IDF Major Shraga Dahan, a member of the IDF Rabbinate, arrived in Beit Shemesh to make a shiva visit in the chareidi area of the city. He was surrounded by a number of chareidim and they then began spitting at him and pelting him with objects.
Major Dahan arrived in the city last Monday with his wife to make a shiva visit in the home of Rav Mordechai Noach Mendelson on Yehuda HaNasi Street in the chareidi area. When the passersby saw Dahan in uniform they began to surround him. Dahan, a member of the chareidi community, is a rav in the Tel Hashomer base.
Dahan and his wife were compelled to leave as they realized they were outnumbered and there was no other way out of the situation. B”H they were uninjured.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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25 Responses
Is that how chareidim behave?
Whether the soldier was chareidi or not, what about kibud habriot?
If the story is true, it is appalling. Whomever is the leader of these folks ought to start getting the right message to his flock.
Relations will improve when the government and the IDF stop arresting hareidim for refusing to serve in the army.
If hareidim went into Tel Aviv and kidnapped secular Israelis and dragged them off and tried to force them to become frum, how do you think the secular zionist would react? They would probably do something a lot more lethal than spitting (you do note that when the IDF tried to grab hareidim, they tend to come in large numbers with automatic weapons).
Not to be against chareidi, well I am extremely bothered that what I thought are very rightous people go ahead and do such terrible acts. Maybe perhaps I am missing a few details, could that be, I hope so. What a big chillul Hashem what had happend…
Could The Yeshiva World not follow the trend of the left/secular news outlets. These people are clearly not Chareidim – they flout Halacha publicly, so please don’t group them with Chareidim.
… or refer to them as such.
#4: You are not against the chareidim. You are spot on! I am chareidi and this behavior is inexcusable.
Perhaps a solution (in part) can be to have some rabbanim sign a Kol Koreh condemning this behavior. It would be a major boost public relations wise and take away false claims that this is acceptable behavior. With a plurality of rabbanim on it it should be “safer”. (sad to need to add that) Perhaps it would be considered a need to remove achilul hashem and sinas chinam.
Something like – We want to publicize that assaulting anyone in an Israeli army uniform, whether they are religious or not, just because they are in the army is forbidden. That it is a chilul Hashem to do so. Period.
#3- how could you possibly rationalize such a thing? religious jews (all religious jews, not just chareidim) are supposed to represent Torah values in every aspect of our lives. This is no way for a frum Jew to treat somebody else, no matter who the person is, especially another Jew, no matter if they disagree with them about something.
It is important for others to realize that this is only a small minority of people who are misguided and in fact probably are not guided at all by any rabbonim. So please do not generalize and think that all “chareidim” act this way.
akuperma-you are so right.Hopefully, this gov’t will stop all this ‘burden’ nonsense and leave charedim alone
Boycotting is good ,this is idiotic
When the charedim threatened boycott of El Al in 2009 for flyig on shabbos, It was superbly effective-and garnered well nigh universal admiration
#11- The Hareidim are boycotting the army. It has certainly got the army up in arms.
#8 – Perhaps the solution would be for the army to issue orders that soldiers in uniform should not go into hareidi neighborhoods
akuperma: These morons are fringe wackos. Their wives wear a version of the Muslim Burka. 95% of Chareidim don’t behave that way. They are the same group that attacked Rav Shternbach and spat at little girls going to school.
BenK – in an ideal world that would be very effective. I have since learned a sad truth, at least it was a pretty convincing fact as explained to me. KOl KOREI’s work when aimed at secular targets. They do not gain traction, and in fact are often BLOCKED by people who manage the Rabbinical leaders there. Things are even falsely put pout in their names all the time, and swallowed whole cloth, except by the mavinim who have learned how to detect what is what. There is whole lot of horrid corruption and discrimination going on in neighborhoods and in schools too, and nothing is done from on high – not because it is not recognized, but because as great as the gedolim are, for some reason, they cannot get heard because of big-shot handlers and”Spokesman” who erroneously quote them when convenient and distort their words for their own purpose when they want. We need Moshiach now – that’s it!!! Who and how will anything ever change. Akuperma, you are NOT part of the solution.
Guys, please google for the real story, please; a few extremists attacked and they were defended by charedim…
No, that was not a typo.
One time when a soldier is attacked he or she will use their weapon. Will the soldier not be justified?
Hey akuperma #12,
1. Perhaps the solution is for people like you to switch places with the soldiers. You get to spend a week guarding the border in boiling weather and they get to learn for a week in yeshiva. They get to learn Torah and receive schar and delve in chochmas Hashem and you get to learn what it means to protect the only land that Hashem gave to the Jewish people.
2. I haven’t heard akuperma condemn these types of attacks… thats just the problem that everyone here is commenting on and noticing: more of our Torah leaders and gedolim, admorim etc. need to step up and condemn this.
