The problem is not that thinking people would reject such idiocy in an instant. The problem is that the more religious some Jews get, the less they seem to think!
Forget for a moment the stone throwing, arson, shouts of "Nazi", "prutzah" and "shiksa". Forget for a moment the mobs that have turns Meah Shearim into a no-go zons for police, buses and ambulances. What really takes this cake is this story from the Israeli media and, for once, no self-respecting person can claim this is a smear job done up to make the Chareidim look bad.
Minister Yossi Peled, a Holocaust survivor, could not believe his eyes when he saw the pictures from the ultra-Orthodox protest in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood on Saturday night.
"I admit that some things are inconceivable, like taking the horrifying picture of the little boy facing the Nazis with his hands up. Regardless of whether the struggle is justified or not, this points to something insane, irrational, immoral," he told Ynet on Sunday morning.
"Any word you say will be inappropriate. I may be naïve: I never believed, no matter which conflict we're talking about, that we would use symbols of the Jewish people's tragedy for an internal battle. It was our battle against an external threat. It's inconceivable. The blood froze in my veins."
Saturday's demonstration was organized by an extreme faction in Mea Shearim in protest of what has been defined as "the exclusion of haredim" and the start of the jail term of an ultra-Orthodox man convicted of assaulting an electronics store salesman.
Mordechai Hirsch, one of the leaders of the extreme Neturei Karta faction (and the son of Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, who served as minister in the Palestinian government), said his nephews, who are not even 10 years old, took part in the protest wearing a yellow patch.
"Of course I justify it," said Hirsch. "Yes, it's from the Holocaust and it's legitimate. There's no question about it. This protest reflects the Zionists' persecution of the haredi public, which we see as worse than what the Nazis did.
"The Germans just killed the body, but these people want to kill the soul, the spirit."
Yes, there are morons who will try to turn this situation around, to really play the victim card. In a particularily poorly written piece on Cross Currents for example, Rav Yaakov Menken writes:
While some pointed out that the OU/RCA Statement said nothing about tzniyus, it is still true that their statement didn’t merely condemn the hooligans. Their statement, too, defended Torah Jews, if not a Torah value: “We also urge all observers to recognize that the behavior of these hooligans does not in any way represent the attitude or demeanor of the Charedi community at large. The vast majority of Charedi Jews find these actions abhorrent, and the community should not be judged by the inexcusable conduct of a few.”
That the OU and RCA know is that this won’t stop with the Charedim. The “activists” have, in fact, already come for the best and brightest of the religious Zionists, those most anxious to serve in elite IDF units. Now in Israel, people are speaking out against “mistreatment” of women in the IDF. Are they referring to the rampant problems of sexual harassment of female soldiers? No — “extremist religious behavior… affecting the role of women in the armed forces.” The one speaking is Brig.-Gen. Rafi Peretz, the Chief IDF Rabbi,” and he expressly made reference to Beit Shemesh. Has he so soon forgotten that the religious “problem” most recently afflicting the IDF was the desire of some young men, not one of whom was Charedi, to observe halacha with regards to Kol Isha?
On Shabbos morning I was speaking about the situation with a friend in shul and what he said really shocked me. He told me that this was civil war, Jew on Jew, just like in the time of Chanukah. He felt that these extremists were the new Chasmonaim and that responsible religious Jews had a choice - line up with them and stand up for Torah or line up with the Hellenized Chilonim. It was that simple for him. When I pointed out that there were plenty of religious Jews lining up with the Chilonim because these Chareidim are no Chasmonaim but just barbarians looking for an excuse to cause trouble he dismissed me by saying that any religious Jew who sides with a Chiloni is already Hellenized and no longer really religious.
"Including me?" I asked.
At that point he realized he had crossed a line and tried to backtrack but the damage was done. I don't think I'm going to learn with him for a while.
Yes, Rav Menken, they will come for us because we all look alike to them. That's why it's so important for us to stand up and be counted alongside the Chilonim so that they do see these parasites as a small fringe group. It's time for the Agudah to drop its mealy mouthed statements and condemn the massive chilul HaShem occuring without qualification. We do have an obligation to show that we are not like them, that we are decent, honourable and moral people. They do not represent Torah and it is questionable if there is a flame hot enough in Gehinnom for themb but we must stand up and make it known that we are not on their side.How interesting to use the recent example of religious soliders being disciplined by the Tzahal for refusing to listen to kol ishah. This is the exact opposite of what the "small group" of Chareidim in Beit Shemesh and Yerushalayim are doing. Had they been of the same ilk, the religious soldiers would not have asked to be excused from listening to women singing but would have stormed the stage, attacked the women and then, when they were being subdued, shrieked "We are being attacked! We are the victims!" The example from the army is in no way analogous to the protests now going on.The mind just spins at the sight of people who have been pampered by their government for the last 60 years, protected and pain to become parastic denizens of the State they hate so much, degrading the memory of the Holocaust like this. No amount of protest can express the outrage a decent, moral person should feel at the sight of these menuvalim daring to appropriate such imagery for themselves.
5 comments:
If the violent fanatics had been properly and publicly ostracized as of their very first offenses, the leftist media would have been far less able to speak of them in the same breath as normal chareidi citizens. Not to mention that later outrages would have been prevented. It's not too late for the law-abiding to crack down on the lawless. It requires an abandonment of superficial thinking---the loonies can dress the dress, talk the talk, have fancy titles, claim to venerate the same Sages we do, etc., yet still be anti-Torah bums.
You are angry and insulted, but there is a bigger picture to view. There is much more going on than this. I think the leaders are mum because they are at odds with each other. A few things: remember the fight over housing in MS? Between two chassidus groups? Also, there is a battle going on between Yated and Mishpacha (new weeklies!), and Willie has been brought into the fore. That's another chassidus entering the fray. There is a splintering within the larger body of religious. This just might lead to a 'crack in the wall' of rigidity. Something positive has to come out of this, even if only for the one's who are afraid to speak up.
it's so important for us to stand up and be counted alongside the Chilonim so that they do see these parasites as a small fringe group. It's time for the Agudah to drop its mealy mouthed statements and condemn the massive chilul HaShem occuring without qualification. We do have an obligation to show that we are not like them, that we are decent, honourable and moral people. They do not represent Torah and it is questionable if there is a flame hot enough in Gehinnom for themb but we must stand up and make it known that we are not on their side.
Bravo. And yes, I honestly believe that if more people within Modern Orthodoxy/Dati Leumi stand up and say, "We cannot go with you down this road," this will lead to more rapprochement with the Chilonim and others.
Contrary to what some might think, non-Orthodox Jews like me don't rub our hands together when we hear stories about Haredim being jerks, or look for excuses to bash frum folks. But it is becoming clear that there are segments of the Jewish world that we can't talk to anymore. Speaking just for myself, nothing would make me happier than getting clarity on who in the Orthodox world is still sane and reasonable. (And the dirty little secret is that I suspect the more MO people stand up, the more the silent majority of Haredim who don't support the crazies will, too.)
It's time for the MO crowd to lead, to show their brothers to the left that they believe and stand up for values like basic rights, respect and tolerance-- and to say to their brothers on the right that they are done letting their standards and voices be silenced by the strictest people in the room.
You deserve far worse.
You piece of shit.
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