07.05.2011                      03.Ijar, 5771                      Tag 18 des Omer

Feature:

Religious Affairs: Medical honesty is the new best policy

Some haredim attempt to conceal health conditions from potential life partners. A new organization is attempting to change that.

It was just before Shabbat during the intermediate days of Pessah that Rabbi Benjamin Fisher, founder and head of the Magen Laholeh organization, received a phone call from the principal of a Jerusalem seminary for haredi girls.
The principal told Fisher that a student of hers, who had gone on a number of dates with a yeshiva student with the intention of marrying, had telephoned her from the Western Wall, where the young couple had gone to pray before announcing their engagement.
Only on the way to the Kotel did the young woman muster up the courage to ask him about a strange hand movement he was making, something she had noticed in previous meetings but had not felt comfortable inquiring about. The man said it was nothing serious, a result of the excitement, a trivial medical condition that was under control, since he was intermittently taking a certain pill….