The Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union join together to strongly and unambiguously condemn the recent violence and intimidation committed by segments of the Jewish community in Beit Shemesh, Israel. As the largest body of Orthodox Rabbis, and the largest organization of Orthodox Synagogues, respectively, we call upon all involved to return to the peaceful ways of our sacred Torah and to respect the dignity of all human beings. It should be clear to all that this hateful activity does not represent Judaism.
We also urge all observers to recognize that the behavior of these hooligans does not in any way represent the attitude or demeanor of the Charedi community at large. The vast majority of Charedi Jews find these actions abhorrent, and the community should not be judged by the inexcusable conduct of a few.
Finally, as rabbis and national congregational leaders, we support the right and the duty of Israel’s police to act with the full force of the law in putting an end to these illegal, and dangerous, activities.
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12 Responses
Will the chareidi leaders just come out and condemn the acts of the extremists? Will chareidim just get together and protest the acts of these extremists already? Once they do this, the World will believe these extremists aren’t part of the chareidi velt!!
Every one of these words is measured… thus, what is particularly disturbing about this statement is the obvious limitation to only beit shemesh. Why? and why so late in the game? At least unlike the Agudah they don’t condone the radicalization of Judaism that lead up to these events, nor do they justify the violence as incited by the media.
The Agudah also published a Statement. You should be reporting on its statement too.
O how different is this statement from that of the Aguda. There’s no mention of the Tznius issue.
What really would be interesting is if you ran an article on which rabbanim are endorsing the violence? Which rabbanim are calling for teasing children or attacking people?
I suspect these aren’t any, and the “violence” are from some hasidische malcontents who would never think to ask a shailoh or ask their rebbe for advice.
Well said, RCA and OU. Agudath put out a similar statement last night.
This is becoming insane! I do know that there are 3 sides to every story (the 2 opponents and the truth).
Can someone give me an unbiased version of this story? More importantly, what exactly do these protestors want? Are they Occupy Wall Street or do they have a realistic list of demands? Are they protesting based on ideology and/or a financially driven agenda, or is one actually breaking the laws of Halucha? Did anyone work this through with Dass Torah?
Kol Hakoved. We need rabbonim to once and for all stand up against the kanoyus in our midst.
with all due respect,
why is the ou/auguda/rca etc wasting their time?! the fellows who are acting like animals a few blocks away from me dont respect or look up to young israel/agudah rabbis…
THEIR rabbanim need to denounce it..not ours… anycase – its important to note– that the press and certain individuals on BOTH sides are milking this story and it is not ANYWHERE as bad as it looks on the news
Agree with #9 – these “people” don’t even know what the OU/RCA/Agudah organizations are nor do they care about their opinions!
Well, many of them belong to Agudah.
i’m adraid that the Orot school is really not the real problem the real problem is the charadi intolerance towards non-charedim.
Indeed the lunatic extremists are only a fringe element, but what is always ignored is the wider problem of charedi intolerance to anyone and anything non-charedim.
This is compounded by the fact that once charedim are in the majority in a neighborhood it must conform to their sensitivities and demands.