The Attack That Wasn't Condemned

And which you may not even have heard about

Let’s say you’re a typical religious-to-yeshivish Jew living in the US. You follow various news sources that are Jewish and/or Israel oriented. And you hear about all kinds of attacks on Jews that are happening in the present unfortunate reality.

You read about the Jewish girl on a schoolbus in New Jersey who was hit by a rock thrown through her window. You read about the arson of the synagogue in Mississippi. You read about the 14-year-old charedi boy in Israel who was run over by a bus during a protest.

But did you read about the charedim who were attacked during a private event?

That’s correct. There was a private event and shiur for about 60 charedi men. People broke in to the building and attacked the participants. An avreich was hit in the face, had his clothes ripped, was thrown to the floor and beaten, leading him to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance. Two other young charedi men were also injured and had to go to hospital.

Yet this was not condemned by any of the charedi rabbinic and politial leadership. It wasn’t and won’t be covered by any of the frum newspapers and magazines. And none of the attackers were even arrested.

The reason is that the event was for soldiers in the charedi Chashmonaim brigade along with their parents and teachers, and the attackers were extremist charedim.

Here is a screenshot from the group chat of the Chashmonaim soldiers, showing the seriousness of the incident:

Can you imagine if the attackers would have been secular “Kaplanists” breaking into a yeshiva? It would have been wall-to-wall condemnations from the full gamut of charedi rabbinic and political leaders and media pundits. It would have been endless talk about how terrible these violent anarchists are, launching unprovoked attacks on people doing nothing to them. And if nobody was arrested, there would be endless criticism of the “Deep State” and police being subject to the terrible directives of politicians. But in this case - nothing. Silence.

(The incident was reported at Yeshiva World News. The comments section includes people transferring some/all of the responsibility for what happened to the event organizers, for holding the event in Bnei Brak and thereby creating a provocation that incites violence. These are the same people who do not see that having a violent mob surround a bus and threaten to break in and attack the driver gives them any responsibility whatsoever for the bus driver panicking and decided to speed away. But holding a private event for the parents of charedi soldiers in Bnei Brak - which is where these parents actually live! - is a provocation that makes them deserve the results.)

When American donors spoke about withholding donations from yeshivos which proclaim all kinds of terrible rhetoric about the IDF, there was uproar. But when charedim who serve in the IDF get violently attacked as a result of such rhetoric, there is silence. This silence speaks volumes.