Daily Briefing Jan. 13 – Who are the Israelis spying for Iran?

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Military correspondent Judah Ari Gross and Ops Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag join host Jessica Steinberg.

Gross first looks at the Shin Bet arrests of five Israelis, all regular folk with family background ties to Iran, who are accused of assisting an Iranian operative who pretended to be a Jewish man.

Herschlag then speaks about blogger Shana Aronson’s nonprofit work providing advocacy for ultra-Orthodox victims of abuse, following the Chaim Walder sex abuse revelations and his subsequent suicide.

Gross takes a look at the recently released numbers showing a slight increase in the number of IDF soldiers fatalities over the past year, including a slight uptick in suicides by members of the Ethiopian community.

Finally, Herschlag discusses points made by Prof. Benjamin Porat about the first stages of the privatization reform in kosher certification and conversion currently taking place.

Discussed articles include:

Shin Bet arrests 5 Jewish Israelis suspected of spying for Iran

IDF reports 31 fatalities in 2021, a slight increase; suicide still leading cause

The survivors spoke, the tears flowed, now what?

Israel’s Rabbinate should welcome these kashrut and conversion reforms

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