There is no hatred the equal of self-hatred.
There exists a hypocritical faction among us in Israel; those liberal “open-minded” Jews who nevertheless show such vitriol, ignorance, and intolerance when it comes to demonizing and misrepresenting those religious Jews who identify as “chareidim.” Many of them can be found venting their hostility on online blog forums and talkbacks. They are more bothered by black kippot and peyot (sidelocks) than they are by kaffiyahs. More than a few identify as religious Jews. I have a message for those among us who eagerly internalized the hateful generalizations and readily engage in the ugly sport of “chareidi bashing”:
The so called charedi world is not monolithic. Contain your hatred for other Jews.
To be sure, there are deranged communities who desecrate G-d’s name with notions of Judaism which have more in common with the Koran than Torah. It goes without saying that those fringe groups who engage in reprehensible violent acts (which the secular media always ensures that we see as a headline) should be ostracized, excoriated, and punished. Yet much of the vitriol leveled at chareidim in general is out of line, since the majority are damned for the sins of the few. Many Jews willingly extrapolate the ugly image of the minority segments as the true face of the overall “chareidi world,” which is much more multi-faceted than they care to know. Such generalizations come from ignorance and a disdain for those religious Jews who appear to them and their “enlightened” sensibilities as backward. This is outrageous when you consider that these same people give us hell whenever we use reason and empirical data to make generalizations about Arabs. Charedim are an easy target, and the enlightened in our own camp aren’t hampered by any notions of political correctness.
I grant that many of the gripes against segments of the chareidi world are valid ones since the issues affect all of society, i.e. the prevalent dependency on government handouts, rampant unemployment, and the issue of their abstention from military service. There are legitimate concerns, and people have the right to express their opinions on matters which affect their lives and their pocketbook. The problem arises when the issues are skewed through the poisonous prism of personal animosity.
Many of these same liberals who place all chareidim in one basket insist on the existence of a moderate Islam, when studies and empirical data confirm that Islamic extremism is the norm and not the exception. Yet when it comes to the actions of a few Jews who truly have no commonality with the majority of those who identify as chareidim, their tolerance is absent and they have a disturbing willingness to generalize.
Several years back, my wife and I were entertaining friends for a Shabbat meal. At some point, my wife and I noted that we had chareidi family in Jerusalem. The friend’s response was ridiculous. “Really, do they throw stones on Shabbat?” Mind you, this was from a religious, albeit self-identified liberal, “modern-orthodox” woman who would never be caught dead generalizing about Arabs. I was both amused at her ignorance and annoyed by her intolerance. I patiently pointed out that they were as likely to stone other people as she would be to stone them.
When it comes to generalizing about a genuinely hostile population committed to our destruction, we are often offered silly anecdotes about “the many Israeli-Arabs who love Israel.” Yet the picture of chareidim as violent stone throwing extremists is well entrenched in many Jews’ minds. Many liberal Jews are quick to adopt this fiction as a truth, and by doing so, they highlight their disdain for others.