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There are many possibilities. THe most likely, in my estimation, is that the Hilonim will choose to tolerate Israel becoming increasing frum and re-focus their efforts on preserving the rights of the hiloni (which include non-Jewish no-Arab goyim) to autonomy (they can have their own secular institutions but not impose their will on society as a whole). In that scenario, the army would not attempt to draft hareidim (or anyone else), but rely on inducements to enlist (such as meaningful accomodation of halacha in all units, money, etc.). Remember that there will soon be, and perhaps already is, a Shomer Shabbos majority – and certainly there is so if you only count Jews. Also the gap between Religious Zionists and Hareidim has shrunk – they learn the same Torah, often in the same institutions, agree on most issues (at least compared to the hiloni elites) and both increasingly hate the Israeli ruling class.
The other possibilities are traumatic. One is that Israel will so weaken itself that it will collapse. Another possibility is that once Orthodox Jews take over, they may find it easier to deal with the Muslims than with the Hilonim We would insist on keeping an army but perhaps being less “in your face” about it, and on Jews being able to live anywhere they want – but would accept Islam replacing western Euro-American culture as the dominant force in society – frum Jews of all flavor really want to be able to live in peace as frum Jews in Eretz Yisrael but don’t attach importance to being able to rule over the goyim or do things like force abortion, gay rights, etc. on them. The Muslims who lost property would get paid off, and the country would be a large Islamic Arab state albeit with a well armed Jewish minority. Muslims really hate be rules by non-Muslims, but the rest is negotiable.
Then of course, Israel will keep fighting, increasingly weakened, and will end up being wiped out militarily. Note the increasing movement in many western countries to object to bris milah and kashruth – this is a cover for renewed anti-semitism. The zionists should not expect help from abroad.
The headline is an example of “yellow journalism”. Saying an eid is pasul means you are holding that the marriage is invalid, such as when one is trying to prevent a child from being a mamzer or prevent a woman from being an agunah. These are legal rulings.
Picking an eid for the wedding is a social activity, not really a legal one, and the Rav’s statement was political not halachic. If it were necessary to uphold the validity of a marriage (as occurs if the husband dies and one wants the surviving woman to be a widow rather than a girlfriend), I seriously doubt he would hold the marriage invalid.
1. It should be in Hebrew. Many Americans have trouble using non-Roman fonts.
2. The website should have it, near its header at the top of the page as part of its logo.
The “g” is “god particle” should be lower case since it does not refer to any sort of diety. They are using the work to mean a basic sub-atomic particle from which all others are constructed. It is a bit chutzpahdik to call it such, but it does NOT refer in any way to “G-d”.
A “basic particle” is similar to saying that the basic element of Hebrew (and any other) writing system is a “dot” — put enough dots together and you can create any letter. No big hiddush.
Such research has led to many useful inventions in the past (radio, electronics, and nuclear energy being the most important commercially), which is why governments and private companies fund it. Whether basic scientific research is cost effective is a different matter, but certainly it is not ridculous to believe that it may, or may not, be worth the money.
The “lingua franca” of Jews has always been Hebrew. Yiddish was always for popular literature such as novels, lashon hora, or books for people lacking the skills to read serious Jewish literature which was and is in Hebrew. Even during Yiddish’s “golden age” in the late 19th and early 20th century, most serious Jewish books were written in Hebrew. Remember that the period in which Yiddish-speakers were a majority of Jews lasted a relatively short time (perhaps from the 17th century until the 1940s) – okay, that’s a short time by Jewish standards.
However Yiddish as a living language is an important aspect of the Ashkenazi Hareidi community, but there are very few tools for learning it other than to pick up some children’s books and hang out in neighborhoods where the kids are talking Yiddish to each other. We could probably use some frum materials for learning Yiddish, since the secular (YIVO-style) materials reflect the long dead dialect of the secular Yiddishists (learning it can be useful, however I wouldn’t want to learn Shakespearean English if my goal was to read and speak to modern day Americans).
If the goyish army will execute you for disobeying orders, it probably is acceptable to be medallel Shabbos (possible exception would be if they were targetting Jews in order to force Jews to go off the derekh – then one is required to die rather than do even the most minor averah).
In an actual situation of pikuach nefesh (actually quite rare, even for combat soldiers) you can preserve your own life, regardless (with exceptions that might involve avodah zarah or killing an innocent person, in which case preservation of your own life does not take precedence).
In a country like the United States or Israel, where a soldier disobeying order will at worst be thrown in jail, and probably given an undesirable discharge, there is never a heter to be mehallel Shabbos other than in a situation of pikuach nefesh.
