The "Antisemitic" Cartoon

Hateful antisemitic slander, or a true and necessary critique?

On Friday, everyone in Israel was talking about a cartoon that was published in Mekor Rishon, a right-wing, national-religious newspaper. In case you haven’t seen it, here it is:

It depicts are four soldiers carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher. Atop him is sitting a charedi yeshiva student, saying “Guys, don’t worry, my learning is dedicated to his healing and to your success.” In a searing way, the cartoon makes four points:

• Charedim do not serve in the IDF;

• They excuse themselves with the claim that their Torah is dedicated to the wellbeing and success of the soldiers;

• They increase the burden that the soldiers bear, and -

• They don’t care about it.

The charedi community is howling in outrage. Outside of the charedi community, most people are in agreement with it, with a small minority objecting. Of my rabbinic colleagues who have discussed it, every single one said that they agree with it one hundred percent - one who is part of the charedi world told me that it’s unfortunately not even fully accurate, because many charedim won’t even dedicate their learning for soldiers!

The most common complaint is that the cartoon is “antisemitic.” This is a very bizarre objection. It would only make sense if the charedi subject represents Jews, or Jewishness, more than the others. But he doesn’t. The other people in the picture are also Jewish, and even religious (since a dispropotionately large number of combat soldiers are national-religious, and the cartoon appears in a religious newspaper). And they believe that they are the ones representing what Jewishness is really about. There’s no antisemitism here.

For argument’s sake, let us suppose the cartoon is in some way distorting things and slanderous. It would be the height of hypocrisy for the charedi community to complain about this, because the charedi press regularly engages in such slander of everyone else. Consider these examples:

But in fact, it’s ridiculous to claim that the cartoon is slanderous, i.e. falsely maligning the charedi community. Because the four points being made by the cartoon are absolutely true of the charedi community in general and as represented by its rabbinic and political leadership, and they are mostly things that the charedim themselves trumpet proudly.

Yes, the charedi community does believe that everyone else should be in the army and they should be exempt. Yes, they do profess to believe (although I have demonstrated that this is an insincere belief) that their Torah protects and that this justifies their exemption. Yes, this does create a heavier burden for everyone else, who have been spending longer away from their learning and families and jobs and risking their health and lives. Yes, this is accompanied by an attitude of entitlement and lack of concern for the hardship that the rest of Israel endures.

Yes, it hurts to be called out.

Some complain that the cartoon is nevertheless sinat chinam (baseless hatred), or in bad taste. But it’s not baseless - it’s based on factual reality. And it’s a reality that is immensely painful, harmful, and dangerous to us all, and which needs to be addressed. The reservists need to be able to be with their families and jobs (and unfortunately some have already lost their businesses due to the length of their service this year). The IDF needs more manpower. And there will be a massive drop in national morale, and it will become even harder to recruit soldiers from the rest of society, when there is a huge community of over a million people (and rapidly growing) which demands a blanket exemption - and payment for it!

The only criticism of this cartoon which has any potential validity is that it is counterproductive to efforts to integrate charedim into the army. There may be some truth to that, but personally I disagree. The charedim have already made it very, very clear that they are absolutely not willing to change, and not even to identify and enlist young men who are not learning. The only thing that might create change is financial pressure - i.e. stopping the enabling of their lifestyle via yeshiva payments and welfare subsidies. And financial pressure will only be created if charedim are politically weakened, such that they become undesirable coalition members. And that in turn can only happen with sufficient public opposition.

(It’s also important for American philanthropists and donors to realize that they should withhold support of the charedi yeshiva system until there is reform, which is one of the goals of my writings.)

The charedi community separate themselves from the klal and avoid sharing a heavy national burden, which has thereby inevitably created immense resentment, along with genuine concern for the country’s future. The harsh reality is that the charedi community has created a situation whereby it is necessary to publicly campaign against them in order to help Israel survive. Cartoons are a valuable part of such campaigns - a picture is worth a thousand words. Yes, it’s painful for charedim to be called out in this way, but you reap what you sow.