Not at my expense

Op-ed: Solution to religious clash is simple - government should stop financing haredim 
 

Jacob Kirsch

 

Published:  01.03.12, 12:45 / Israel Opinion

Every day I read with increasing dismay the stories and op-eds in our media about the radical Jewish menace plaguing our society today. I read and I weep; for the little girl who was spit on and cursed, for the soldier who was called a whore for boarding a bus and sitting in the front, and for our society which seems to be oblivious to the true problem. I weep as I see haredim affix a yellow star to their jackets - as if that symbol should be displayed anywhere outside the walls of Yad Vashem.

I weep because here, in the Jewish homeland, there are those among us who consider themselves more righteous than the next. As if to prove it, they assault our mothers, sisters and daughters with violence and bodily fluids, and they yell at the top of their lungs that these women are “whores,” “sluts,” “shiksas.”

The Other Side

Haredim also have rights / Hanoch Daum Op-ed: Does Israel’s majority have deep desire to make the haredi minority disappear? Full story

The Jewish State has come to an important crossroads in our nation's history. Our actions today, wrong or right, will determine how our society advances in the coming decades and, hopefully, centuries. But every article of news and every opinion piece I have read seems to omit a most basic truth. A truth we might not want to admit, but a truth nonetheless. We, the secular Israelis, are financing every aspect of this new fight.
We pay for it directly, by financing haredim and their large families. We enable them, by making payments every month so that they can send their 12 children to yeshivas and not hold a job. We pay the yeshivas, which in turn refuse to teach even the most basic core curriculum tenets. We pay for the legal system, which is starting to handle the problem we face. We pay for a lawyer to defend these radicals in court. Then, if convicted for calling someone a whore, or assaulting a little girl with spittle, we pay for them to sit in a jail cell until their sentence is served.

Lose your welfare 

 

Many of the most extreme don't believe in the very existence of the State. Yet they happily take our money every month - without fail. Our democracy allows them this right, thankfully. Just as it allows me the right to sit here and voice my dissent. If you don't believe in Israel's existence, if you tell me you live in Palestine, go ahead. But why should our government pay you money that we sent in the form of taxes, if you don't believe it is the legitimate government of this land?

I do not pretend to have all the answers. But there are reasonable solutions and required reactions to this problem which can and should be implemented without delay. The proper reaction is not to get on a segregated bus in a bikini and sit at the front. That is incitement, and it is stooping to their low level. The ultimate solution to this problem is to stop the funds. This is the only problem we can solve by not throwing money at it. In fact, it is one of the few problems that we can solve and make money from.  

 Do you think a soldier is a whore for being in the wrong section of your Taliban bus? Keep it to yourself - or lose your welfare (better yet, serve in the army.) Do you fervently believe that an eight-year-old girl should be spat on because her ankles and wrists are showing? Kindly keep your thoughts and your spit to yourself - or lose your welfare. We all have the right to procreation, and this world needs more Jewish children. But not at my expense - I have enough trouble paying for my own, thank you.
 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4170661,00.html

An orgy of hatred

Op-ed: Amnon Levy slams blatant, seemingly liberal incitement against the haredim 
 

Amnon Levy

 

Published:  01.03.12, 18:17 / Israel Opinion

In recent days I’ve been quarreling with all my friends. They are good people, these friends – liberal, tolerant, moderate and sensitive to any injustice. These are people that in our complex reality were never confused between good and bad. This is why I love them, among other things. I’d like to think that we are cut from the same cloth. That’s why I’m so amazed to see how uncaring and hateful they become when a group of people known as the haredim comes up for discussion.

My liberal friends propose various steps against the haredim and religious: A cadet who cannot bear female singing will not be an officer in the IDF, said one friend. As simple as that (“as simple as that” or “at once” are words that always accompany discussions about the haredim.) A segregated bus shall be stopped! The driver and bus operators should be sent to jail. A yeshiva that will not teach the core curriculum shall be closed at once! We shall not allow primitive ignoramuses to be raised here, and at our expense no less. A neighborhood that features separate sidewalks for women shall immediately lose its municipal services! They can go ahead and choke in their own garbage.

Religious Clash

Not at my expense / Jacob Kirsch Op-ed: Solution to religious clash is simple - government should stop financing haredim Full Story

There are more proposals that are even more terrifying. Disconnect haredi neighborhoods from electricity, water and whatnot. The same people who would quiver, and rightfully so, if such proposals were made about Gaza, forget that behind the dark clothes, odd views and challenging (and annoying) behavior lie human beings. They are different than us, but they are human beings.

