[By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz – Editor In Chief Yated USA]
Tens of thousands of gutteh yidden flooded the streets of Lower Manhattan on Sunday to daven on behalf of Eretz Yisroel’s lomdei Torah. They were peaceful and respectful. There were no speeches, no signs, nothing any haters could mockingly point to.
But that didn’t stop them. The same gang who are always ready to pounce on our community responded to the rally in force.
Sunday night The Jewish Press sent out a twitter breaking news alert. The headline read “50 Thousand Haredim March So Only Other Jews Die in War.”
Some things are expected and others are outrageous and beyond the pale. There may be room for debate, even though our position is correct, in a democracy people can disagree. But to call 50,000 frum peaceful people murderers because they gathered to daven, is abhorrent.
That stark headline was part of a larger article The Jewish Press posted on its website by one of its regular writers, Yori Yanover, who slandered an entire community in a way reminiscent of the infamous NY Post coverage of the Stark murder.
Read his words, “They flooded downtown Manhattan with the anti-draft for Haredim message: everybody else is welcome to get themselves killed.”
He wrote sneeringly… “We’ve seen one demonstration of a few hundred thousand Haredim against the new law in Jerusalem (but not a single day’s work was lost!), and yesterday, in downtown Manhattan, another 50 thousand Haredim marched to condemn the evil decree.”
Going on, “Are you kidding me? Have you ever been to a Shabbes demonstration? Those kids can throw a rock at police like born Palestinians.”
He quoted one of the people at the rally who said, “Their whole world and their whole lifestyle is peace and love and in doing mitzvahs.” But he disagrees of course. “OK, who can argue with that description of Haredi behavior? I’m sure non-Haredi women walking the streets of Beit Shemesh or boarding the bus in Bnei Brak would attest to that pure goodness.”
The Jewish Press article wasn’t too happy with the participation of the Satmar Rebbe Rav Aaron Teitelbaum, saying that his followers… “could forge a most brutal and violent commando unit.”
This is what the argument against the Torah world boils down to: “That, essentially, is the main argument being advanced by the deans of Haredi yeshivas: We have no trust in the Torah we’ve taught our students. We know better. This is why the only means we have of keeping them in line are extreme social pressure and intimidation. You take those away and Joe will spring the trap and become a normal man, availing himself freely of the gifts of a modern society. We can’t afford that.”
“The post-Holocaust Haredi world is all about fear. Fear of new things. Fear of books. Fear of voices. And above all, fear that the education a young man receives during his 20 years in a Haredi yeshiva is worthless, because as soon as he encounters the outside world, those 20 years would vanish, melt away like Cholov Yisroel butter on a skillet.”
There you have it. It is obvious that a war is being waged on the chareidi community in Israel. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. A government that takes milk and bread out of the mouths of its poorest infants to further any goal, cannot be considered to be working for their benefit.
A government and parliament that says it will jail yeshiva bochurim who refuse to be drafted, cannot be condoned. It is all about political expediency. If Shas would have received three more seats in the Knesset, its members would be prominent ministers, chereidim would be praised, yeshivos would be funded and Bibi would be the savior. But because Mr. Netanyahu needed the religious-Zionist party to form his coalition, and because that group sealed an unbreakable bond with the ultra-anti-religious party of Yair Lapid, all of a sudden Bibi’s natural partners, became muktzah machmas mius. All Israel’s problems were caused by the hated chareidim who, apparently, want everyone to die for them to live. Because of the way the coalition was formed yeshiva bochurim must go to jail, poor children must starve, goyim must be recorded as yidden, irreligious talis and tefillin clad women must be given a spot where to pray at Judaism’s most holy site and brother must be turned against brother.
A government which was conceived in sin, brought about through creating a coalition between left-wing and right-wing brothers with one common interest, cutting the chareidi community down to size, cannot be excused as being interested in the pursuit of some higher goal. Torah has been the lifeblood of our people since the beginning and those who refuse to recognize what it is that creates our identity and sets us apart as a nation are fooling themselves and denying history and fact.
