B-H
In recent days the temperature of the national Jewish debate rose to the end of the scale!
Open letters have been written, petitions are drafted to be signed and everybody has something to say about the events publicized in the international press regarding what happened this week in Beis Shemesh. That’s right, it has become international news. In many important news outlets it is posted on the opening pages and already millions of people are commenting on all kind of internet forums about the despicable ultra orthodox Jews from some (mostly) unknown until now, town in the Holy Land. I also checked various forums in different regions of the world (as much as I could understand the language) and the above is on the front pages all over!
Without a doubt, judging from the titles of the press articles like the one quoted above to the shortest comments on internet forums, there is only one conclusion. The behavior of ultra orthodox Jewish people is identical to the behavior of wild uncivilized beasts! They are undeserving of any freedom or perhaps even their existence! These conclusions are based on something. What is it based on? They are not coming from the traditional unprovoked hatred of the nations of the world toward the Jews. These statements and the statement from the Secretary Of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton a few days ago where she commented about women’s rights in the ultra orthodox community didn’t emerge from thin air.
As a Jewish convert observing and being a part of everything Jewish around me, I can not by pass this national discussion. As a haredi Jew myself and a blogger writing weekly on various issues I will take the stand on this one too!
Let’s follow the time line of the events. The trigger of these events was probably the noisy discussion on the topic of Israeli orthodox soldiers refusing to listen to female soldiers singing during various ceremonies. (Due to the complicated nature of this issue I will not elaborate on this particular subject.) After a few weeks of this discussion, Mrs. Clinton issued a statement upon returning from her visit to Burma
Not long after that or perhaps at the same time, reporters from an Israeli TV channel came to Beis Shemesh where they recorded the infamous report and video. Since that moment a few days ago, everything became accelerated and now we don’t even know where it will go and how it will end. One think we can be sure of, even if in the next few hours the two Koreas will start to fight between themselves redirecting the attention of the media, the memory of black clothed Jews spiting on seven year old little girls will remain in the collective conscience of a large part of the world population. (see video below the post)
This video on Israeli TV is a propaganda masterpiece of which even Goebels wouldn’t be ashamed of. What we have here is everything that these and other masters of anti-Semitic propaganda can only dream of! A crying seven years old girl! but crying only with her back turned to the camera and somehow sounding, simply fake! As to the women in the video, we have religious women from different sectors of society, but to anybody who knows how religious women dress it is obvious that the women in the video look as frum as the shnorers dressed as Chasidim schnoring in many American synagogues i.e. obvious fakes. What we have here are some outrageous statements which without a doubt were taken out of context.*(see interview with reb Yoel below) Then a film producer with a certain agenda produces and cuts the video so it looks and sounds like they want it to sound! We also have some real people screaming. But they are mostly screaming to be left alone to live as they wish.
For days we are being told about brutal haredim attacking the police, we hear about Chasidic hooligans and ultra orthodox tugs violating the rights of innocent by bystanders! Judging from the vicious battle described in the media it seems to be a common reality of Bais Shemesh, Yerushalaim and other places where haredim dwell. I ask again and again in such situations, show me the pictures! I want to see this violence with my own eyes! I want to see ‘zebras’ throwing stones, haredim burning cars and ultra orthodox kicking the cops! I want to see the violence myself! I don’t want to be informed about it in the screaming titles of various Jewish and non Jewish media outlets without any prof of verity of the information.
Besides some pictures and videos of loud shouting and waving of fists by the haredim there is almost nothing to prove that this alleged violence occurred. I am not saying that screaming and waiving of fists by haredi Jews is a pleasant view but, Hashem Yirachem, it is not violence! If you want to see street violence then I advise you to google “London Athens Brussels
I will not deny existence of some unstable elements among the haredim in Eretz Yisroel, but just as the ‘Jew land’ guy from New Square New Square
Why are they targeted and pictured as the villains and backward elements of mankind? I wrote an essay about this a few months ago. If you are interested you can read it here: http://anotherconvert.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html At this time I can say only one thing, this anti-Semitic propaganda is caused by no others than the people who will not rest until they make sure that religious Jews and the religious lifestyle and even G-d himself is hated by all! Don’t be part of it!