3. regarding your comment that IDF should stop “kidnapping” chareidim for service…I think the people that attacked this rov have enough seichel to know that this rov is not coming to “kidnap” them and chances are he’s not bringing an automatic weapon with him either.
4. Why can’t soldiers in uniform enter hareidi neighborhoods? What is this enemy territory? According to that logic, you shouldn’t be allowed to land in Ben Guiron airport or fly El Al, or if you do, take off your kippa since its not run by religious jews and they might attack you (sarcasm).
5. I thought you were against the baltimore rioters? How are the minority above different than the rioters behavior? Both are protesting and rioting against what they perceive as “intruders (or in this case a uniform) that hate their way of life, entering their domain”? Pick a side!
Most important it was ossur to spit. These are Human being; however he also went to antagonize by arriving in UNIFORM. why not a suit and other dress. Would he go into Aza dressed as Mohamud?
Dear akuperma,
Not only are you blatantly incorrect your views seem to be quite ignorant and even provocative. Firstly, based on your comparison of the chareidim kidnapping people in tel aviv and trying to make them more religious assumes that the IDF is kidnapping chareidim when in fact this is not true in any sense. The chareidim know very well the rules and laws of living in Medinat Yisrael. They know that people have to do their duty to the nation, yet for some reason they believe they are above the law of the land. I am obviously not talking about the general chareidi community, as most understand and even if they don’t go to the army, they do some other sort of community service and certainly do not partake in the vicious, barbaric acts that these people are partaking in. You also say “how do you think the secular Zionist would react? They would probably do something a lot more lethal than spitting.” You assume that the secular Zionist community is a bunch of animals that would react in killing chareidim. To even think that a fellow Jew would assume that his brethren would sink to such a low is embarrassing and appalling. Also, your parenthetical statement of the IDF moving in large groups with automatic weapons is so laughable it makes me wonder why I’m even commenting. You do realize that the IDF is an army and therefore it’s part of their job to carry weapons. I’m not even angry at you, I just feel sorry that you’re so misguided.
To: notyeshivish,
Thank you for such a nice and gentle comment.
To #2 – it’s true, alright. I live near them – they live like farm animals, their dalet amos is filthy & so are their prejudices. What these morons fail to understand is, the IDF protect them as well. Maybe they should’t in future.
Akuperma – did you renew your prescription? If not, I think it’s about time.
For YWN to maintain any credibility whatsoever, it is time to ban kuperman’s anti-semitic remarks. He is no better than the trash attacking the soldier. That said, I feel ashamed (as the last commenter) to have wasted my time responding to that hate monger trolling the news. Please go away permanently kuperman.
notyeshivsh: “rules and laws of living in Medinat Yisrael.”
We also knew the rules and laws of living in Czarest Russia, whose army did the same thing (grab Jewish boys with the hope of encouraging them to go off the derekh).
And it should be noted that since Israel does not claim to be a Jewish state, and does not base its claim its right to exists either on Torah (which most Israeli repudiate), or on democratic principles (if so, it would be the Republic of Palestine), but only on a United Nations establishment of Jewish homeland – so what gives the zionists the right to persecute Jews for being frum. The zionist are not even a legitimate state, which is why most countries regard their claims with a very large “grain of salt” (including the United States, which refuses to put its embassy in Jerusalem for that very reason). And even if Israel had any legitimacy under international law, halacha does not require as to respect laws designed to destroy Torah and force Jews to give up mitsvos.
My dearest akuperma,
let’s be serious and not compare Israel to czarist Russia. Your claims of the intentions of the IDF are completely baseless and false. The IDF has a nachal chareidi branch in which it is very easy to remain frum and grow in Torah while protecting the country they love. In terms of the Jewish state issue, Ben Gurion himself claimed Israel to be the first Jewish state, which it is and continues to claim as such. I agree with you that as of today the government does not run based off of Torah values which is something that we need to work on but to say that Israel is not a democracy is ludicrous and clearly incorrect. I don’t know if you remember but there was an election just a few weeks ago and Israel is the one country in the Middle East that supports women’s rights, religious freedom and freedom of speech. And please don’t say the Zionist population is persecuting the Jews. Many zionists, mysel included, are Jewish and take offense to that statement. And nobody is persecuting anyone for being frum. If I were to avoid my draft day I would be arrested to, and so would anyone in any country. And what do you mean when you say that the Zionist are not a legitimate state? Are you saying that the state of Israel is not legitimate? Because as far as I know that is obviously false and the only countries that really disregard that are Iran, turkey and the like. Also, if you could quote me the source of that halacha at the end that would be great.
Oh, and by the way, Israel is by far the largest suporter of Torah of any country of all time. The government gives millions of shekels a year to yeshivot and other Torah affiliated institutions.