6 Responses

1. A Jew has a chezkas kashrus. The child probably was playing with stones which happened to land on a woman who felt guilty that she wasn’t dressed modestly.

2. Arye, you have a chezkas chosid shoite. I guarantee you that woman would not throw a rock at your head, although it might knock some sense into you.

3. @1 Arye According to that logic doesn’t the woman also have a Cheskas Kashrus? As in she was dressed modestly, in which case they are both innocent 🙂

4. I have to agree that there are problems with the story. According to the reports about the daughter’s posts (from which the story spread), the woman did not actually see the child. And certainly nothing is mentioned about the child saying anything. So while the context may imply an attack against an immodest dress, in terms of what has been so-far related there is no evidence that could hold up in a legitimate court.

5. I did some research before commenting, Here’s my opinion after examining the info that I saw.

   The Story: Mrs. Asraf (her correct last name) was walking in a Chareidi area wearing a tank top. This apparently aroused anger in some kid who threw a rock at her. There were witnesses to the scene who chased after the boy, but he got away non-the-less.

   Points to consider:
   1) To preface, I am disgusted by the anger and actions of a small minority of Chassidish extremists that live in Bet Shemesh B! They not only cause problems for Chilonim, they also cause problem for the RBS B community at large. They are a great nuisance, but legally there is little that can be done. Whenever, people have try to deal with them they take revenge and so actions against them has to be well thought out.
   2) However, I’m not quick to claim this woman’s total innocence. Based on quotes from her (on Hebrew News sites), she knew that her going into that Chareidi community the way she was dressed would incite anger and hostility. As she states,:
   “הייתי עם גופייה, זו הסיבה”, הסבירה אסרף, “איפה שהלכתי זה איזור של דתיים. לא היה חשש והלכתי בביטחון, לפעמים הם צועקים אבל אני לא מגיבה. כל שבת יש לנו את הסיפור הזה ויש לנו הרבה בעיות עם זה”.
   “I was wearing a tank top. This was the problem. The place where I was walking was in the religious community. I wasn’t scared and walked with confidence. At times they start screaming, but I don’t pay attention. Every Shabbos it’s the same story and we have a lot of problems with this.”
   On another site she is quote:
   אני לא מצליחה להבין למה הם מתערבים לנו בלבוש, ואנחנו בשונה מהם לא מתערבים להם איך להתלבש ובכלל.
   “I fail to understand why they interfere with the way we dress. We don’t interfere with the way they dress…” (she goes on making an agenda out of dress code religious coercion)

   It is certainly wrong and halachicly forbidden to throw rocks at her. However, if she knew that what she was doing would create hostility, why then did she do so non-the-less? Was it a case of “Ain Breira”? Was there no other route she could take? Or did she do this on purpose, just not expecting that someone would take it that far (which is kinda of hard to understand being that she testifies that this is not the first time a rock was thrown at her). I’m not clear where the truth lies here as far as her negligence or lack of. I can only say, being that I can get a pretty good idea of the reaction I’d get if I walked into a Black neighborhood wearing a white KKK robe, I’d pretty much drop the idea of doing so.
   If she wanted to take a stance against their actions there are better ways of doing so.

   3) What bothers me the most in this story is the failure to mention that all of the EMT members who took care of her wounds and appear to be acting with compassion (at least that’s how it looks to me from the picture) are all chareidim and the main three treating her wounds are all chassidim with long payos. Furthermore, being that it doesn’t appear (from the pictures) that there were any other chilonim in the area, it seems that the person who ran across the street to come to her aid and call for an ambulance was most likely a chareidi as well. All this is not mentioned in the news articles of chiloni papers. They just state that someone ran across the street to her aid and that EMT came and took her to Ein Kerem. Nothing about chareidim assisting her. Of course, I do not know if she is to blame for that or the News outlets. Some show pictures that give an honest story, by one website (seen by millions of chilonim) purposely posted a picture that cuts out viewing the chareidi EMT so that their readers won’t realize Yeish V’Yesish and hate all chareidim.
   Also left out is the great likelihood that all those that chased after the boy were probably chareidim as well.

   In other word, putting things into perspectives. Some kid, whom is being raised by parents that transgress the Issur of Sinat Chinam and therefore teach their son to throw rocks at chilonim, was chased by CHAREIDIM who wanted to catch him and hand him over to police. A CHAREIDI man immediately ran across the street to assist her and call for an ambulence. She was then treated and taken to the hospital by a group of CHAREIDI EMT members.
   All of these CHAREIDIM who assisted her most likely are just as upset about these extremists as she and most likely felt terrible for what happened to her. THAT’S AHAVAS YISRAEL!

   None of this, of course, was mentioned in the chiloni media! OF COURSE NOT! … THAT DOESN’T SELL PAPERS!!!

6. Had I been in Israel at the time, I would have been there – in my sheitel, long sleeves & stockings, despite the extreme heat. To say only DL & secular is simplifying it – we, the more enlightened/Chareidi/Chassish women of RBS were represented, not by many perhaps, but we feel as strongly about this as anyone else.

   The crazy fanatics in Bet need to understand we have only just begun. Set foot in Aleph or Gimmel one more time or attack people who aren’t like you, & you will not go back to your caves happily. 250+ people took to the streets to protest this violence – organized by women in a few hours, it shows that if you really want to achieve things you can. A good lesson for the men, inc the Iryiah, but the problem there is they DON’T want to stop these terrorists. We will mobilize to prevent Abutbol being re-elected as Mayor at the next election, because HE is responsible for this violence by refusing to act against the thugs.