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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) weirdjews
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mick_hale | |
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This post brought to you by many of the responses to the recent post about the recent Charedi violence in Jerusalem. Since nobody cares about giving background to the story, I'll make it brief. Recently, municipal elections led to the victory of a secular candidate, Nir Barkat. This after five years of having a Charedi mayor that managed to screw over almost the entirety of non-Charedi Jerusalem. Charedim in general are pissed that the secular Jews have stolen the power from them. Recently, in an attempt to relieve the parking situation around the city on Shabbat, Barkat chose to open up the parking lot connected to City Hall for free, and run by a non-Jew. This was seen as an official condoning of the desecration of the Shabbat by members of the Charedi community, despite that no actual desecration of the Shabbat has taken place by the city, and that many who would use this parking are non-Jews that come to Jerusalem to visit holy sites. Speaking as a resident of Jerusalem, I can tell you that it's not like they're setting the entire city on fire. It's a relatively small group of extremists, numbering maybe two to three hundred, that are involved in these revolting violent protests. The protests take place in a very select part of the city, namely right outside of the parking lots - one next to City Hall, another a few meters closer towards Jaffa Gate near the new Mamilla development. Non-violent protests, consisting of thousands of Charedim "praying", also take place, but they are pretty much limited to the Charedi areas of the city, usually taking place only near Bar Ilan Interchange and Meah Sha'arim themselves. Two weeks ago there was a non-violent protest in Bayit V'gan. If you've been following the Jerusalem Post, you'll know that the police and the local media has come down pretty hard on the violent protests. What the media has totally sucked in reporting is that this isn't a Charedi/Secular division, this is an extremist sect of Charedim versus everyone else in Israel. While the Post has been calling for National Religious and Charedi rabbis to condemn the violence, it has completely ignored the fact that the feeling on the street amongst otherwise normal religious Jews are royally pissed and disgusted by the actions of these assholes. I can say that with a certain level of authority, since I'm one of those otherwise normal religious Jews, and I talk regularly with other otherwise normal religious Jews about the situation. There has been a certain lack of official condemnation by National Religious rabbis, which largely stems from the fact that we're fighting other battles against Charedi hegemony in the Chief Rabbinate, especially in the conversion process. In fact, there are such deep ideological differences between otherwise normal religious Jews and Charedim, that these protests are seen as just another drop in the bucket of the perversion of the Jewish religion. While I won't go as far as to say that these aren't Jews, I will say that this isn't Judaism, that it's a perverted, extremist form of Judaism that has taken on a life of itself and has become completely separate from Jewish life in Israel. Most, if not all, of these protesters are from the extremist Edah Charedis conglomerate of sects. This includes the extremist anti-Zionist Satmar sect. They believe that the State of Israel and Zionism are hindering the coming of the Moshiach, and as such refuse to take part of anything in the State - they don't pay taxes, don't serve in the army, don't acknowledge the State's existence other than to curse it, and supposedly don't even accept money from the State. That last part is total bullshit, since I work in the health care sector and have had plenty of patients that identified as Edah Charedis. I just want to clear up a bit of the anger and confusion around this issue. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I might take a while to respond since I'm knee-deep in exam season.
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weirdjews
rabjeff | |
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Unavailable online except to subscribers, D.G. Myers of Texas A&M (that center of vital Jewish life) has published in Commentary Mag an attack on "The Judaism Rebooters," the creative alternative Jewish culture that has grown up, mostly among 20 and 30 something Jews, in the last decade or so. This movements, including minyans, music, and lots of culture, seems the most exciting development Jewishly of the new century. The attacks remind me of the attacks on the Havurah movement in the 60s and 70s. Even the New York Board of Rabbis invited several "leaders" of independent minyans to talk about the development last month. I've seen two responses worth reading, even if the original article is not. One is a compilation of responses by contributors to Jewschool, a collective blog by some members of this demographic. The second is by Daniel Sieradski, founding editor of Jewschool until he was hired away by the JTA (Jewish Telegraphic agency) as Director of Digital Media.
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