A Word to Chareidi Bashers
- I find your willingness to show tolerance for all people except those within your own camp to be troubling. “Not all Arabs are bad,” you are wont to say. You demand that Israel grant equal rights to everyone in Israel, even those non-Jews whose participation in the political process will change the nature of a Jewish state. Yet in your head you have an archetype towards those who fall into the category of charedim. When it comes to this group, you accept the media’s portrayal of a minority as the true face of a much larger group. Your unfamiliarity with the chareidi world renders you unable to discern fact from fiction.
- Despite the images that your mind conjures up, not all of the chareidim burn Israeli flags on Yom Ha’atzmaut. The vast majority don’t. Most chareidim don’t harass women for their attire or insist that they switch seats on the bus. Most chareidim don’t throw stones at cars on Shabbat or hurl vile insults at women with uncovered heads. The desire to believe they do and to accept this fictitious picture is indicative of sinnat chinam (baseless hatred for other Jews). It is the grotesque counterpart to those who would deem every non-observant secular Israeli to be a self-hating, Fatah supporting, rabbit eating, communist.
- Furthermore, while you demonize other Jews, you aren’t bothered by the fifth column Arabs who siphon off the country while they remain committed in thought and in deed to Israel’s destruction, either through the bullet or the ballot. I don’t hear you complaining about the many hostile (some of them polygamous) Arabs who collect multiple checks each month. Or the fact that the supposed moderate Arabs they imagine exist also abstain from national and military service while benefitting from the state. Such hypocrisy is repugnant.
I am very far from being “chareidi” and I have no desire to act as an apologist for them; as a religious Jew, I disagree with many of their beliefs. Despite my ideological differences, I can nevertheless retain an appreciation for the best qualities chareidim offer. I admire their scrupulous adherence to Halacha, their disciplined study of our beautiful Talmud, and their rigid defense of the mesorah. Plus, their commitment to perpetuating our tradition with large beautiful families (May they grow larger still!) has the added benefit of combating the Arab birthrate. They make up for the secular reticence to populate the world.
I am sick of those Jews who try to present themselves as enlightened and open, yet consistently refuse to show religious Jews the tolerance they insist we give to Arabs. To them I say stop being hateful and hypocritical. Stop bashing chareidim, thereby exposing your ignorance and hatred for other Jews. The vast majority of chareidim are wonderful people committed to Torah and chesed. Step outside the comfort zone of your insular liberal world. Discover the multi-faceted “charedi” world before generalizing about those of whom you know nothing about. You can disagree with them, but don’t demonize them. They don’t deserve your rancor. We have real enemies in our midst.
Liberal hypocritical Jew: Heal thyself.