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| Police raid lab producing forged passports, checks, in Bayit VeGan (VIN) |
From the Jewish Press:
A police raid that was carried out last week in the Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood of Bayit Vagan revealed an advanced laboratory for forging Israeli and foreign passports, as well as forging of checks of foreign banks and other documents, the Jerusalem Police Spokesperson reported Sunday.
Police seized state-of-the-art computers, printers and other advanced equipment, which can be used for high-level forgery.
Two suspects were arrested, both Haredi men in their 50s to 60s, both Jerusalem residents, who were remanded for interrogations until Monday.
The Jerusalem police spokesperson noted that forgery felonies, especially dealing with passports, present an immediate danger to public security and enable nefarious parties to enter the country without supervision.
“We will act against these criminals with all the means and methods at our disposal in order to stop their activity,” police said.
It isn’t that there are criminals in all segments of society
that might do these kinds of things. Both in the secular and even modern Orthodox
worlds. (Modern Orhtodoxy surely has its share of criminals like this.)
But Charedim - who eschew the outside world for precisely the reason of it being a
bad influence on them should be the last one to violate the law in any way.
In
this case, we aren’t even talking about poor people abusing the welfare system.
While that is G’Neiva, clearly wrong, and a Chilul HaShem one might understand what
poverty can cause people to do in order to support their families. But
creating false documents is an entirely different level of crime. It is designed
to help other criminals get away with the crimes they committed. For a profit.
Sure, we can always say that there are bad apples in every
segment of society, no matter how ‘religious’ or ‘irreligious’. That is surely the case here. But I can’t help
but speculate that there are reasons why meticulously religious Jews in Israel that are Charedi world might do
something like this.
One reason is their disdain
for the government. Charedim are constantly bombarded with negative comments about the government from both their religious leaders and their politicians.The government therefore deserves what it gets.
Another reason is their negative indoctrination about secular society. Which is mostly seen as anti-religious doesn’t
matter. As long as he Shuckels a lot during Shemonah Esreh and wears a Talis
over his head… that is all God really cares about.
It is also nature of the Charedi world to cut themselves off as much as possible from general society They do not see themselves as part of it. For those that succeed the most at doing that - it is an ‘us versus them’ attitude they carry. So they don’t really care what the outside world thinks of them. Every irreligious
Jew is seen as Reshoim and enemies of the Torah. How many times have I heard
Charedi legislators in Israel characterize their own government that way?
In Israel, when it comes to how Charedi religious and political leaders characterize the outside world (which in Israel is anyone who is not Charedi - including religious Zionist or modern Orthodox Jews) few if any ever say anything positive about them. Is it any wonder the few among them that are ethically challenged them might see it as a license to commit crimes as long as they don’t get caught?
Now before anyone accuses me of bashing Charedim gratuitously, let me once again make clear that - this is not what I am doing. As I have said many times I believe the vast majority
of Charedim would never consider doing anything like that. I have in the past extolled the virtues of this community as a whole. Many times. But that does not mean I find no fault in their way of life at all.
(It bothers me that I have to repeat this every time I make a critical comment about the Charedi world. But I suppose i can’t really blame them for thinking that. When a community gets criticized by someone from the outside many will see it as unfair bashing.
Speaking of how Charedim see other observant Jews that
are not Charedi, I find it troubling that in recent talks about uniting a
religious parties into one religious one that they did not consider non
Charedim. If they want to have the kind of power they dream about, getting all
religious members of the Kenesset should unite around Mitzvah observance…
and try to attract all observant members of the Kenesset.
The obvious reason they didn’t do that is because the Charedi parties are fighting
the very thing the Dati and religious Zionist parties endorse: Mandatory army service. Charedim see it as Shmad. Datim and religious Zionists see it as a Mitzvah. Yet both
claim that it is they who are serving God best.
The sad part is that with a little
bit of compromise on both sides – and agreeing to disagree about certain things,
they certainly have a lot more common in their observance of Halacha than they don’t.
I know... It is a lot easier said than done. (By an order of magnitude!) And that is too bad. Imagine what could be accomplished in areas of mutual interest?
