(VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)
“Nazi”, “Sheigetz” and “Maskil” were among the derogatory terms heard among shouts from zealots who were angered at the 45 recipients of a bachelor’s degree at the chareidi Strauss Campus. The recipients arrived for graduation, to receive their diplomas at the Minhal on Blilius Street at the corner of Yeshayahu Street. Graduates and their families were present. The extremists disrupted the event as some of the graduates were on stage receiving their diplomas.
Police were on the scene but permitted the shouts and disruptions.
Among the participants at the event was Chief Rabbi of Gilo HaRav Eliyahu Schlesinger, along with Deputy Mayor Yitzchak Pindrus, MK (Shas) Michael Michaeli and City Councilman Yaakov Halprin.
The graduates are the first of this program, chareidim receiving degrees in technology, politics and communications.
“It may not have been the smartest idea in the world to make the event happen in the heart of the chareidi neighborhood, and in retrospect it was also quite predictable, but we cannot feel threatened … It’s not possible that my parents will be afraid to go out into the street and tremble with fear of those extremists, said one of the graduates.
Recently, the extremists began to demonstrate regularly once a week at the entrance to the college located on Strauss Street, where about 700 chareidi students now study. “We have become accustomed to the fact that the extremists are demonstrating, no matter what the chareidi level of the college or what rabbonim are behind the campus; and so my rebbe, for example, gave me his consent to study on campus, there are those who apparently have to make a living from the demonstrations, stated ‘C’ with a smile, a chassidish avreich with curled peyos who completed his degree with excellence.
“Now it is our adult responsibility to prove to the world that it is possible to have a degree and fear G-d and that there is no connection between things,” he says.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
You see, these extremists have jobs too…they are professional protestors.
10 years from now when these dumb
Kids that are now yelling are begging for money in Shuls across the world
They will be very sorry they didn’t get the training and education their neighbors were brave enough to get
Kol hakovod to the young men and women who pursue advanced secular studies so they can earn a good parnassah for their families while also pursuing their limudei kodesh. Sadly, there is a misguided fringe element of rabbonim and askanim in the Chareidi tzibur who support these demonstrators with their pathetic admonitions against any secular studies and instead want an entire generation to have to beg for charity and rely on handouts from the government and their families. The poverty rate and welfare dependency in the Chareidi tzibur is growing and even worse, they are the fastest growing segment of the population. The numbers in this inverted demographic pyramid where a small percentage of the population are asked to support those who don’t contribute anything to the economy. The good news is that more and more of the younger generation are ignoring this guidance.
These “extremists” are simply opposed to anything that relates to living in the real world, among human beings. Is it that terrible if there may be some Israelis who won’t need to travel the world collecting for their childrens weddings (and of course, apartments)?
1818, the sad thing is that they will NOT be sorry that they have to schnor from others to support their families . . . to them, schnoring is normal behavior.