An Ounce of Prevention

Toshnad Heichel Torah Utfila - synagogue near where a teacher was stabbed (JTA)

‘If she wouldn’t dress like a slut, maybe she wouldn’t have gotten raped!’

I’m sure most of us have heard that line before. I’m equally sure that arguments like this have been used by many a defense attorney during a rape trial as well.

But I’m also sure that most people feel as I do. It doesn’t matter how a woman dresses. Rape is rape.  And a rapist deserves to be treated no less severely just because he couldn’t control his libido. He used violence against an innocent victim to satisfy himself.

Although the two situations are not exactly the same, I mention it because similar arguments have been made about why there has been an increase in antisemitic attacks in places like Monsey, New York.

Just this week a 29 year old teacher was stabbed multiple times and beaten to within an inch of his life as he was on his way to Shul. The last report I heard is that he is in critical condition. The police have not called this a hate crime yet. But I would not be surprised in the slightest to find that eventual determination being made. My heart goes out to his family, friends, colleagues and students. This cannot be a pleasant time for any of them – or anyone else in that community. May he have a complete and speedy recovery!

It is also no secret that animosity has increased between Orthodox residents of suburban neighborhoods like this and the non Jews or secular Jews that live there too. As a JTA article states in covering this story: 

There have been plenty of allegations of anti-Semitism in this town a half-hour northwest of Manhattan. Local governments have tried to block the construction of an enclosure that would have allowed observant Jews to carry in public on the Sabbath. A controversy over the Orthodox-controlled school board slashing funding for public schools briefly made national news in 2014. Social media pages have filled with epithets aimed at the Orthodox community. A recent video from the county Republican Party warned that Orthodox Jews were “plotting a takeover.”

“There’s a very toxic, hostile atmosphere toward Jews, but in particular toward haredi and haredi-looking Jews for the way we pray, the way we practice religion,” said Yisroel Kahan, a member of the Oizrim Jewish Council, a local leadership organization. “Which minority can I go and attack with bigoted, hateful comments like that?” 

I would not be surprised if the fellow that committed this heinous crime against an innocent Jew was in some way part of that toxic and hostile environment and was energized by the clash between Jews and non Jews living there.

However, just as a woman who dresses provocatively is no excuse to be raped, so too is communal rage between the 2 communities no excuse for an individual from one community to attack an individual from the other community.

In no way does it excuse in the slightest what that perpetrator did. If as I suspect it is a hate crime, he took out his rage on an innocent human being. Hopefully he will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of that law. Which I hope means many years in a maximum security prison. At the very least.

At the same time I still believe if in any way that ‘toxic and hostile atmosphere’ contributed to this crime, it would be very wise at this time to try and calm things down. I know that the devil is in the details. And perhaps it has been tried unsuccessfully. If that’s true, I would advise community leaders on both sides to try harder. There are a lot of very smart dedicated people in Monsey and ‘where there is a will there is a way’.

This doesn’t mean that by calming things down it won’t happen again. It may very well happen again. The ‘genie is out of the bottle’. There are plenty of antisemites out there that will see this as a clarion call to do the same thing.

Furthermore, even if things were to return to the way they were to a time described by Monsey communal leader Rivkie Feiner: I grew up in a place where, as a kid, people left their doors unlocked - antisentimism would still exist.

Nonetheless if the chances of anything like this happening can be reduced, it surely warrants every attempt to do so. Nothing beats peaceful relations. And that means compromise on both sides. Can it be done?

In the meantime I’m glad that the police are increasing their presence there and that other precautionary measures are being taken. But as I always say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Just my quick thoughts about this very sad event.