Eighteen months ago, a police car was torched in Boro Park after an elderly Jew was allegedly treated roughly during a traffic stop. Many leading haredi rabbonim condemned the violence in clear and unequivocal terms.
That is the response we ought to be hearing whenever horrible events that shame Hashem’s Torah occur. Parents and educators must forcefully stress to the impressionable young minds in their care, “These people do not represent us!”
Sadly, I take seriously the rabbi who told Mr. Shmueli he “might end up dead.” Make no mistake about it – these barbaric hooligans who assault Jewish women on buses and pour hot oil on a decent fellow trying to make an honest living are capable of murder as well.
Is that what must occur before we finally take action? Have we lost our minds? Why are we allowing this to go on? Why aren’t we demanding an end to this insanity?
I call upon all haredi publications to start reporting these incidents in their news sections and condemn them in their editorials. Additionally, we should treat these thugs like the rodfim they are and do our best to see that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
We should stop using politically correct terms like “misguided youths” to describe the criminals who physically assault peaceful citizens, haredi or otherwise. And we should stop blaming the press for reporting these incidents. We would be better served by turning inward and making a cheshbon hanefesh.
I would like to see educators, rabbonim and lay leaders from across the haredi spectrum clearly and unequivocally condemn such acts of violence in the strongest language. I would like to see a publicly-issued halachic ruling that those who commit violence constitute a real and present danger to the safety of the public and that one is halachically obligated to report them to the police (taking photographs of the perpetrators if possible) and halachically obligated to defend the victim as the Torah says, “Lo sa’amod al dam re’echa.”
I would also like to see all haredi Knesset members call a joint press conference the next time such an incident occurs to repudiate all forms of violence and to vow to bring to justice all those who engage in such cowardly attacks.
If enough of us decent haredi individuals do the right thing, we can restore honor to Hashem’s name and end this senseless brutality.