"Grizzled Veterans"

Charedi detachment from life in Israel

inbox@mishpacha.com

To the Editor, Mishpacha Magazine,

Gedalia Guttentag, in his article “Dancing on Dizengoff,” laments the rift between charedi and secular Israelis (while ignoring the national-religious sector). He suggests that this rift could be healed if only each side would get to know the other better.

Personally, I’m not convinced that this is the solution. The national-religious people in my mixed town of Ramat Beit Shemesh know their charedi neighbors (and often relatives) very well indeed. But this does not do much to negate the resentment caused by the charedi refusal to participate in the war, thereby causing their national-religious brethren to shoulder an even greater burden of military service, with all its consequences for their jobs, family lives, marriages, health, and sometimes their very lives, while charedim are simultaneously under-employed and demanding financial support from the part of the nation that both works and serves.

Perhaps the real problem is the charedi lack of understanding of life outside of their community. Guttentag suggests that what’s needed is for charedim is to spend a Shabbos in Tel Aviv and see that nobody attacks them. But this is sorely deficient in terms of understanding why there is resentment of the charedi community. I can’t think of any better evidence of the charedi lack of understanding of the situation than Guttentag’s self-description in this very article:

“At a rough estimate, I’ve now experienced more wars, knife intifadas, and missile attacks than your average person is prescribed antibiotics over their lifetime. But grizzled veteran that I am, rarely have I felt more uneasy about life in Israel than over the past few weeks.”

Guttentag talks about how he has experienced wars. But his “experience” was from the safety of his own home, with all his immediate family likewise safely in his home. He has not experienced the physical and psychological horrors of actually fighting in a war. Nor has his wife experienced the challenge of being a single mother with her husband away for many months, and returning psychologically scarred. Nor does he suffer sleepless nights over the safety of his children in Gaza or Lebanon, or worry about how they will build and support a family when they have to be away from it for two and a half months every year until they are fifty due to the manpower shortage.

For Gedalya Guttentag to refer to himself as a “grizzled veteran” of wars, even in jest, reflects the complete detachment from the reality of war for the non-charedi population. Perhaps the first step for genuine unity in Israel is for Mishpacha readers to hear from writers who are actually experiencing the burden that charedim refuse to help relieve and clearly do not understand.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin