Shas leader Aryeh Deri spoke with Channel 2 News following the Million Man Atzeres on Sunday, 1 Rosh Chodesh Adar II 5774. According to Channel 2, 500,000 people took part in the atzeres.
A synopsis of Deri’s comments:
Let me begin with the facts. All of the efforts to legislate a new law is not because Yesh Atid, but because of the Supreme Court. I am chareidi and proud, but not a ben yeshiva. I have stated previously that we must differentiate between chareidim and bnei yeshivos. Lapid has tied their hands. Shas has been giving an ultimatum. They are the ones who placed the chareidim outside the fold with the criminal sanctions and this is the result.
Channel 2:
Military police are not going to arrest anyone according to Lapid.
Deri:
If military police are not coming to arrest anyone as he says, why have they insisted on criminal sanctions as part of the law? They spoke of other sanctions or even incentives for those who serve. I am fine with that but when they placed people outside the framework of the law for learning Torah a criminal they caused this situation, no one else.
Channel 2:
What about PM Netanyahu?
Deri:
Binyamin Netanyahu to my sorrow built the coalition and he is responsible. He promised us all there would not be criminal sanctions and did not keep his promise.
He is however not that relevant since Bennett, Lapid and Lieberman run the show as he may shine in public relations abroad.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
He knows about respecting the law.
Now that the “Million Man Atzeres” as come and gone, can someone find another name for this event that does not contain a falsehood about how many men participated in it? According to this article, it was a “Half-million Man Atzeres.” That’s a great turnout when the number of Chareidi men (including boys of all ages) in Israel is about 400,000. But calling it a “Million Man” event gives Jewish accountants a bad name and makes me giggle.
Moderators Note: We will pass along your message to the editors, as long as you show us how you came to your number of 400,000 charedi men in Israel (including boys of all ages).
nfgo3 there were over 600,00 ppl there i was there yoiu werent. and hundreds of thousands of ladies and girls. all the american yeshiva bochurim were there and every seminary get a clue you were wrong be4 the atzeres and arte wrong after
Dear Moderator,
Allow me to assist #2:
1. In total, in 2011 charedim constituted roughly 9% of Israel’s Jewish population which today stands at some 6,000,000 – ken yirbu. So the total charedi population of Israel (at their 2011 percentage of the population) would be roughly 540,000 people – ken yirbu.
See, http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%93%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%94_%D7%A9%D7%9C_%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C
Now, as this number is based on a 2011 survey of the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel and as it does not weigh for children it would be reasonable to say that today the total charedi population of Israel is more likely 10%-11% of the Jewish population, i.e., 600,000-660,000.
Assuming an even division between men and women, that would mean that there are some 300,000-330,000 charedi males in Israel.
#2’s estimate of 400,000 charedi males of all ages thus seems eminently reasonable. Put another way, #2’s estimate presumes that today charedim constitute some 13%-14% of Israel’s Jewish population. That is surely a generous estimate.
2. #2’s estimate is further born out by the estimate of the Israeli police (as reported yesterday by YWN) that there were some 300,000 participants in the atzeret.
1. The lowest figures in the hiloni press are 300K. Israel is roughly a 40th (1/40) the size of the USA, so that would be the equivalent of 12,000,000 in the USA. That’s a humongous number. And the group included very few women and children. Demographically, it suggests that Israel has alienated, to the point of looking favorably on treason, a demographic equivalent in the USA to say, as example, African American or Hispanics. To have that large a group being so alienated is a serious threat to the stability of any country.
2. Any law in Israel can be changed by passing a basic law. They are easy to do. They have even passed them in the middle of election campaigns to include or exclude candidates. All it takes is 61 votes.
3. There is no problem with rule of law in Eretz Yisrael, but rather which law, Torah or the zionist legal system. That gets down to the question of whom you serve, HaShem or the Medinah. Most of us choose HaShem.
Thank you, commenter no. 4. Actually, my “methodology”, or guesstimate, was based on the following:
Total Israeli population …………….8,000,000
Chareidi population is 10% of total
Jewish population…………………..800,000
Chareidi male population is
50% of total Jewish population……….400,000
As you can see, I neglected to deduct the Arab portion of the total population, so my estimate overstates the Chareidi population if my 10% guesstimate of Chareidi portion of Jewish population is correct.
I looked that the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics web site (English version), and it confirmed that the total population was 8,000,000, but I could not find (because I am not as smart as I pretend to be) a count of Chareidim, though I am sure that my 10% guesstimate is close to right. As for my assumption that half the Chareidim are male, if that is true, then some skeptics and non-believers might conclude that davening does not work (at least when praying for children of a particular sex), but I really don’t want to consider that possibility.
#6- The 2011 survey of the Central Bureau of Statistics is attached (in part) as a PDF file near the beginning of the Wikipedia entry that I linked to above (rather than in a footnote – an unusual arrangement). You’ll find the relevant information on page 20 of the file.
I have to add, though, that I found your comment on prayer to be unnecessary as well as being wrong on many levels. The implication that you made that charedim do not yearn and pray for daughters is tasteless.
Is this really an argument of numbers? What a true waste of time, as a participant from afar the numbers were definitely 1/2 million and upward.
There were a considerable number of girls/ladies as my seminary students recanted. Also there was a large segment of non-Bnei Torah, ya know the balabatim of EY plus hesder and dati leumi.
Re comment no. 7: My comment about davening for boys versus girls was not intended to be critical of or insulting to anyone, and I believe it was not critical or tasteless. (Maybe it wasn’t funny, as I did intend, but that by itself is no cause for an apology.) My comment was based, in part, on my belief that many people (in many cultures) pray for the birth of sons, more so than for the birth of daughters. I have no doubt, however, that when Chareidim are blessed with newborn daughters, they are no less joyful than when blessed with sons, and nothing in my comment suggested otherwise. I therefore respectfully decline to apologize for my comment.