Many are naïve enough to believe that the so-called shabavnikim, the juvenile delinquents adorned in chareidi garb are innocent, perhaps due to their external appearance, still mimicking a religious life style. We can only hope their apparel will serve as an impetus to bring them back to the fold, but they are far from innocent, and in Betar and other frum areas, they pose a real threat, to the safety of residents as well as to the spiritual health of other youth, who may chas v’sholom be influenced by their unacceptable actions.
YWN-Israel reported earlier in the week that last shabbos in Betar included a troublesome assault by shabavnikim, resulting in the hospitalization of an avreich.
It now appears that during the week, the youths stole a vehicle from a resident, then setting it ablaze and fleeing the area. On the night between Sunday and Monday, residents called the city moked at about 2:30am, reporting an extremely noisy motorcycle driving on Igros Moshe Street in the Givat A area. A patrol arrived but did not find anything. Only in the morning was the discovery made, that a resident’s vehicle was stolen, to be found in the capital, totally burned.
Officials investigating report that during the night a report was received that a vehicle with Israeli license plates ran a checkpoint on the Minharot Tunnel Highway, which leads from southern Jerusalem to Gush Etzion and south, also to Betar Illit. The car that ran the checkpoint was heading towards the capital.
Investigators believe the vehicle was the one stolen from Betar, later found burned in the city. As the investigation proceeded, police were able to apprehend two of the hoodlums who assaulted the avreich on shabbos. They were taken into custody on Monday morning, at the gas station near Betar Illit. A short time later, two other hoodlums were apprehended.
Officials hope this will result in increased calm in Betar Illit.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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6 Responses
the problem is not these youth, but rather the system that has failed them. sociologists dealing with this issue in the new york area are reporting that as much as 30% of ultra orthodox youth go away from that lifestyle, often still dressed in a religious milieu.
the problem is that the system has not adapted to modern times in the modern world. rabbunim still feel, unfortunately, that the correct way to bring up the youth is using techniques that were implemented in eastern europe a century ago.
we see a parallel with the development of nations that had not naturally entered each stage of development, e.g. movement from the chalcolithic age to the bronze age, the bronze age to the iron age, the iron age to the industrial age and entering the age of enlightenment, when the technologies are brought to the culture, as we see in many african countries, they will never advance. this is called the stage theory, and is discussed at length by economists like adam smith and karl marx. i would also like to compare this situation to the american youth countercultural revolution of the 1960’s, which was a backlash against the draconian social pressures of the 1950’s. we will undoubtedly witness a similar revolution within the youth of the orthodox world unless the system adapts very quickly.
Yechiel Spira – “Many are naïve enough to believe that the so-called shabavnikim, the juvenile delinquents adorned in chareidi garb are innocent, perhaps due to their external appearance, still mimicking a religious life style. We can only hope their apparel will serve as an impetus to bring them back to the fold, but they are far from innocent, and in Betar and other frum areas, they pose a real threat, to the safety of residents as well as to the spiritual health of other youth, who may chas v’sholom be influenced by their unacceptable actions.”
YOU ARE WAY OUT OF LINE HERE!!!! THE VAST MAJORITY OF THESE KIDS ARE NOT BAD KIDS AND MEAN NO HARM! THEY ARE JUST LOST KIDS LOOKING TO FULFILL THEIR LIVES WITH HAPPINESS IN WAYS OTHER THAN TORAH! THAT DOESN’T MAKE THEM BAD, JUST MISTAKEN!
I KNOW THAT COMMUNITY QUITE WELL. THERE IS A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THEM THAT ARE “REAL” HOODLUMS, BUT GUESS WHERE THEY HANG OUT!? THAT’S RIGHT, AT THE BOTTOM OF GIVAT “A”! THAT IS WHERE THE PARK IS WHERE SOMEONE WAS ATTACKED LAST WEEK! THAT IS WHERE THEY STOLE THE CAR FROM!
I’M GUESSING THAT THERE ARE LESS THEN 10 HOODLUMS THAT ARE CHEVRA! THEY NEED TO BE DEALT WITH! THEY REALLY ARE BAD TO THE CORE! THE REST ARE GOOD KIDS AND NEED US TO OPEN OUR HEARTS TO THEM!
YOUR STATEMENT WAS WAY WAY OUT OF LINE!!!! 🙁
we as jews arent in the business of imposing our religion on anyone. goyim who become jews, become jews becuase they find judaism appealing, not because we invade their towns and say “convert or die”. baalei teshuva are the same. a person cannot be forced to be frum. the more you force it the more they oppose it. its the same principal as “braces” you slowly encourage the teeth to move and they do! our use of violence against these poor souls (be it justified or not) is unacceptable. physically fighting, yelling and cursing at them, shooting CS gas in their faces, are NEVER going to bring these people back to the torah. it just serves to alienate them.
they are jews. no matter how far they go they always have that “pintele yid” which means that in their heart of hearts they want to return. but what they see now only serves to harden their hearts against us.
if instead of responding violently, be it physically or verbally, we should demonstrate peacefully. we should stand there and stand firm calmly stating what it is we want. fighting fire with fire just doesnt work, and that is what i see here. throwing a bomb at a bomb only makes a bigger explosion. if these kids saw that no matter what they do they cannot get us to respond to it, they will eventually stop, and many of them will return you the derech. leave the policing to the police, that is not our job.
people say that the opinion of religious jews among the irreligious of israel is at an all time low, and that the police would never help us, and that they are just out to get the chareidim. has it never occurred to us that maybe…JUST maybe, it is because we react explosively to every situation? hashem has given us a great gift, the ability to live in israel under our own rule, but unfortunately that rule is an irreligious one. as such, the way i see it, is that for charedim at least, it is like living in any other country. that being said…WOULD WE DARE DO THIS IN AMERICA???
Do we just discard them to the garbage since they are part of a violent segment and distrubing the peace of others. Start thinking about this problem on tuesday, open up a basement with free cholent, kishka, and kugels — have a few guys who can relate mingle and schmooze with them. Provide comfortable couches, reading material, and activities that they can participate in.
I want to share some history that sums up the way the yeshiva\chareidi world deals with these types of things. About 10 years ago I lived in Beitar on a street directly across from the hill overlooking the fence. On long Shabbos afternoons in the summer, good kids, from good homes, who happened to be bored stiff, probably while their parents shloofed (l’shaim shamayim of course!), would come and toss rocks on to the arab cars driving along the road directly in front of the fence.
Angry arabs would come out of their cars, or return later with molotove cocktails and toss them in to Beitar, mamash sakanos n’fashos. Of course huge crowds gathered, but everyone had too much yiras shamayim to call the army. Well evry town has an apikores, and I had to be the Beitar one. I called the army, week after week in what had become a very dangerous game.
After about 2 months the “vaad Hachinuch” put out a kol koreh, that any kid on the street between 2 and 6 on Shabbos afternoons would be thrown out of school! What did they want, the kids had nothing to do. What would have taken place if these people were really mechanchim would be:
1. create programs and places for these kids to be
2. Actually partner with parents and raise these kids.
Obviously that was either too hard or too deep for anyone to think of.
Bottom line: It’s debatable if the education system is run\guided by gedolim, but it definitely is NOT run by mechanchim. We need more mechanchim, and less decrees. See these little mentchen, as growing into big mentchen
Mot – 1) What street did you live on? What road are you talking about? I’m not familiar with a road that is within range of the fence over there (unless of course they’ve moved things). 2) I hardly call kids that throw rocks at cars “Good Kids”. If my kids would do such a horrible thing, boy would they get it from me!
The rest of your statements I agree with.