There is no way that anyone who knows anything about Yair Lapid and his agenda can view what is transpiring in Eretz Yisroel any differently. The man’s stated goal is the marginalization of religion in the Jewish state and he has set out to punish chareidim in every way governmentally possible. Besides seeking to destroy the chareidim, he also has his sights set on other aspects of Jewish life in that country, from the rabbinate, to Shabbos, to kashrus, to geirus and everything in-between. It is ridiculous to accept that anyone who proudly works with him, praises him, stands alongside him, agitates for him, can be anything but an enemy of religion, no matter how much they smile or in which words and language they couch their rhetoric.
Every gadol, every rov, every rosh yeshiva, every frum politician, every frum person in Israel, and anybody in this country who knows anything about what is going going on knows full well what the Yesh Atid party is all about. Yet this writer, his publisher and others like them have the nerve to call us murderers and lecture us about ahavat Yisrael and other good things.
How dare they!
Those who stoke fires; create diversions and fuel division in the pursuit of any goal expose themselves as guilty of hypocrisy and a refusal to examine the real facts the way they are. All through the ages we have been victimized by blood libels, it is shameful that religious people are now utilizing the methods of Esov to further their agendas. The people who write these articles and those who post and publish them despise Lomdei Torah, it’s about time they admitted it, and we should acknowledge it.
The article disappeared from the site after theyeshivaworld.com published a screen shot of it, calling attention to the horrendous nature of what was written, posted and twitted. I understand that, in response to an uproar, the writer was fired and the paper apologized.
But the cat was out of the bag and the damage was done.
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11 Responses
Well, those are a lot of words to express disgust at the Jewish Press, disgust that I can pretty much agree with. But what do you say about the perception, right or wrong, that the Haredim expect the physical defense of the country to be done by people other than them. That’s a legitimate question, no?
Hopefully, now that we know this hateful man’s name, Yori Yanover, people will be careful to boycott any paper willing to hire him.
Disagreement is one thing, “Jew Hating” statements the likes of Nazi Germany is something else.
# 1: Do you know your heritage a little bit? Do you know that Eretz Yisroel was given to us by the almighty? Do you know he writes in his holy Torah that the land was given to us in order to fulfill his commandments there? Do you know that THE most important commandment is studying and mastering the holy Torah? Do you know what is the outcome of living the Torah way of life and observing its commandments? Here: (I hope you know how to read this, and if not, ask for help)
(ג) אִם בְּחֻקֹּתַי תֵּלֵכוּ וְאֶת מִצְוֹתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם:
(ד) וְנָתַתִּי גִשְׁמֵיכֶם בְּעִתָּם וְנָתְנָה הָאָרֶץ יְבוּלָהּ וְעֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה יִתֵּן פִּרְיוֹ:
(ה) וְהִשִּׂיג לָכֶם דַּיִשׁ אֶת בָּצִיר וּבָצִיר יַשִּׂיג אֶת זָרַע וַאֲכַלְתֶּם לַחְמְכֶם לָשׂבַע וִישַׁבְתֶּם לָבֶטַח בְּאַרְצְכֶם:
(ו) וְנָתַתִּי שָׁלוֹם בָּאָרֶץ וּשְׁכַבְתֶּם וְאֵין מַחֲרִיד וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי חַיָּה רָעָה מִן הָאָרֶץ וְחֶרֶב לֹא תַעֲבֹר בְּאַרְצְכֶם:
(ז) וּרְדַפְתֶּם אֶת אֹיְבֵיכֶם וְנָפְלוּ לִפְנֵיכֶם לֶחָרֶב:
(ח) וְרָדְפוּ מִכֶּם חֲמִשָּׁה מֵאָה וּמֵאָה מִכֶּם רְבָבָה יִרְדֹּפוּ וְנָפְלוּ אֹיְבֵיכֶם לִפְנֵיכֶם לֶחָרֶב:
(ט) וּפָנִיתִי אֲלֵיכֶם וְהִפְרֵיתִי אֶתְכֶם וְהִרְבֵּיתִי אֶתְכֶם וַהֲקִימֹתִי אֶת בְּרִיתִי אִתְּכֶם:
He claims that Haredim don’t have trust in the Torah, so they’re afraid not be in their society.