Remember the typical sitation would be an order operate electric equipment or do paperwork in a training exercise or as part of routine garrison duty. Combat situations are rare even for combat soldiers.
The formal classes (such as YIVO’s) are of limited value since the course materials were designed by secular Jews and reflect the Yiddish spoken among the frei Jews 100 years ago. It is for all purposes a dead dialect. Sometimes the changes are comical (if you remember Sen. D’Amato, he used a Yiddish phrase he had picked up to try to win frum votes – the phrase was a reasonable insult from the Lower East Side, but a gross obscenity in frum Yiddish – which is how be became a lobbyist instead of a senator).
If you know Hebrew, you already know at least a third of the Yiddish word stock. If you know German, you probably know another 50% (English, is related to Germany, so knowing English gives you 10% of the vocabulary. Modern (meaning frum) Yiddish is a lot more like English than it was 150 years ago in terms of grammar.
There are a lot of children’s books produced by the frum Yiddish communities that reflect the 21st century Yiddish that is still a living language, and using them to learn the language should be fun. Whle there isn’t much online, there are analog audio materials (CDs) produced by and for the frum Yiddish speakers, or you can visit a place where Yiddish is spoken (places in Brooklyn, Antwerp, places in Eretz Yisrael).
He came across as an idiot since humans don’t have the capacity to “shut down” a pregnancy other than through abortion (or at least a “morning after” pill). There are some animals that do have such a capacity, but Ha-Shem saw fit not to give it to our species.
The Democrats are trying to attach his words to Romney but it will backfire since the rest of the Republicans clearly repudiated him, and they can “pay back” easily by quoting some of the stupid things that Obama’s supporters said. On the other hand, false attribution make the speaker seem like a dumb bully (remember the attempts to attribute things said by Obama’s “pastor” to him).
Increasing that isn’t the case. Among Jews who don’t keep Shabbos or Kashruth, the liklihood is that they will intermarry, and that half of those children will be goyim (and the other half will have no-Jewish surnames). This has been going on for several generations in the case of America (referring to East Europoean, even longer for the pre-civil war German immigrants or the pre-revolution Sefardim), and due to the high immigration of goyim with Jewish ancestors for the former USSR, it’s been a demographic factor in Eretz Yisrael for a generation.
We are approaching the situation where the person you meet with Jewish ancestry is no more likely to be Jewish than any other non-frum person you meet.
And how does one propose to get rid of the zionists and the goyim (especially the non-Arab ones)? Are you suggest we should take up guns and start shooting them? They aren’t going to go peacefully. They’ve been struggling for over a century to create a homeland where Jews can live free from (as they see it) the twin evils of anti-semitism and Torah. They aren’t going to quit now.
1. There is a great liklihood there will be much blame to share, and they want the Hareidim to share the blame. Netanyau knows he’s in over his head, and wants to cover his you know what.
2. Heavy casulties will probably necessitate massive reserve callups and conscription of many people now exempt. If the rabbanim are pro-war, it will be easier to draft yeshiva students and frum women. It’s one thing to say “why should we die for your war, which we advised you against” and another thing to refuse to fight in a war you had endorsed (similar to the “chicken hawks” in the USA).
Since credit card (and most other debts) are denominated in fiat money (money with nothing backing it except faith in the issuing government), and meshiach coming will undermine faith in all existing governments, the money itself will become worthless. This is one reason why frum Jews usually have been more concerned with building up stable assets, such as zechus from learning and mitsvos, since assets based on this world lose value in the long run.
It’s a mitzvah to wear your best clothes on Shabbos, so if you own more than one pair of shoes (not everyone does), one should wear the better one on Shabbos.
It is unlikely anyone was ever executed for “adultery” since people normally don’t do that sort of stuff with witnesses (not to mention warning).
Many Hasidim wear knitted yarmulkes? Clearly there is no halachic issue involved in one style of yarmulke over another.
All clothes are somewhat political. Wearing a double-breasted suit with a homburg projects a different image than a three-button jacket with a fedora, and a different image than not wearing a jacket and wearing a baseball cap. This has a lot to do with fashion, not halacha.
Some people make a point of not using credit cards (using a debit card than can handle credit transactions instead), or taking out loans. It is possible to survive without a mortgage, student loans, car loans, credit cards, etc. Also one probably doesn’t want to ever own stock. One can assume that in most corporations have Jewish owners (shareholders) and customers (who routinely buy on credit, with interest).
