I’m glad it wasn’t me.
First of all let me say that Justice Ministry attorney Amnon De Hartuch lost his cool and deserves to be officially reprimanded for his actions, no mater what provoked them. That said who can blame the feelings that generated his response?
In a recent Knesset session religious MK Yakov Cohen called Mr. De Hartuch , "more evil and terrible than the Nazis". That resulted in Mr. De Hartuch striking Mr. Cohen. Violence is never an acceptable response to verbal abuse in my view. When a government official does it, he deserves at the very least a strong reprimand and sanctions. Perhaps he should even be asked to resign.
That said I am stunned by the accusation. Not that I should be since I have myself been verbally abused on many occasions for espousing a similar viewpoint. What brought on that accusation on the part of MK Cohen? According to the article in Ha’aretz, it was Mr. De Hartuch’s attempt to block funding for the Charedi School system unless they cover core subjects that are normally required for state funding. For this, he is called worse than a Nazi!
As I said, I’m glad it wasn’t me. I'm not sure what my reaction would have been. I have advocated instituting a curriculum like this many times. One that would minimally provide a basis for a future that may not include full time learning… a basis that would enable the eventual learning of a profession or trade. I wouldn’t go so far as cutting off funds completely, but I certainly sympathize with Mr. De Hartuch’s desire for a minimal curriculum.
Is one to be considered worse than a Nazi by the Charedi rabbinic leadership for holding such a view? And one must point to them as they are the ones who guide the pronouncements, actions, and attitudes of their Kenesset members. Gedolim are the ones who guide their political parties. That is the essence of the Charedi mindset, they do nothing without the approval of the rabbinic leaders. That is Daas Torah. Which to Charedim in Israel is the exclusive purview of the Charedi Gedolim in Israel. Certainly a public official representing Daas Torah would never call another Jew worse than a Nazi unless he knew that 'Daas Torah' was behind him.
I understand why they might feel that way. To people who are used to thinking that all secular Jews in government are the enemy, any attempt to withhold funding from a Charedi religious institution is automatically assumed to be anti Torah. They look at demands by a secular MK requiring a core curriculum as just an excuse… a cover… for their ‘real’ goal of destroying the Torah world. Destroying the Torah is worse than the physical destruction of the Jewish people. Hence, they are worse than Nazis!
But I humbly submit that not all requests by a government official for a core curriculum have as a motive the destruction of the Torah world. That certainly isn’t my goal. Calling a fellow Jew worse than a Nazi for almost any reason… let alone one calling for a program that is their own best interests… does not make one anywhere near a Nazi. Even if the Charedi leadership totally disagrees with it, which of course they do.
If they are indeed so incensed by a call to condition funding on a core curriculum, it would be a far better approach to make the case for their position rather then name calling. And if they can’t make the case, it doesn’t really matter because they have the clout to get the funding in spite of what any Knesset member or any other public official says.
Calling another Jew a Nazi is lower than low. There is no excuse for it, even if De Hartuch had been opposed to funding any Charedi schools under any circumstances. That may have been evil. But not deserving of the appellation, Nazi! That is reserved for those who wish to commit genocide against the entire Jewish people, not someone who has no religious background and doesn’t really know any better or worse someone who is a religious Jew as is the case here.
Name calling in the Knesset is a fairly common occurrence, if I understand correctly, so I shouldn’t be all that upset by this. But Mr. Cohen represents Torah and he ought to behave like it.
As for the suggestion to not fund Charedi institutions unless they have some sort of core curriculum at least through high school, as I said, I wouldn’t ‘starve’ them out of existence. But I certainly sympathize with the motive behind it. And I would do anything short of that to get it accomplished in at least a significant number of the Charedi schools if not all of them.
