredi men from military service is back as the super-stumbling block before Netanyahu’s new government. Here are two possible solutions.

It would be disastrous if the Supreme Court shuts down gender-separate college programs. This would kill the slow but measurable and exciting movement of haredim into the workforce – which is crucial for the Israeli economy and the future of Israeli society.

My fall reading recommendations, with essays and books on democracy in the Arab world, the industry of lies against Israel, Zionism, anti-Semitism, settlements, and Haredi army service.

A haredi middle class is rising, one which has dispensable income and is developing wider lifestyle horizons. The ripening of this segment in haredi society raises captivating and critical questions. Perhaps it offers new pathways of navigating modernity for haredi and secular Israeli society.

Cancellation of the core curriculum requirement in Haredi schools punishes all Israelis.

Religious Zionist yeshiva deans this week established an independent, conversion court, without Chief Rabbinate imprimatur. The ossified and extremist Rabbinate bureaucracy made this necessary, sadly. Unless the Rabbinate wakes up and “converts” itself into a more compassionate halachic religious services provider, it will be bypassed and wither away.

We need truly Zionist, nationally-responsible, and halachically-uplifting solutions to the crisis of shmita (the Jewish agricultural sabbatical year) – for the benefit of religious and non-religious Israelis alike.