This limits investment opportunities to buying unleveraged commodities or small businesses that don’t engage in credit transactions (as a borrower or lender).
I believe most orthodox Jews hold that corporations aren’t people, so there’s no problem, or that our “money” is really a negotiable security of no set value, and that the halachas apply only to the sorts of money they had in the past, which were coins with intrinsic value (paper money, and in particular paper money backed only faith in the government, is a new invention).
In the United States there is freedom of contract (assuming you are working for a private employer), and you are free to make your own deal. Remember that the government probably considers it to be “income” if you get a car for personal use, and will want to find a way to tax you on it.
If you define “zionist” in the way that the Israeli ruling class does, namely as one in favor in establishing a secular state in Eretz Yisrael in which Jews can fully participate without having to deny their Jewishness, and without have to observe Torah and Mitzvos – no Orthodox Jews can be a zionist.
The Dati Leumi has a different definition, but they don’t run Eretz Yisrael. No Dati Leumi has ever been even a serious candidate for a leadership position in the government. They appear to be “suckers” who serve a secular elite that behind their backs regards them as fools.
He’s in favor of fiscal responsibility, and is otherwise a moderate conservative (similar to Romney). Like Obama and Biden, and unlike Romney, he never had an honest job in his life (i.e. a career politician). Nice guy. Religious Catholic. Pro-life. Tea Party likes him.
If you feel the goal of frum political life is to get as many handouts fom the goyim, you’ll probably prefer Obama and the Democrats.
If you are concerned that printing money for unsustainable programs will undermine the economy, you’ll love him.
Artscroll is a for profit-business. They make marketing decisions, which presumably are based on what will sell. There is a Jewish folk-tradition (I don’t think you;ll find it in halachic sefarim) that the true Gedolei ha-Dor are secret tzadikkim, who since they are secret never have biographies written about them.
1. You don’t start as a manager (unless its a family owned business).
2. From a “frum” perspective, the same issues in a B.A. or B.S. arise in getting an associate’s degree, or even a training program at a college. Most of the problems for frum people also arise in a non-academic apprenticeship program if it is one run by and primarily serving goyim. Most of the jobs listed in the first posting require some form of academic training, or some form of apprenticeship – which are not available within our community.
3. With no formal academic training outside of yeshiva/seminary, one can often get an entry level job in the medical field (as an assistant to an assistant doing jobs professionals refuse to do – such as helping people use the bathroom). Retailing at the lowest level is usually an open field, and if you are good, you can rise (think Walmart’s, or a pushcart operator growing the business into a major chain) . The military requires no training or experience. Almost all the jobs taken by illegal immigrants since American citizens refuse to do them can be taken by anyone who has no training (manual labor, food service, gardening, house cleaning, child care).
4. If you don’t like the idea of going to “college” (or any other goyish school or trainng program), you probably don’t want to work with and for goyim. That usually means working solely within the Jewish community. In return for low pay, you don’t have to worry about Shabbos, Kashrut or being in an environmnt with widespread dubious sexual behaviors (some of which are illegal, some not). For much of the frum community, the hassles of working for the goyim aren’t worth the money.
1. The local Vaad is Star-K. If you don’t hold by Halav yisrael, there are a few extra places under supervision. There are a wide variety of restaurants, all concentrated in a single neighborhood (Upper Park Heights-Pikesville). There is only one small cafe outside the frum area.
2. There are plenty of shuls of all types (okay, there is no Yiddish-speaking Misnagdid shul, no Teimani minyan).
3. Remember that Baltimore-Washington is equivalent to Brooklyn-Manhattan. Washington has a separate Vaad, with some overlap.
4. Baltimore is only fair for shopping. For a streimel, one needs to go to New York. It does have a large kosher supermarket.
At least she is better dressed than the “Beach Volleyball” team – and in all fairness, she is too young to be blamed for how she was brought up.
Why would anyone want a trophy that you can’t display?
I believe it became popular since the traditional Jewish symbol, the seven-arm menorah, was considered “too Jewish”. A “lion” might be more appropriate for Eretz Yisrael, but the current regime wouldn’t want to remind people that they are usurpers by using the seal of the royal house (which could easily have been represented by a regency if a Jewish state was ever established there).
Six pointed stars are common in many cultures iconography. American police often wear them. They almost ended up in the American flag.
