The Fatal Consequences of Dangerous Disregard for Laws
And the charedi response
Yesterday, following the tragic deaths of two infants at an unlicensed daycare center, charedi MKs and pundits, along with Likud MKs and other supporters of Bibi’s government, blamed the “Leftist/Zionist” court for recently halting daycare subsidies to charedim in kollel, claiming that this “forced” charedim to resort to cheaper, unlicensed, dangerous daycare.
In fact, this daycare center had been running for thirty years. And it was just one of over a thousand unlicensed daycare centers in Israel, mostly charedi, that the State Comptroller had warned about four years ago. Charedim send their infants to such centers in large numbers because (A) they don’t care about “secular” laws, and (B) as a result of their self-created poverty, they need to cut corners to find the cheapest solutions.
What is the maximum permitted ratio of infants to adults in daycare? In the USA it varies by state, but usually one adult is required for every four infants. Israel is a little more lax, but still requiring one adult for every six infants, and with a maximum of four adults and 20 infants.
This illegal daycare center had three adults and over thirty infants.
According to a Hatzalah first responder, “there were children in closets, in strollers, everywhere, hidden on top of one another with blankets.” Initial medical examinations reported that the two babies who died succumbed to dehydration after being held in a closed room with a fan heater set very high, and that at least one of them had died a significant period of time before first responders arrived. In other words, due to the very large number of infants that the three adults had to take care of, nobody was paying attention.
So, how did the charedi community react to discovering the fatal consequences of widespread dangerous disregard for laws?
By engaging in widespread dangerous disregard for laws, of course!
The authorities wanted to perform autopsies to conclusively determine the cause of death. Autopsies are anathema in charedi society, and after an appeal by the parents, the court ruled that it would not take place. But that ruling only came late this afternoon. In the interim, thousands of extremist charedim spent last night and today causing chaos, property damage and attacking people around the country.
Here they have pushed a burning dumpster down the street:
Here they are attacking a car in Bnei Brak:
Here they push an old man down, and move boulders into the road:
And here they are attacking a bus in Beit Shemesh:
Here’s a smashed window next to a bus driver (is it any wonder that the Arab bus driver of two weeks ago panicked and fled?)
And here’s a guy who sat down in the street in front of a car, below the driver’s field of view, and it ran over him:
And here’s a wider view of the anarchy in Jerusalem:
All this is the result of decades of allowing a rapidly growing sector to secede from society and indulging them as they develop a culture of entitlement, lack of civic duty and lawlessness, in exchange for votes.
There are no easy ways to fix it now. But the most basic need is to get them out of the government - before they burn down the entire country.
Haredim were rioting almost daily in Ramat Bet Shemesh 20 years ago and my 10 year old daughter was returning home from school on the 14 bus on Nachal HaYarden when mobs of rioting Haredim surrounded the bus and began to rock it back and forth, trying to overturn it. She made it home in tears. From that point we had to drive her to and from school every day. For a long time she spoke about those very bad people. That trauma was a factor in her moving away from observance. Today she has a Masters Degree in Nursing, and for a time she worked in Mayanei HaYeshua hospital. Her contact with the Haredi community there did not change her attitude about Haredim for the positive. Those Haredim who traumatized her will have much to answer for if they ever make it to their Olam Habah. I imagine that the eye that sees and the ear that hears and everything is recorded in a book will prove to be quite an embarrassment, if they do indeed make it there.
The videos are really tragic. They unfortunately demonstrate what has become increasingly clear over the years in that charedim simply don’t represent anything like true jewish values.
It seems to me that while you do a good job of rationally explaining the shortcomings of that community, there should also be a religious response. There should be a clear movement that says effectively “given their clear disregard for jewish and halachic principles we cannot trust the charedi establishment’s religious rulings”.
This means that we should not trust their hechsherim (unless they are accompanied by a reliable hechsher, and even then it is preferable to avoid food covered by their hechsherim altogether), we can not trust their rulings in marriage, conversion, etc. should not carry in their eiruvin, should not consider their semicha to be valid etc.)
I think this is important for a few reasons:
1 - it is intellectually honest. If a community won’t even make a simple statement denouncing its own members who openly physically attack people and property in the street, how can you rely on that same communities judgement in other areas of halacha.
2 - it fights fire with fire. For years the charedi establishment has been seen (by itself and thus by others too) as the “de-facto” ultimate arbiters of halacha and what it means to be “frum”. This has effectively immunised them from a lot of criticism and means that many traditional people would fear to castigate them to a far higher degree than someone in the “dati-leumi” rabbinate. It’s surely time to flip that script and use the weapon of religious superiority that they have wielded so effectively against them.
3 - it hits them where it hurts most - in their pockets. When a restaurant fears getting an eida charedis hechsher not just because of its cost, but because they will lose customers who simply refuse to eat it, that will change the dynamic significantly.