According to his idealogy, baning drugs too is because we don’t have trust in our education.
Should porn be available publicly on the street because we trust our education?
Had he ever heard of something like bad vices
heretohelp:
The way you worded the question makes it appear legitimate but it is not.
Hareidim generally fall into one of three (if not a combination thereof) opinions:
1)HaShem protects the Jewish people, not the army. “Some in chariots and some in horses, but we trust the name of the HaShem our G-d (Tehillim 20).
2)An army without Torah and Tefillah is pointless. And since the vast majority of Israelis (and Jews in general, btw) are utterly secular, the full burden of Torah study falls on them.
3)Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. They oppose zionism absolutely and disassociate from it entirely, believing zionism is responsible for creating the enemies that Israel needs an army to defend against. Rather, they believe the solution is “The path of Torah is the path of peace.”
You are free to disagree but you need to know what it is you disagree with.
More rhetoric from this taliban website. Dare you to print this, cowards!!
Dear heretohelp:
I agree that the haredi side is definitely losing the PR and media battle over this issue. They say everyone should “share responsibility” a comment that has value (at least the words if not the intention) and we say No draft we have to learn. Every time an anti draft comment is made we should preface it with words of praise for those who willingly defend Eretz Ysrael. We should daven that NO Jewish boy or girl should have to fight in an army not just frum ones. We should daven for shalom not anti-draft.
Rav Pinchas very well said, the painful thing is ppl don’t realize who the real enemy is.
I challenge anyone to get a heter from a Rav to publicize that the Jewish Press had such an article on their website for a short period of time. They have publicly apologized and we have no right to exploit other people’s mistakes. It was a mistake. It is definitely loshon hara to discuss it.
I don’t know, here in EY, the event was billed as solidarity with the Israeli charadim versus the draft issue. How did it change?
Basically, I do not understand the problem. I have a charadi son and charadi son in law who both served in the IDF and maintained their charadi lifestyles.
I know that YWN rarely prints my comments since I often disagree with them, but still, can’t we be ‘mode al ha-emes’ once in our life? Can’t we realize that sometime somewhere as the state of Israel becomes more charadi, that we are going to have to send our boys to the IDF.
Can’t we admit that it is up to us to make a change in the secular society by showing them that are boys are not just as good, but better in quality than theirs?
I’ll agree that the Jewish Press article is very uncalled for, but there are a lot of holes in this article. Although I don’t know why I should care what a Chutz La’aretz rabbi says. כל הדר בחוץ לארץ דומה למי שאין לו אלו-ה.
One thing to mention is that other than the draft issue, most of the other religious issues are not caused by Yair Lapid, but rather by Tzipi Livni’s party Hatnuah. Not a big issue, but worth mentioning.
The government is NOT taking “bread and milk out of the poorest children’s mouth”. This is all a matter of cutting welfare. You need to eat? Go to work! Tax payers are not supposed to support anyone who isn’t working.
Yes, the government said that they will jail Haredi draft dodgers, but I am pretty sure that no yeshiva student will ever see the inside of a jail cell. The jailing of drat dodgers will start in 2017 ONLY if the Haredi draft does not meet the quota. Based on the current numbers, the Haredi soldiers were going to reach that quota anyway.
The Religious Zionist Knesset members have done more for Haredim than they think. Of course Habayit Hayehudi joined the coalition. Would you prefer Labor? Habayit Hayehudi and even the religious members of Yesh Atid have done a lot to reduce the damage that Yair Lapid would have done without them. Yair Lapid wanted criminal sanctions for draft dodgers, and Shaked and Bennet made is so there could be criminal sanctions, but they made it such a far fetched possibility that there is barely any chance that any yeshiva student will ever go to jail.
The real issue is getting Haredim integrated into the work force. By giving incentives to hire Haredim and by cutting their budget and welfare, we are heading in the right direction. If half of the Haredi welfare recipients join the workforce and no one ever serves in the army, that would be a success.