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| Cover of Mishpacha Magazine’s latest issue |
The Charedi world is justifiably upset by how the world sees them. Which is increasingly in negative terms. I say ‘justifiably’ because – as I recently noted - they do not deserve to all be painted with the same broad brush of negativity. The vast majority of mainstream Charedim are moderate and have values that most decent people have.
The lastest issue of Mishpacha Magazine examines this issue in their cover story, entitled ‘What do they think?’ They want to know why they have an image problem and ask what can be done about it? To that end they asked these questions to a variety of Charedi public relations figures from different communities. The answers they gave were enlightening in the sense of where they were coming from.
They all said that they are being painted with a broad brush based on the acts of a few miscreants that do not represent the mainstream. Adding that the media focuses on those miscreants but fails to clarify that they are the exceptions rather than the rule. But if one reads each response carefully there are some very subtle but telling differences. Although it was not his intent, one of those responses subtly reflected what I have said is the problem. That it isn’t only individual miscreants who are at fault (which they surely are) but the attitude of that segment of Orthodoxy that produces them.
Of course none of them said that. One needs to read between the lines to see it.
On the plus side there was the response of Agudah of Illinois Director of Government Affairs, Rabbi Shlomo Soroka. His views pretty much reflected my own.(Full disclosure, I know R’ Shlomo rather well and am not at all surprised at all at his response.) He said that his job of presenting the observant Jewish community becomes very difficult the way some of us have responded to COVID. I think he really nailed it with the following. Communities like ours here in the Midwest suffer by what is reported in the national media out East.
When people see images on TV of things like a public mask burning attended by dozens of protesters - if not more - all of whom are identifiably Orthodox by virtue of the kind of clothes they wear – the typical viewer in the Midwest does not make distinctions about which segment they are or where they are located. Painting us all with broad brush strokes is not such an unreasonable conclusion – false though it may be.
His point being that when people behave badly in their own neighborhoods the ramifications go well beyond their own borders. One can fault the media as the messenger, but the people they are ‘messaging’ about are the ones that are primarily at fault. It’s bad enough when the entertainment industry does such a terrible job of portraying observant Jewry. When images of mass misbehavior are broadcast it pours gasoline onto the fire.
The bottom line for R’ Shlomo (and me) is that we need to think before we act in public. And realize that even though we may not realize it at the time, the whole world is watching. We can either make a Kiddush HaShem in public or a Chilul HaShem. Unfortunately the latter tends to make more noise than the former. Which means we should double down on behaving in ways that can only be seen as a Kiddush Hashem. And go to the greatest lengths to avoid a Chilul HaShem.
In my view the behavior of certain communities seems to be oblivious to these concepts. They focus only on what’s best for them. I think that’s because they live in a bubble. This point was made by Yitzchak Nachshoni, a Charedi journalist. When you live in a world where everyone is observant, you begin to feel that the outside world doesn’t matter. Why should you care what’s happening outside of your community when your own community has needs.
So that when a perceived need is denied they will protest. All too often that descends into a Chilul Hashem - as in the abovementioned public mask burning.
This is myopic thinking caused by thier insularity. The more insular, the more apt one is to behave in ways that are a Chilul HaShem. Nachshoni made this point and suggested that as nice as it is to live in a community where everyone shares the same religious values, the downside is that we fail to see us the way the world does. That leads to focusing only on parochial issues without thinking about what the outside world thinks.
Nachshoni suggests that Charedi world would be a lot better served if they lived in integrated neighborhoods where they will know they are being watched by their neighbors. They will be more cognizant of possibly causing a Chilul HsShem and try to avoid it. By interacting with their neighbors in positive ways they will be countering the negative images the media focuses on.
I was, however, disappointed with the response of New York Assemblyman, Simcha Eichenstein. While he too agreed that we must all be aware of our actions in public lest we cause a Chilul HaShem, he focused more on how his community has been unfairly treated in a variety of ways. He pointied to the New York State Department of Education’s interference in their right to educate their children as they see fit - adding that their students are far more educated than the typical public schools student. The unfair media coverage of that is one reason he claimed that the image of Chareim is bad.
He also made the claim that early in the pandemic - the (now defamed) governor of New York prevented Shuls from opening up not realizing how important Tefillah B’Tzibur was to them. Their righteous indignation was therefore justified - resulting in public protests and defiance of the regulations issued by the governor.
He also complained that Federal aid programs like WIC provided only Kosher meals with standard Orthodox supervision - and were not the Mehadrin standard that so many qualifying for that aid require.
Does Assemblyman Eichenstein not realize what that sounds like to a secular public? Even if he has a point, it does not generate good will to insist the government spend more taxpayer money on more expensive kosher foods.
While he agreed that some of those protests were our of control, he blamed them on individuals rather than understanding his community’s own part in them by having those protests in the first place. Just because they have a right to protest, does not always mean it is wise to do so. In this case it presents them self centered and uncaring for the general welfare. That he ended by saying that we should present ourselves in ways that are a Kiddush HaShem is a contradiction to that narrative.
Be that as it may, the bottom line for all the respondents seemed to be the same. Which is that every single religious Jew should assume ‘the whole world is watching’. Nowadays camera phones are as common as the air we breathe. There is better than an even chance that what someone is doing in public at any point in time will be captured of video and given to the media who will broadcast the worst of it.
I don’t think anyone with half a brain would disagree. The problem is getting people to do it - or at least to realize that what they think is innocuous behavior might be seen by others as negative.
But the problem is also a systemic one in certain communities. When an entire segment behaves in self centered ways such as having massively attended weddings and funerals at the height of s pandemic - which are then broadcast by the national media and thereby observed by outsiders, it will take a lot more than an article in Mishpacha Magazine a to change things. I don’t know if it is even possible to convince that segment that the whole world is watching – or to care even if they can be convinced. They have nothing but disdain for the outside world, in many cases believing that everyone is an antisemite anyway.
That seems to be something that has no solution other than mainstream Orthodoxy dissociating itself from them. I don’t see that happening. I see the opposite.