They are men of both courage and action. This may be the best opportunity yet for moving forward in a positive way towards a goal where the Charedi world, the Dati world, and the secular world will have its cake and eat it too. Nothing would make me happier than ridding Israel of the extremist attitudes that are so pervasive and so divisive. Working together toward the same goal might just begin to do the trick.
What about Daas Torah and Jonathan Rosenblums loyalty to it? It is true that as long as the strident opposition to the draft and core curriculum in the schools persists – there can be no ‘working together’.
But as I have said before I have detected a ‘crack in the wall’. There is no longer unanimity among Charedi Gedolim about what the right course of action should be. This was evident again last week when two of Israel’s most venerated Charedi rabbinic leaders, Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Aharon Leib Steinman opposed an anti draft demonstration in contradistinction to Charedi rabbinic leaders who strongly supported it.
Perhaps after the two men encounter each other and learn the truth about each other at the RCA convention – then in the future when Jonathan presses for change he will see a man like Dov Lipman as an asset instead of a liability. Is that too much to hope for?
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