Matys
* “Interview was aired over and over again, driving the message home, making sure no one inIsrael
* “Interview was aired over and over again, driving the message home, making sure no one in
Kikar Shabbat asked him a week later “how do you feel now?”
YOEL:
One thing is for sure. I regret appearing in the secular media. This is certainly not my forte, not my place and I should not have played into the hands by giving the interview. They entrapped me with their words and took some of my comments out of context. I said a great deal, words that were cut out of the portion aired. I fell as if they put words in my mouth.
One thing is for sure. I regret appearing in the secular media. This is certainly not my forte, not my place and I should not have played into the hands by giving the interview. They entrapped me with their words and took some of my comments out of context. I said a great deal, words that were cut out of the portion aired. I fell as if they put words in my mouth.
KIKAR:
A non-Orthodox person standing at this side confirmed his statements for Kikar, that his words were edited to reflect the statements as they were aired.
A non-Orthodox person standing at this side confirmed his statements for Kikar, that his words were edited to reflect the statements as they were aired.
So what do you conclude from all this?
YOEL:
I will tell you the truth. Yesterday I secluded myself to contemplate the events. I learned a lesson here, just how potent our words can be and how they can have a major impact. I learned just how important each word is that we utter to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in our tefilos as well as our words towards family and friends.
I will tell you the truth. Yesterday I secluded myself to contemplate the events. I learned a lesson here, just how potent our words can be and how they can have a major impact. I learned just how important each word is that we utter to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in our tefilos as well as our words towards family and friends.
5 comments:
What about the girl? Without the doubt she was traumatized . Do you have any feeling for her?
Sure i feel for her but she and her family was used to cause attack of antisemitism not seen for long time. She is not guilty ChCh of anything and Hashem should help her to grow as a true bas Yisroel and show the compassion for her family.
Are you taking the side of the people harassing others for the reason of not complying with their, harassers, tznius standards? Do i understand you right? This would be not in line with all what you wrote until now.
With all due respect, I think you have to read my post again. I clearly call acts of those individuals ‘despicable and in other place criminal, according to Torah standards.
What I object is depicting whole haredi community true prism of some hot headed, misguided individuals. But the same way as I describe my nonobservant Jewish brothers and sisters as those lacking proper information and not necessary rebellious to our Creator, the same or different privilege of doubt I can generate toward my observant fellow Jews who perhaps missed shiur on mussar or derech eretz.
What I’m afraid of is that it seems to appear that some of other observant Jews jumped on bandwagon of enemies of Torah to make their politics. Even some haredim from camps different than Satmar and Toldos Aharon are using events in Bais Shemesh and Mea Sheurim for their backyard politics. Unfortunately it may result in backslash against all of us, as the name, the stature of the haredi Jew will erode in minds of not only nonobservant but also all bnai Esaw in different countries.
Spitting on people is wrong. Spitting on little girls( 8) is crazy. But the real problem is doing it in public. Because no matter what else happened where and when, THIS IS A GREAT HILLUL H' , at this time when our values are under fire from every side( except the Mormons) along comes a person who clearly has his priorities upside down and does stupid in front of the world( www.) That is the straw that broke the camels back, that is unacceptable by any standards. of course the media and other complexed individuals blew the rest out of proportion, because Mr. Stupid gave them the opening they were waiting for. Stupidity IS a sin. Of course what the chillonim and bnei esiv, oh and I almost forget every Joe and complexed Harry and OTHERS, who jump on the anti charadim band wagon, are silly little sad people who only wait to spew their stupid one line phrases and imaginations of genocide to those they feel inferior to. but when such a travesty happens at such a political fragile time we must for our own good publicly distance ourselves from those individuals who make the rest of us look like some Goyim from the dark ages. Otherwise we are a people that take away women's "rights", which is a topic on it's own, but that's not who we are cuz we hold women in the highest regard from all the nations but of course that isn't the topic here. The point is that it's very hard to explain bus segregation as a voluntary thing that we want to upkeep our levels of modesty when you have wild bums( English definition as in "good for nothing"), screaming on people to move or doing other "chusid shote" things, or spiting at eight year olds. Anyway I have more to say but I think this is enough. Peace out to ya'll.
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