If I wanted to be a soldier, I would join an army. Otherwise it is quite illegal to go around shooting people, no matter how justified you are. Of course there are practical problems for frum Jews – Shabbos, kashrus, whether specific acts violate halacha since its very clear that the “superior orders” defense doesn’t apply under Torah law since HaShem is always superior to your comanding officer, and issues about whether an individual soldier is responsible for averios done by other soldiers just because he’s part of the army (if an army lets you be frum, but coerces other soldiers to do things contrary to halacha, are you guilty as an accomplice).
If I wanted to learn Torah full time, I’ld join a kollel. The problem is that kollels (unlike armies) pay poorly and I wish to be middle class. While I know that learning Torah is the ikar for our survival, but being a bit hasidische I’ld say there’s room for a baal ha-bayis now and them.
Unless you are quite affluent, the widow (and unmarried daughters) are likely to get everything. For middle class people, the wife’s kesubah (which by halacha is a lien on the husband’s property, rather than a share of the estate) is probably greater than the net worth of the estate.
I doubt anyone would include government insurance and pensions (such as social security and anything you receive covered by ERISA) as part of the estate. Houses are trickier since land belongs to the crown, and all you own are rights to live on it conditioned on following their rules (which in America translates into a rule that the widow gets clear ownership of the house if you bought it jointly – and since it is the state that is granting you the right to the land, Dina Malchusa probably applies).
Also remember that by halacha the sons inherit subject to a requirement to support the mother (American law allows kid to dump their parents on welfare and walk away, halacha doesn’t), so if the mother is alive, the sons are, to use legalese, receiving the estate subject to a condition.
It was hardly a miracle. The Israeli military was much better trained and many were veterans of World War II. They were fighting on interior lines. Except for the Arab Legion, the Arab military was untrained and poorly equipped, and often fighting each other as well. The British Empire (whom we did defeat, we only fought the Arabs to a stalemate – that continues) were collapsing and had recently been evicted from India and were shortly to flee most of their other overseas territories – they were bankrupt and actually quite happy to give up rather than fight for their empire.
One should note that in Jewish tradition, victories over goyim are never celebrated. That’s why we don’t say Hallel on the last days of Pesach (and that was clearly a miracle – we weren’t even armed). For Hanukah we say we are saying hallel to honor the miracle of the menorah buring, not in honor of schechting the Greeks and the Misyavanim. But of course, how do those compare to 1948? What’s Moshe Rabeinu compared to Moshe Dayan? Who would want a Makacabee if you could have a Palmalnik? Note that the vast majority of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael in 1948 observed things first hand, and only a small minority thought a miracle had occured (you wouldn’t catch Ben Gurioun saying Hallel – if there had been a miracle, wouldn’t he have known about it).
All melodies are goyish (some theorize the melody of bircas cohanim is original, but there is no way to verify that since they didn’t have musical notes or recording devices back then).
It is the LYRICS (words) that one should be discussing.
What source do you have for the statement that most (frum) Jews are opposed? My impression is that most of the frum community really likes entitlements, and its only a handful of people on the political margins who worry about the loss of personal freedom or the macroeconomic impacts. Remember that most frum Jews routinely vote for the Democrats even though we disapprove of their social and foreign policies – but we do like entitlements.
Given that most Jews live in Blue states that will spend themselves into Greece at the drop of a hat, there’s a great deal of support from anyone who qualifies for Medicaid. There some concerns that people who can’t afford insurance now, or are getting by with low premium, high deductible policies will end up being subject to penalties for not buy unaffordable comprehensive policies, which will be aggrevated since Obamacare will make insurance and medical care more expensive.
1. All that was upheld was a single aspect – that a tax can be levied on people who don’t carry government approved insurance. They also threw out the part that states are required to expand Medicaid. The other aspects of the law weren’t involved and may be litigated later. If health care is not “interstate commerce” it isn’t clear how much of Obamacare will survive.
2. The Supreme Court seriously restricted the use of the Commerce Clause to expand federal control, which may throw many other aspects of “Obamacare” into question. They also seriously restricted federal mandates to the states, raising serious questions on many federal programs.
3. One can argue that Roberts managed to smile pleasantly while stabbing the liberals in the back. The approval of the Obamacare tax is hard to defend politically, can be changed easily in the future – and in return they lost much of their ability to regulate day to day life.
4. Given that Roberts is under 50, and has life tenure, he’ll probably be Chief Justice for the next 20 years, whereas Obama is likely to be an obscure professor trying to keep busy after next January (or January 2017 at the latest). Roberts really isn’t subject to much pressure.
1. What do you want to do for a living? For example, to be a doctor you want to go to a “real” university, with known high standards.
