“What is this crazy thing? Full of nasty stereotypes, detached from reality. Just disgusting,” wrote Eliav Goldberg on the Karov La’lev (Heb: close to the heart) Facebook page, in response to a short video inviting religious Jews to drop their preconceived notions about their secular neighbors and celebrate Hanukkah together. Considering the fact that the effort, part of an ongoing endeavor to bridge the gaps between the different Jewish groups in Israel, enlisted Peace Now General Secretary Yariv Oppenheimer, who is about as identified with the Israeli extreme left as they come, the response to the effort from the left makes it appear like an abysmal failure.
“I wonder if you would have dared to make a video in which the religious side was presented in such a negative and stereotypical way in order to ‘expose’ the false feelings inside Israeli society,” responded Leevi Winter on Facebook.
When the Karov La’lev people responded that their criticism was, in fact, directed at the religious Israelis, for their cartoon images of the secular, Gal Hod was irate: “The criticism is of the religious side? Did we watch the same film? What criticism, they avoid familiarity with their crazy neighbors, who are interested only in their own alcohol, drugs, tattoos and shrimp? You remind me of people who, when asked to describe their shortcomings, confess they have no patience for stupid people.”
“Your message is crooked,” wrote Ran Wahle. “If it’s directed at the religious public you should understand that the secular watch it, too, and it confirms for them that this is what the religious really think about them. If you were to make the opposite clip with stereotypes about the religious community they’d be all shouting anti-Semitism.”
The video clip shows Oppenheimer in the role of the secular Israeli, who invites in his religious neighbors who came knocking on his door. During the visit, the religious neighbors discover how the secular live: complain about religious coercion at every turn, offer shrimp snacks, mix meat and milk, dance seductively, pop hard drugs, let their kids get drunk. At the end, the religious couple is tied up in their chairs and the husband is coerced to sign an agreement to keep his business open on Shabbat.
Yariv Oppenheimer released a statement saying: “The video appeals to the religious community, asking them to leave behind all the stigmas about the secular and get to know them. The video attempts to ridicule precisely the way in which the secular are perceived by some segments of the religious public. I see no need to blur the differences between different parts of society, rightists and leftists, secular and religious, we have different approaches and it’s a good thing, but when there are moments in which we can encourage dialogue and openness, we should do it. I have been and remain a believer in secular and humanistic values that have nothing in common with religious belief, but it still does not stop me from wanting to maintain a dialogue with those who think differently from me and maybe even to change their position.”
Perhaps looking to break the trite notion that success has many parents but failure is an orphan child, Karov La’lev added their own statement, defending their misunderstood, new video: “We believe that instead of talking about the unity of the people with big words, we each have to do his part. We can’t talk about the connection between us, without your knowing your own neighbor.” The non-profit organization has initiated every holiday in recent years various activities to forge connections between religious and secular neighbors. “So we distribute before the holidays to the secular and religious kits to help them do the simplest thing: to reach each other, to give away something and to talk.”
“According to the studies we have done, an absolute majority of the secular public is interested in an acquaintance with their religious neighbors, it’s just that people do not know it,” they added, “We thank Yariv, who volunteered to participate in the video and to show that, after all — we are one nation.”
The Kits being handed out by Karov La’lev include a menorah, candles, song sheets and a special family game for getting to know the neighbors.
Last Passover, a respectable list of Religious Zionist rabbis endorsed the Karov La’lev projects and recommended their kits to religious families. The following rabbis even signed a letter to that effect: Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Rabbi Haim Druckman, Rabbi David Stav, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, and Rabbi Yehoshua Weitzman. But they may not offer the same endorsement to this newest video, which evokes imageries that may be honest, as Oppenheimer argued, but way over the top.
