Today, somebody came to meet with me to discuss everything wrong in Orthodox Jewish society (or rather, a particular sector of it). Of course, everything that he said was true, which was rather dispiriting. Tonight, however, my spirits were lifted. Many people associate Beit Shemesh and especially the neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh with extremist zealots, and with broader charedi efforts to disenfranchise non-charedim and to make the Anglo-charedi community more Israeli. While all of that is unfortunately true, it is also true that before the charedi political takeover of Beit Shemesh, the