An easy to obtain “Bachelor of Talmudic Law” meets requirements for jobs that have only a nominal requirement for a degree, but won’t get you far in professions with more rigorous or competitive standards.
2. Depending on majors, one can do a degree through distance education.
3. If you want to go to college to get educated (as opposed to getting access to a career), you are already off the derekh so why worry.
IQ test reflect the cultural similiarities of the test takers to the test writers. Since all test writers are career oriented, but many female test takers are not, they do poorly. For example, IQ tests of Jews in the USA at the start of World War I (when most Jews were yet to be assimilated immigrants) proved that Jews were near-morons, and similar tests taken prior to World War II proved (post-assimilation, and before the holocaust survivors arrived) proved that most Jews were near geniuses.
have everyone’s desk facing “out” so anyone and everyone can see what you are doing — there is also software the allows the administrator to see what each computer is doing (indeed, you might not need to acquire such software – starting a rumor about it should be enough)
Before you meet. Religious outlook should be one criteria before attempting a shiduch. Among the goyim, with their “meat market” or “bar hopping” system, they spend the first few dates finding out such things (religous compatability, anticipated lifestyle, etc.)- in theory we get to “start” at a point equivlaent to which our non-frum cousins reach after perhaps a few months – of having decided the person is in theory “right” – and get on to the “but do we like each other part”.
Most likely, either name would indicate someone who moved from one region to another (which was quite common). If you lived in Brooklyn, and moved to Chicago, everyone in Chicago would know you as “the Brooklyner”. A person with a geographic name of origin would indicate the person came from the place and settled in a place where such an indicator would be of use in identifying them.
You should also know that “Ashkenazi” sometimes refers specificially to Germany, so a yekke who moved to Eastern Europe might be known as “Ashkenazi”. Based on such evidence as family records, gene flow, etc., many people moved between regions.
Coffee addict:
“Police power” always includes regulating toxic substances, including food regulation. It is traditionally a local power, which New York City through its elected representative can exercise. If you are unhappy, elect someone else.
The “Declaration of independence” is held not to convey rights (otherwise slavery would have ended in 1776), and in any event, Federal law only affects the Federal government – and you can’t blame this one on Obama
A Jewish “homeland” outside of Israel would have either attracted very few Jews, or would have been more like a large concentration camp (an idea suggested by some Nazis uneasy about genocide). Of course, Brooklyn is close to a Jewish homeland in golus, and had millions of Jews moved to any place in golus, it would be as much a homeland as Brooklyn is. As it was, many Jews did move to places in the British Empire when fleeing Europe, and more would have except the British “closed the door” with full knowledge of the holocaust (since we have the Ultra intercepts which prove the Allied intelligence knew about the holocaust in detail for the entire war).
How is the Olympics any different from all other sports events. In general the uniform is designed for optimal performance, and in some sports that means wearing as little as possible – however most events allow individuals to wear more. Some Muslim women occasionally try to compete in specially designed modest track suits.
Among sports that tend to have relatively modest uniforms are baseball, softball, fencing, American and Canadian football (not and Olympic sport), all shooting sports, and all winter sports. On the other extreme there’s swimming.
An exception to all rules is “Beach Volleyball” which is regular volleyball, but with a required “uniform” of a minimal bathsuit for female participants (males where respectable shorts and shirts). The female required uniform suggests that this should not realy be considered a “sport”.
Such filters are widely used in places such as Iran and China, and could be used for a home network. The problem with filters is that they aren’t clever enough. For work, I had to research the legal status under halachah of child born to a woman who had been become pregnant while being help prisoner, and the filter saw a naughty word (R-A-P-E) and blocked the search. If you block the word A-B-O-R-T-I-O-N, you’ll block research about pro-life groups, or mutual funds that don’t buy stock in companies that make a living by providing the drugs and tools needed.
The best filter is the user having sufficient intelligence and yeras shamayim not to look at what they know they shouldn’t look at, and in a home or office or library, to have all computers facing “out” so the screen is visible (if you need privacy, you probably shouldn’t be looking at it).
1. One can not create a Mitzva out of whole cloth.
2. Not damaging other people’s property is against halacha, and is actionable in Beis Din.
3. Much of the “green” movement is a fraud based on false presumptions such as that the world is overpopulated (which is why most greens are antagonistic to Orthodox Jews), or a mystical belief in a pending catastrophe due to global warming (reality is that it was warmed in Bayis Sheini times, and warmer during Rashi’s time, and climate normally varies – and actually people do better during the warmer periods since crops prefer warmth to frost). Since the “green” movement is not based on Torah, nor on science, some would say that it is Avodah Zarah as being based on faith in something other than Ha-Shem.
