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The in thing nowadays in the Charedi communities in Eretz Yisrael are acceptance committees. This exists in Kiryat Sefer, Beitar and other places. All of the new communities that are opening up (Pisgat Zev is an example) also boast that they have acceptance committees that screen the applicants. I read this week in Hamodia that when the Gerrer Chasidim wanted to start a community in Arad there was an acceptance coommittee in place that wanted to reject them until a woman who was a Holocaust survivor objected. She said that it reminded her of the Selektzia of the Nazis. I think this is something we should keep in mind and I think it not for us to play G-d and decide who is fit to live in our communities.
Nothing wrong with living together with people of your own kind and it has nothing to do with being Charedi or not. (There are communities that davka DON’T want Charedi types living with them.) People just feel more comfortable being part of a community which is unifrom. Just keep in mind that these “acceptance committees” are often only superficial. As long as you look and openly act Charedi (black clothing, no TV or computers except YWN, shun work, noshim know there place, etc) you’re a shoe-in. I always wonder what happens to people who are accepted and later go off the derech. Do they actually throw them out? In places like RBS I can see a family’s life being made miserable until they leave, but what do they do in less extreme places?
I know plenty of private clubs that have an acceptance committee. What’s the difference?
It can be used appropriately or inappropriately. But the general idea could be a good one if properly implemented. It can be used to enforce adherence to basic halachic dictates, such as Tzinius, as unpopular as that idea may be.
Birds of a feather flock together..
Forget the committees most people choose to live near like-minded individuals and will attempt to do so. what is the committee for?
to bklnmom, I’ve lived in one of these communities for 9 years and it is crucial for a committee. Families move in because they can’t afford rent in other places and destroy the atmosphere. This city was built by a for charedim. That is who they plan and market for and most people who live there came specifically for this reason. You can not compare to Germany in ww2. No more need be said. Kol Tuv!
The issue depends on the manner that it is implemented. I understand that many of these commitees are overly strict, and thus are causing severe pain and resentment to upright, religious individuals who would like to live within their midsts. In general, while I can understand the desire to live within a likeminded community, it must be recognized that the potential for sinaas chinom and alienation here is tremendous. The messages of rejection that are being gratuitously extended when religious, halachic Jews who do not suscribe to all the strictures maintained by the committees, or do not fall into the precise family and hashkafic patterns demanded are denied living rights in specific areas are heartrending. Our societies suffer on a broader scale from fragmentation,diviseness and alienation and I feel that these screening committees further these tendencies at a dangerous expense. At the very least, I believe that the screening committees should have a list of concrete and thoughtfully generated specifics that families or individuals must suscribe to in order to live in these communities. This would leave the choice in the hands of those whom would like to live there instead of the whims of the commitees, and could still ensure the character of the community. The comparison with private clubs is innapropriate. Private clubs view their members an elite group and do not concern themselves with the rest of society at large. If we in fact view ourselves as part of the larger group of am yisrael, and do not merely pay lip service to it as a nebulous concept, we must concern ourselves with the feelings of those rejected and the potentially grevious results of our actions.
No chareidim allowwed!!!!!!!!
How would that make us feel??
The problem in our kehillois, even Beitar is that we throw out our own kinder that are not capable of learning toira all day.
We must learn to help the weaker element in our Kehilois
why is someone who doesn’t learn all day a weaker element of a kehilla?
I think it is awful to ponder (that means think for all of those who cant understand basic English- i learned that word in 7-8th grade!!!)the thought that the level of sinas chinum today has reached such a height! are we an elitist group that cannot live with those that do not agree 100% with our values??? are we like those white supremest groups that will toss their family out if they do not follow their close-minded ideals??
If you are worried that people who hold by other ideals people will tend to congregate around those who have similar hashkafos. remember shivim panim latorah and when moshiach comes everyone will be in a circle and point to Hashem-there is more then one kosher derech to life!!!!!
Its a touchy subject and I agree that when a group of people get together in such situations they would like to prserve a certain lifelstyle that is hard (or harder) to find elsewhere. I get so upset when I see someone walking in the streets on Me’ah Shorim not properly dressed, or driving a car on shabbos. However, we need to be more open minded and tolerant with those who are different than what we are use to. Once my mother was at a frum wedding near her home, when a lady showed up in a very revealing dress. My mother went over to her in the sweetest of voices and told her that she felt bad that no one explained to her how people dress at such functions and offered her a shawl to help her fit in. The lady gladdly accepted and at the end of the wedding thanked her for sharing. (Later on they met up and the lady told my mother that she started to dress more modestly as a result of that evening) So what happened was that instead of being kicked out, ostracized and having negative feelings towards yiddishkeit she was embraced, had a positive expierence and is now living a better life as a result.
I personally happen to be a blcak hat type, very idealistic and love the Yeshivish world. However, as mazel had it, we live in a very mixed community and I’m glad for that expierence as well. It has given me the chance to see how many men who wear jeans wake up for Daf Yomi (5-6am). The chessed that goes on for all yidden regardless of dress. Plus the fact that regardless of the color of shirt, hat (or no hat), suit or shietel/snood that they are all our brothers and sisters whom we have a responsibility for as well.
oh yeah, you want the others’ kids telling yours about what they see on TV?
Come on, everyone knows what happened on TV. They saw it when they were over at their grandparents house 🙂
Living as I do in one of the afore-mentioned communities, I can see exactly what is going on here – both good and bad. Unfortunately, the acceptance committees are abusing their rights based on crazy things. If a person has a Sephardi-sounding family name (even if they happen to be Ashkenazi), forget it! Refused! (Unless you have a LOT of protekzia). If you are converts/Baalei Tshuva/working – forget it! (ditto about protekzia).
Unfortunately, these communities are becoming to signify all that is bad with the Chareidi world. I am one of the first to accept that we do need some type of screening, but for goodness sake, let’s look at the family and where they are holding now, and not refuse them for shtuyot. What is happening that so many young people, especially Sephardim are getting turned off by all this craziness, as they just give up, knowing that they will never “fit the mold”.
Is this what HaShem wants from klal Yisrael? I believe that some people are going to have to answer some mighty difficult questions after 120.
well said joseph …. and if they are good sefardim they should also get accepted……..
The world can’t exist without Achdus together. If we want Mashiach already bkarov to come then we first need to fix the Sinas Chinam ( baseless hatred) currently in klal yisroel which is worse then the generation of the second Bais Hamikdosh that was destroyed because of Baseless hatred.
May we all start putting our differences aside and gather together ASAP as one loving nation in unity so that Hashem can send Mashiach already bkarov
@Sam, get a life
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