 | |
 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Founded | 1985; 40 years ago (1985) |
| Political alignment | Haredi |
| Country | Israel |
Yated Ne'eman (Hebrew:יָתֵד נֶאֱמָן)[1] is a semi-majorIsraeli dailyHebrew language newspaper based inBnei Brak. The Hebrew edition is published daily except on the JewishSabbath.[2] A weekly English language edition was published inIsrael and distributed in Israel,South Africa andBritain until December 2006.
An English language newspaper by thesame name is published inNew York. It was formerly affiliated with the Israeli newspaper, but is currently independent. This article concentrates on the Israeli Yated Ne'eman.
The paper was founded in 1985 by RabbisElazar Shach (1898–2001) andYaakov Yisrael Kanievsky (1899–1985).[3]: pp.39–40 In 1988 Rabbi Shach went on to found theDegel HaTorah political party that later joined forces withAgudath Israel and is calledUnited Torah Judaism.Yated, whose first editor was RabbiMoshe Grylak,[3]: p.43 was founded as part of a broad initiative to have a full range of social and communal organizations that specifically serve theLithuanian Torah community, after it was felt thatAgudat Israel, its institutions, and their paperHamodia no longer represented their point of view.
Yated Ne'eman is controlled by its rabbinic board which had deferred to RabbisNissim Karelitz andAharon Leib Shteinman on all matters pertaining to the content of the newspaper. In the spirit of Rabbi Shach, its ideology is non-Zionist, with strong opposition to bothreligious Zionism as well as secularZionism. In May 2016, it opined that Israel is responsible forantisemitism throughout the world, writing that "The State of Israel, which was established to solve the problem of anti-Semitism, has become the main cause of anti-Semitism. The Jews of the world are suffering not because of their religion, but because of the State of Israel and its policies!" and "The natural state of the Jewish people is exile! Its normality is in the pressure cooker of hatred and persecution."[4] In practice, these particular views are reflected in only a handful of articles each year. Most of the content reports news related to the religious community and articles supporting their ideology which is based on Torah study and mitzvah observance and does not define its basic identity in political terms.
Since December 2006, theChareidiDei'ah Vedibur[5] website has continued offering weekly news coverage and occasional religious content in English. The website is edited by the publicist Mordecai Plaut.
TheYated Neeman newspaper published in New York was originally affiliated with theJerusalem paper of the same name, but is no longer affiliated due to aschism.
The Hebrew phrase "yated ne'eman" literally refers to a peg strongly anchored in the ground, and is used figuratively to describe a secure connection or something which can be relied upon. The name was supposedly given by Rabbi Kanievsky and comes fromIsaiah 22 verse 23, "ותקעתיויתד, במקוםנאמן", translated as "And I will fasten him asa nail in asure place", or as "I will drive him likea peg in afirm place".
On April 3, 2009, the paper published a manipulated picture of Israeli cabinet ministers[6] to conform to Religious sensitivities of its readers. Female cabinet ministersLimor Livnat andSofa Landver were digitally removed from the published picture and replaced with male ministersAriel Atias andMoshe Kahlon.[7]
In 2015, the newspaper refused to print advertisements for the political campaign ofU'Bizchutan, a newly formed political party dedicated to the needs of Haredi women and including female candidates on its slate. Ruth Kolian, head of the party, then petitioned the court to stop the discriminatory practice. The party prevailed and the court ordered the newspaper to accept the advertisements. The court rejected the claims made by the news organizations that they might offend customers by publishing ads for the Haredi women's party. The head ofthe Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-Ilan University's Law Faculty, ProfessorRuth Halperin-Kaddari, called the court decision "a historic legal precedent which determines that in certain circumstances, considerations of equality for women and election equality, as well as preventing discrimination against women and their preventing their exclusion, surpass property rights of commercial bodies like newspapers. Haredi women are not only prevented in practice from realizing the basic human right of running and being elected for Knesset, they are also denied the equal opportunity to inform their potential voters that they are running independently."[8] Nevertheless, the paper still refused to publish the advertisement and it never ran.