Former Shas Leader R’ Aryeh Deri warns against the growing alarming anti-religious trend in Israel in an interview in the weekly Sha’ah Tovah Magazine.
Deri was asked to comment on the growing secularist movement which seems committed to the ideals of the late Tommy Lapid, the founder of the Shinui Party. He stated the core of the problem is the lack of achdus in Am Yisrael which simply strengthens Israel’s enemies who seek to annihilate us. He stresses our only true weapon in unity.
This of course led to a discussion regarding the widening chasm between the frum and secularist communities, to which he stated that in his travels around the country, seeking to spread Hashem’s word, he realizes that those among us who feel compelled to burn Israeli flags and continue walking around when the Memorial Day siren is sounded do not contribute to unity among the yidden. Deri adds he is less concerned with the political arena, where “both the chareidim and the secularists benefit”, with each shouting “racist” and “anti-Semite” and reaping the political rewards of their actions.
Distorted facts and figures regarding chareidim he laments are contributory factors to the fear and disdain for the frum community.
He warns the trend may gain additional momentum, pointing out “who would have thought that [Tel Aviv Mayor Ron] Huldai would speak out as he did”. He feels this is a signal, that such sentiments are gaining support, permitting the mayor to release such volatile statements.
Deri feels the reports, statistics and data released are at the heart of the problem, detailing that one must know who is behind a report and who released the numbers. He feels that a research institute must be established, or it should have been some time ago, where the academics would study and probe and release true information, not tainted reports. Deri feels there are chareidi academics that are qualified to release information that would be respected by the general public. Deri questions the validity of recent studies, explaining behind them are journalists who are now portraying themselves as investigative and Rabbi Regev, who is affiliated with the Reform Movement. He asks “since when have they acquired an expertise in statistics?”
The former Shas party leader warns that in our naiveté, we are not taking the matter seriously enough. While we should be conducting our own research, alternatively, we find ourselves responding to every journalist who decides to slam the chareidi community.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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5 Responses
It’s a two way street:
The Religious Media should stop pocking fun the non-religious.
Those ‘meshugenres’ should stop throwing stones on other Jews – which is against Das-Torah.
And every one meeting a non-religious person should just make sure not to make a Chilul Hashem…
And all will be fine – they will all come back to yiddishkite…
It’s all upon us – to get them to see the light… we need to do a much better job…
Oh come on. Try for a minute to imagine yourself as a chiloni looking at the charedim. For the most part, they don’t serve int he army, they don’t put life and limb on the line to defend the country, yet their monetary demands of the government far outweigh any other demographic. And the government needs their votes, so sells out to them. Solve this issue and you’ll solve the problem. Stop ignoring the elephant in the room. Inaccurate statistics and data are SYMPTOMS of the problem, they are NOT the heart of the problem. There is a REASON people are putting out inaccurate information.
why is it taboo to look at the genetics of who is saying what.
lets paint the picture of what direction the gentile blood is pushing us into, lets for the first time be able to see it.
It’s amazing how the mentality is the same regardless of where you are. In the US it’s the same – all cry antisemitism when a Jewish criminal is caught. Stop putting yourself in situations to make this happen much like poster #1 and #2 have stated albeit in different manners.
The conflict between zionism and Torah is inherent. The clash is inevitable. Zionism’s goal, from its inception, was to allow Jews to assimilate into western civilization by replacing Torah with a secular hiloni culture. It has nothing to do with anything we (or they) have done – the issue is that our existences are mutually incompatible. We define being a Jew as being the “Am shel Torah” and they define a Jew as being the “Am Hofshi”. Mutual coexistence is not possible.