I’ve been following haredi society for many years yet I don’t remember such anger. And that’s odd, because the secular fury comes at a time when secularism is winning while the haredim are on the defense. Once upon a time the haredim sought to educate us. They made pretenses of telling us where and what to eat, what to do on Shabbat, where and how to be buried, and how to get married. Some time has passed, and the seculars won most battles.

Today it’s the seculars who wish to educate the haredim. The seculars are upset by the segregated bus routes. This doesn’t upset haredi women, but it does upset the secular Tania Rosenblit. The seculars are upset that math is not being taught at yeshivas. They know better than haredi parents what’s good for their sons. The seculars are upset by the relationship between men and women in haredi society. Why can’t the haredim be like us?

Wild incitement

I look at the holy secular anger and fail to understand it. It lacks the modesty of one who looks at another society from the outside. It has no hesitation – maybe we are wrong after all? Perhaps we failed in understanding the other?

I, for example, very much want the haredim to study the core curriculum, I will try to convince them this is needed, but I won’t enforce it upon them. Why? Because somewhere in my head I’m not certain that the core curriculum is truly important for the life meant for a haredi child. Perhaps for him math and English are less necessary than another Talmud class? In all such matters I will hesitate, because in my view when a civilized liberal looks at someone who is different, this should be done with the required modesty.

However, the seculars are furious and are unwilling to show any modesty in the way they look at the haredim. Had I been a religious Jew, I would be concerned. I would take this fury seriously and understand how I contributed to it. I would try to calm the atmosphere through some concessions.

And here I get to the heart of the matter: We need a new social covenant. The old status-quo may have secured political calm, yet caused a flare-up in secular-haredi relations. Both sides must be brave and go for a new covenant premised on a simple principle: Life in the country will be secular in every way. The haredim will let go of their need to care for our secular souls. This means buses on Shabbat, civil marriage and everything associated with a modern state.

On the other hand, the secular majority would allow the haredim to have full cultural autonomy within their neighborhoods. This means letting go of the need to education them and allowing them to live their life as they see fit. And yes, this means segregated buses in haredi population centers and tolerance to haredi education.
That’s the principle. Implementing it isn’t simple because there would be red lines, of course. If the haredim want to educate their children by beating them up, we won’t agree to. However, within the boundaries of logic, we must make every effort to accept the differences of the other.


In my arguments with my liberal friends, one of them sometimes places a hand on my shoulder and asks in a concerned voice: “Amnon, what happened to you? After all, you are secular, a devout atheist; what’s happening to you?” So here is the answer: It appears to me that being a liberal, progressive and humanist today means resisting this blatant incitement against the haredim; standing up against the bon-ton and saying: I’m not taking part in this orgy of hatred.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4170686,00.html

Haredim also have rights

Op-ed: Does Israel’s majority have deep desire to make the haredi minority disappear?
 

Hanoch Daum

 

Published:  01.01.12, 11:02 / Israel Opinion

A moderate haredi I spoke with last week praised Minister Limor Livnat, who said that segregated buses should be permitted in haredi areas. People don’t realize it, but these bus routes started because of women’s complaints, he said. According to one study, one-third of all women in Israel report being sexually harassed on a bus at least once in their life.

Saving Israel

Time for Israeli civil war? / Raanan Shaked Op-ed: Silent majority may have to resort to violent, non-democratic means to save Israel Full story

This does not justify the humiliation experienced by women who board a segregated bus and sit at the front, of course, yet it should make all of us wonder about the exact aims of the public struggle over this issue.
Let’s assume that the haredi sector fears that some men would take advantage of the crowded conditions on a mixed-gender bus in order to harass girls and women, can we decide for them that this is not a legitimate way to contend with the problem?
Will we, those who protest against the exclusion of women, make do with the prevention of religious coercion, does Israeli society hold a deep desire to make this odd community disappear and turn the haredim into people that conduct themselves just like everyone else?


What do we really want – to see the haredim allowing us to live peacefully in the public sphere? Or maybe deep inside, without being consciously aware of it, we also hold patronizing aspirations to prompt them to “regain their senses” and live like us, dress like us, and study the exact curriculum we study at school? 

The protest wave against the radical haredim is more than important, yet it must not get confused or get overly excited. Israel’s majority must remind itself all the time that not only women have rights. The haredi minority has rights too. 




http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4169431,00.html