And Now They're Calling Us "Antisemites"

The Charedi Slander Continues

(Pictured above: Antisemites, or outstanding Jews?)

In the previous post, we discussed how the “Gedolim” branded anyone who wants charedim to help relieve the crushing burden on reservists rather than increase it as “persecuting the world of Torah.” Now the charedi establishment has gone even further, branding us all as antisemites.

This followed the unfortunate event in which some unidentified crazy person set fire to a synagogue used by former Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef. The motives are unknown, but many people are presuming that it is in response to Yosef’s statements regarding charedim and IDF service. Personally I am skeptical, and I think that there is more likely to be some other explanation. Still, for the purposes of this post, let’s assume that this indeed is what happened.

Let me first say that I was amused by the comments of Shas MK Moshe Abutbul, former mayor of Beit Shemesh, who darkly warned that “those who burn books, end up burning people.” This was rather ironic, in light of how the charedi Gedolim that he reveres called for my books to be burned!

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri called the arson “a serious hate crime” aimed not only at the former chief rabbi but against “an entire tradition-keeping community and against the values ​​of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel.” Yet Rav Yitzchak Yosef said that Yuli Edelstein, a refusenik who spent years doing hard labor in Siberia due to his dedication to Israel, is a “wicked abomination” who “should have stayed in Russia.” Are these the values of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel? How about Rav Yosef saying that no charedim should assist in relieving the burden of national defense, even if they are not learning in yeshivah? How about him saying that charedim should leave Israel rather than help with army service? These are the values of the Jewish identity of the State of Israel?

Meanwhile, MK Yisrael Eichler, of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party warned that “the antisemitic campaign being waged against the Torah world is liable to result in bloodshed.” This echoes earlier statements by charedi leaders about those opposed to their lifestyle being “haters of Torah” and “antisemites.”

It’s not just the slander, the motzi shem ra, that is so infuriating; it’s the sheer chutzpah. People outside of the community are going through the most unimaginable difficulties, all of which could be entirely avoided if the charedim would do their share (or even a quarter of their share). Yet the charedim do nothing and don’t even care. Most of them don’t even davven for the soldiers, nor do they even do any chessed for their families or attend funerals and shiva houses of the fallen. And then they have the audacity to accuse everyone who wants change of being antisemitic!

And then there’s the irony. Usually, it’s the people who don’t care about Jews dying that are called antisemites. (Especially if they are also against the Jewish state having come into existence, as Rav Dov Lando said a few weeks ago.)

The only solace to find in all of this is that the more extreme the charedim become, the more hostility they create, which means the more difficult it will be for their parties to be in government.