A Rabbinic leader has sent me list of websites with a number of articles. Here some of the URLs and a excerpts:
“Three students were lightly injured when a stun grenade was thrown at the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak …The incident is believed to be the latest flare-up between warring rabbis and their followers in an ongoing power struggle for control of Ponevezh, a training ground for the intellectual elite of the Lithuanian yeshiva world.”
And I’ve already blogged about this:
"Two makeshift pipe bombs were found at the entrance to the home of yeshiva head Rabbi Haim Shlomo Leibowitz..."
And this:
"...man-on-boy sexual abuse at a Jerusalem mikva, where, apparently homosexual acts between adult males is also common."
But, what about this?:
"Five Orthodox Jewish teens have been slammed with hate-crime charges in the brutal beating of a Pakistani immigrant in Brooklyn.
"They hit me in the face with brass knuckles four or five times while somebody held my hands," said the victim, Shahid Amber, 24, a gas station attendant. "Then they all beat and kicked me. They were screaming 'Muslim… (very stong expletive deleted).(Deleted) Muslim terrorists. Go back to your country.' "…Amber said the attack began after one of the group asked if he were Muslim and he answered yes. Amber's father, Umbar Islam, 56, described a brutal assault by boys in long black jackets, black pants and black hats.
And this?:
"After kinus many shluchim went to the main shul of Lubavitch and had a farbreingen - chassidic gathering. Some 25 Israeli students from tsfas felt that the shluchim have no right to be in the shul. So they tried shutting the lights and singing their theme song. This of course did not stop the gathering which had in attendance more than 2000 people. Finally these students decided to copy what their arab brothers do in israel and decided to throw benches chairs siddurim and the like at the gathering. Once they were being attacked many bochrim started fighting back and the 'outdated signs' were taken down from the wall. The Israeli students decided to launch a rocket at them so they launched a 500lb bench at some shluchim breaking ones leg. At that point the chabad central org. stepped in and called in for help from the shomrim and NYPD, after some time they managed to clear the entire building and control was handed to the central org."
And let's not forget the Gay Pride Charedi riots.
There is much to say about each one of these occurrences individually. There’s not enough time to write about each one. But they do all have one thing in common. It is so obvious that anyone with a half a brain can see it. All the perpetrators were is some way Charedi. Now before anyone goes about saying “I Told you this blog was all about bashing Charedim, I want to make it clear one more time (even though I know it won’t help) that I do not bash Charedim as a group. The vast majority do not do these kinds of things and are probably just as upset by it as I am. But what no one can do, is ignore the common features of: 1)violence and 2)Charedim. I really tired to find an article about violent MOs but I could not. And please don’t say I didn’t try hard enough or that the violence in some Religious Zionist circles is just as bad or worse. RZ does not equal MO.
The point to be made here (as I have in the past) is that if there is a common feature amongst these hooligans to be found it is they identify as Charedim of one sort or another. So why do I bring it up if not to bash them? One reason is because the fact that they have in common this one feature begs the question, “Why?” “Why is it always Charedim that utilize a gang or mob mentality?” Another reason is because many of these incidents happened recently.
I have suggested that it is a flaw in that portion of the Charedi educational system that is common to all of these factions, whether it is Charedim, Chasidim, or Lubavitch. I still think that is the case. I just want to re-iterate that the vast majority of Charedim do not learn to be violent in their schools and are not violent at all. Quite the contrary. But there is a problem and it is a Charedi one.
I’m not sure exactly what that flaw is but it must be there, since such violence seems to come… if not exclusively from these circles, at least it does come from Charedi circles the vast majority of the time.
I have suggested in the past a lack of emphasis on the Mitzvos Bein Adam L’Chavero as a possible reason. But the problem is probably a lot more complex than that.
As I said, for the most part Charedi education does not preach violence. On the contrary. Charedi leadership is just a abhorred by it as I am. Perhaps even more so. But that does not absolve them of taking at least some of the responsibility far it. It would behoove them to have a major conference on this issue, analyze the problem, re-think their curricula and adjust it accordingly.
And they do have conferences which include the major rabbinic leaders. In fact they just had one recently in Israel on the subject of Tznius dress for Charedi women.
That’s really wonderful. I’m glad that subject was tackled with the full force of the Israeli rabbinic leadership. I guess we can all rest easy now. No more long Shaitels. Whew! All is well. Shalom Al Yisroel.
Shalom?! Really?
