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| One of the Chabad organizers of the march (Washington Post) |
Just to cite an example for purposes of contrast, to the best of my knowledge no Jew driving a car has ever experienced the fear of being stopped by a cop and treated as criminal. No Jew has ever been choked to death by the knee of an antisemitic cop. There is no such concept as ‘Driving while Jewish’ the way there is ‘Driving while Black’.
And yet there has clearly been a great deal of animosity expressed against Charedi Jews in recent times. Some of it by other Jews. And even by some Orthodox Jews. This is something I think about when I deal with issues involving Charedim. Many of which deal with wrongdoing. Something that I get reminded of from time to time by people that do not quite get what I do and why I do it.
Even so I still sometimes wonder if there is a grain of truth to those accusations. Am I in any way prejudiced against Charedim? I’m sure that there that my critics will not be reticent to respond with an unequivocal. ‘Yes’! Obviously! I must be considering all the negative posts I’ve done.
But after reflecting on it from time to time I have a clear conscience. I know who I am; I know what I criticize; and why. I do not hate Charedim at all. I love all Jews. As I’ve said in the past, (without going into detail which is beyond the scope of this post) there is much to admire about the Charedi world. So what is my problem then? Why is there so much ‘antisemitism’ against Charedim by so many of the rest of us?
I was forwarded an article on this very subject which might shed some light on the problem. Here are some pertinent excerpts:
In the northeast United States, the spur is demography. Haredic groups have started to move into towns and -- for want of a better term -- take them over.
Once in the majority of a town, the Haredim -- who send their own children to private schools -- often get control of a school board and defund the schools to the fullest extent allowed by law…
Given the high birthrate of such observant Jewish communities, they quickly outgrow municipal boundaries, and are soon looking to move to adjacent towns. The adjacent communities see the handwriting on the wall and will often react with illegal and discriminatory regulations…
In Lakewood, New Jersey, where the Haredim have become a majority, school funding has been brutally gutted. Yet, ironically at the same time, funding is provided to send Jewish kids to private Jewish schools in gender segregated buses…
Lakewood continued to bus Jewish students to yeshivas, even after Lakewood public schools were shut down due to funding problems.
If all of this were not controversial enough, Lakewood’s Haredic community is outgrowing its municipal borders and considering expansions into nearby communities like Toms River and Jackson. This has provoked more panic among the locals… which has again spurred countercharges of anti-Semitism…
The Haredim have astoundingly high birth rates, with their population doubling every twenty years. So while this issue is now primarily confined to the northeast -- Brooklyn, Monsey, NY, Lakewood, New Jersey, etc. -- it will soon explode in other parts of America, unless it is addressed. Los Angeles has a thriving Haredic community, and already fault lines are developing.
What is interesting here is that there is nothing illegal about any of this. And yet it has spurred a degree of antisemitism. Or more correctly anti Charedism. Is that a fair assessment? Is this just plain old fashioned antisemitism?
The quick answer is that if what these Charedi communities are doing is perfectly legal, then any animosity towards them must be based on anti Jewish (Charedi) prejudice. (This does not address abuses by certain individuals in those communities that are illegal. Let us stipulate for purposes of this post, that all the animus is being generated by actions that are perfecly legal.)
I think there might be a hint of antisemitism that underlies some of it. But as the article suggests, it would be a mistake to say it is all about antisemitism. Using legal means to get what they need at the expense of others is a prescription for hate.
For example. Using public funds for purposes of busing Charedi students to Yeshiva day schools and high schools while watching public schools close for lack of funding may be legal. But clearly unfair to the people now unable to educate their children. I don’t know if it is legal divert those transportation funds to the public schools that need it. But if it is, they should consider it. Even if it means that their transportation needs will suffer.
It doesn’t help maters that certain Charedi enclaves choose isolation instead of integration. Nor does it help matters that non Jews are looked down upon and their values denigrated. As one minor Chasidic Rebbe in Brooklyn put it in a recorded message a few years ago, we should always be cordial to them. But privately we must HATE them!
I am skeptical about any reduction in anti Charedi sentiment. Just as I am skeptical of changing the views of certain Charedim towards non Jews.
I know the needs are great. A world that chooses to limit earning potential and isolate itself from the rest of society needs all the financial help it can get. Expanding populations need to live somewhere. It’s hard to criticize anyone for asserting their legal rights when the needs are so great. But legal does not always mean just. And meeting those needs that way comes at a price.
I believe that a lot more can be done in the way of reducing the animosity. On both sides.
Instead of isolation there ought to be integration. Which need not include assimilation. It would help a great deal if there was a greater sense of concern from one community toward another.
A good example of which is what a group of young Lubavitch/Chabad Jews have done recently:
On a recent Sunday, about 200 young Hasidic women in long skirts and wigs and men with wide-brimmed black hats and free-flowing beards parked their baby strollers along the tree-lined boulevards of Crown Heights in Brooklyn.
They picked up their bullhorns and raised their homemade posters, some in Hebrew and Yiddish.
“The opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference,” one sign read, quoting Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel. The young families chanted “Black lives matter!” and “Jews for justice!” as they marched through the diverse neighborhood, once home to riots that broke out over tensions between black and Hasidic residents.
Can this kind of thing change some hearts and minds? I think so. It sure did in this case:
Some African American and Caribbean neighbors did double takes as they passed the improbable scene of solidarity. Others touched their hearts and called out “Thank you!”