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| Mainstream Yeshiva students (Mir) in Israel (AL-Monitor) |
I am not going to do that. I am saying up front that I am here to defend Charedim. Not to bury them. Defend them against charges that they are all self-centered and uninterested in the general welfare. To the contrary. Even in Israel where the divisions are even more stark, the Charedim I know are as caring and kind as anyone else I have ever known. They in fact do care about others outside of themselves. Furthermore, no Charedi I know personally is more upset than I am by what certain elements of their world do in their own self interests without caring in the slightest about anyone outside of themselves.
The problem of course is that all the accusations by the outside world (including many observant Jews) make against them are largely true. How do I reconcile these two opposing facts? The answer is that the Charedi world is not monolithic. There are factions. And there are factions within factions. There is much more divisiveness among Charedim than most people realize.
One of the problems is that unless one is part of that world. one probably does not realize that. Obviously the mainstream media is not part of that world. Because there is no personal contact those distinctions are not made. So they report what they see.
When a bus is set on fire by Charedi youth, they see Charedim setting a bus on fire. That is how they report it. Even though all the Charedi factions condemn it, Not all of them condemn it in the same way. It often comes with apologetics. The word ‘but’ quickly follows those condemnations. The conclusion by much of the media is that the underlying motives are the same as is the underlying animus. The only difference being tactics.
That might be true in some cases. But not all Charedim feel that way. The Charedim I know - which I believe is the mainstream - are not apologetic in their condemnation of the violence. There is no ‘but’. Their condemnation if unequivocal. But their voices are drowned out by the loud noises of factions that – while not condoning the violence, explain it away and express their own anger at whatever the issue might be that set off the violence.
The best example of a faction within a faction where this is the case is the Jerusalem faction of the non Chasidic Lithuanian Yeshiva faction of the Charedi world. The anger expressed against this faction by the mainstream Yeshiva faction is greater than anything I have expressed.
The media never makes those distinctions. They only know two categories: Charedi and secular. The information the public has about the Charedi world in most cases is what the media reports about them. Is there ay wonder that the entire Charedi world is painted in such dark terms?
This is one of the problems I have always had with the media in general. There is never any nuance. Never are issues examined closely enough to determine the truth. They look at a situation superficially and then report it as they see it. Which misrepresents the actual truth and unfairly characterizes all Charedim.
There is one issue however that all Charedim in Israel are involved in that seems to cut across all its factions. Their rate of COVID infections is significantly higher than that of the general population. To the point of filling hospital beds where a majority of the patients are Charedi. Does that mean that all Charedim are guilty of treating the pandemic lightly – or worse?
I have given that some thought and I believe the answer to that is, no. The Charedim I know are just as careful about observing the preventative measures as I am. But a huge percentage of them are not. And since their population centers are densely populated, the Charedim that are careful are nonetheless victims of those that are not. Unfortunately I know Charedim in Israel that were as careful as I have been - did not set foot into a Shul and still contratced and suffered from COVID. In some cases they are long haulers.
The fault lies in the careless Charedim. They are the ones getting sick and spreading it to their neighbors who are not careless. And when hospitals become overcrowded with Charedim, they are all blamed for not only spreading the disease, but taking up valuable hospital space that prevent others that might need those rooms.
It therefore is worth noting that there are differences between Charedim. And that many of them (the mainstream in my view) have values similar to the rest of us.
This does not mean I don’t have major differences with them on a variety of issues. I do. Nor have I discarded any of the theories I have that might explain what I believe are mistakes in their Hashkafos. I still believe that. None of that has changed. But the one thing I also believe is that mainstream Charedim are good people with the same values general society has. They are law abiding citizens that care about their fellow regardless of whether they are Charedi or even observant. The mainstream Charedi is not self centered.
While in Israel they do make demands of the government for purposes of protecting and advancing their lifestyle, they do not wish to harm anyone. They care about the same things any other decent person does. The care about the environment. They even appreciate the IDF even though they do not serve. (That was demonstrated by R’ Chaim Shmulevitz when he praised the IDF at a Seudas Hoda'ah.) And they abhor Charedi violence without qualifiers.
So the next time anyone is tempted to criticize all Charedim – they ought to think about the fact that they are not monolithic nor are they all self centered. And realize that their mainstream is victimized by the segments that are self scented... Who don’t really acre what anyone else thinks. It is those segments that deserve to be fully condemned. Not the mainstream. We can disagree with them. Even vehemently. But they are generally all good people. Same as the rest of us. We would all do well to be mindful of that when we express our disagreements in the future.