This is especially true here in Beit Shemesh, where a municipal election which we saw as being about fair and honest municipal governance for all citizens, was turned by the charedi leadership at the highest levels into a vicious holy war against non-chareidim in which all who opposed the charedi candidate were portrayed as rishaim and mechalelei shem shamayim (in the words of one respected figure in the charedi community ) and Nazis who allegedly sought to bring among other things, public chillul Shabbos to Beit Shemesh’s charedi neighborhoods.
How is it possible for thinking people in Israel that were raised in America to have these kinds of attitudes? I don’t know a single rational Charedi living in America that wouldn’t have condemned the rhetoric and tactics in the strongest possible terms. The lack of response to the terrorist actions by these American expatriates that at one time would have expressed outrage immediately – makes me think that something happened to them when they became Israeli Charedim. It is almost as though they have to prove themselves to their fellow Israeli Charedim who think that American Charedim too modern.
The sense of rationality and understanding seems to have completely disappeared. Making matters even worse is how they do respond by blaming the extremists. I agree with Esti Shushan who notes a typical response in a Facebook post republished at Cross Currents:
We are not like them, we are OK, we even pray for the solders and occasionally consider saying a mishbeirach for them.
Ms. Shushan adds:
…it is so convenient to blame the extremists. To say “our hands did not spill this blood, what do we have to do with this craziness?” The charedi mainstream, its leadership, its askonim, its superficial and irresponsible media, they are the ones who laid the ground for attacks against the soldiers who protect your shtetl, your shtreiml and that which is or is not under it.
There is a lot more in the Cross Currents article… all worth reading. I am pleased that Cross Currents has seen fit to publish such a stridently critical post on its website. This is highly unusual even for a moderate Charedi website like theirs. But then again, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is one of the most rational and fair-minded Charedim I know. He is the one responsible for this. Which is why I admire him so much.