1. There are probably more children speaking Yiddish as their first language now than any time in American history (be real, in the “good old days” before World War I, most immigrants made a serious effort to forget Yiddish along with all other aspects of Yiddishkeit).
2. Jews usually use a Jewish language for serious conversations, and Hebrew is probably less understood than Yiddish, and more importantly, it is now the language of a foreign country which implies disloyalty in using it at a public forum, whereas Yiddish is an ethnic language rather than a foreign country’s national language.
It is a mixture and many are “flavored”. There are some rums with a hecksher (such as Ron Abuelo from Panama which has an OU). Most of the lists suggest that unflavored Baccardi is acceptable as well.
After all, those Yidden in the Midbar were probably a bunch of old fashioned fanatics, and even they celebrated the victory over the Egyptians by celebrating Of course some hareidi types object and dreamed up some argument that we should not celebrate victories on the ridiculous idea that you know who doesn’t approve of killing goyim. Those same fanatics even dreamed up the idea that the mitsva of Hanukah had something to do with some miracle in the Beis ha-Mikdash, when we all know that the thing we were celebrating was having trounced the Greeks in a good old fashioned war.
Fortunately, the Israelis have learned their lesson, and thus we celebrate military victories in honor of defeating the British in 1948, and the Arabs in 1967. Isn’t that what have a modern state is all about?
I use unfiltered telephone (I hang up anything I don’t want to hear) and unfilterd mail service (I throw stuff straight into the wastepaper basket if I dont’ want to read it). We deal with unfiltered books (we don’t look at “inappropriate one”). We try to deal with unfiltered people (anyone have any success not hearing Loshon Hora?).
Humash limits us to stoning, beheading, burning, and strangulation.
Something as slow and painful as killing someone by tobacco smoking is not listed, and is therefore presumably prohbited.
Is the line disputed? That has to be resolved by checking the deeds and requires a surveyor, and the result has to be done in court. Any real estate lawyer should now how to handle the case. If the other side is Jewish, you could go to Beis Din (and even if not, your lawyer and the other guy’s lawyer could arrange for a surveyor to settle the matter).
lesschumras:
I totally appreciate the mesiras nefesh of those who managed to stay frum in America in the pre-WWII period. But there weren’t all that many of them. For a typical pre-war frum Baal ha-Bayis, the army was possible following the same level of heterim they relied on to survive in pre-war America. The handful of yeshivish type people were in yeshivos and were exempt – but they too were only a handful. The pre-war frum generation built a foundation, that the Holocaust survivors were able to build upon (with no small contribution from the huge number of Baalei Tsuva in the late 20th century).
The number of “Hareidi” (or “yeshivish”) type people in the United States in 1942 was probably negligible, and almost all of them were unlikely to be drafted since they were in yeshivah (they had seminary deferments), had clergy exemptions (since in Christian tradition, clergy weren’t allowed to bear arms) or had a family (they tried to avoid drafting fathers). The world in which you find large communities of people who are strictly Shomer Shabbos, strictly kosher even outside the home, and who go around “looking frum” (or even wearing a yarmulke in public, not to mention a beard and pe’os)- was a world that resulted from the arrived of the Holocaust survivors after the war. In 1942, most Shomer Shabbos Americans were public school graduates who wore yarmulkes at home (or only in shul), and has no problem relying on checking ingredient lists rather than demanding a hecksher. Barukh Ha-Shem, that the fanatics of 1942 would now be considered “modern orthodox” at best- America has come a long way in 70 years.
1. The United States always exempted yeshiva students. Respect for religion is ingrained in American culture. Even our current president has to pretend to be religious. It’s one the “exceptional” things that distinguishes us from Europeans or Israelis.
2. If someone was “yeshivish” frum, but not in yeshiva, the army would decide they were not suitable for the military. If he insisted on serving, they’ld find a “jobnik” (Israeli term) position for him. If you were willing to improvise and rely on heterim given for Jews serving in armies that executed people for refusing orders on religious grounds, it would be possible to serve in the military – a big factor is that America has never been as anti-religious as secular Israel.
3. The person who said “1941” doesn’t realize that while there was a limited draft in 1941, the US didn’t start serious conscription until 1942 (and in all fairness, probably could have relied on volunteers).
4. The person who said Canada didn’t read the “1941” – Canada entered the war in 1939, and had a policy of not sending conscripts overseas.