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| 200 Charedi protesters gathered outside Parliament (JC) |
While this protest was not official and was attended by the more extreme element of that community, their motives are the same as that of their leadership. Which is to get OFSTED off their backs and let them teach their children as they see fit.
They were protesting the Department For Education’s new rules which - as noted - they consider morally objectionable. OFSTED is The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills - a non-ministerial department of the UK government, reporting to Parliament.
The Charedim of Stamford do not discuss matters of sex at all and certainly not matters of sexual orientation. The government is requiring them to do exactly that. Charedim claim to have the right to handle these matters in any way they see fit. As long as it doesn’t violate the law or hurt others.
The UK wants to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination. Like the US - the current spirit of the times has normalized LGBTQ people to the extent that the manner in which they typically engage in sexual relations is morally equivalent to the way heterosexuals engage in it. This obviously goes against the teachings of the Torah.
But I am not convinced that this is what the government really wants. If I understand correctly they want Charedi schools to teach tolerance and acceptance of these people. That they should treated with the same dignity as heterosexual people. That is not only NOT against the Torah. It is actually quite in consonance with it – as I have explained many times in the past.
That this is what the government really wants is indicated by the fact that Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the UK issued guidelines for compliance that are acceptable to both the Torah and the.
This means that what the Charedim of Stamford Hill are really protesting is their own narrow approach to the subject. Which in essence is that sex and sexual orientation is something that is never discussed. Certainly not taught to class filled with young students.
That easily leaves the impression that not only do they condemn the sin, they condemn the sinner even if he never actually violated the prohibition expressed in the Torah. Their very identification as gay or trans makes them pariahs to be shunned.
Like I said, I understand why they are so upset and protesting. But let us not make the mistake that all of Orthodoxy feels the way they do. This attitude about sex and LGBTQ pertains mostly to this community. Especially that portion of it that is Chasidic. I don’t know what pereentage of them are Gerrer Chasidmim. But it is no secret that Ger’s approach to matters of sex is extreme. I am told that when the Steipler was shown a copy of Ger’s guidelines for sexual relations he just about had a cow!
That being said, I think they are protesting more than just that. They are protesting the same thing Agudah and company are protesting in New York. Which is the right to deny their children a basic secular education. Thereby keeping them ignorant about things that matter in the world. Things which the civilized world needs to know in order to function in the world. Including the ability to get jobs requiring more than the unskilled labor that they are capable of. Jobs that are low paying.
Their purpose is to avoid any assimilation at all into the general culture, considering it all foreign to Jewish values and to be avoided as much as possible. Keeping their people illiterate, innumerate, and ignorant helps accomplish that . But it also places them at a disadvantage in their ability to better support their families.
It not only makes a mockery of Judaism in the eyes of non Jews, it negatively impacts secular Jews who might consider investigating their Jewish heritage if they didn’t see the Chasidic culture as illiterate, innumerate, and ignorant. Even as they might admire the family values and joy they see in that culture - it would be rare, I think, for any educated secular Jew to want join a society like that. But I digress.
What makes this particular protest so upsetting to me are the things some of the protesters said:
Moshe Mayer Sterngold said the threat “reminds us of the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition”
“I have just spent two hours with one survivor, who was actually in the crematorium,” Gratt told the London-based Jewish News.
“Over the last week I have spoken to other survivors, they all feel scared and intimidated by the language the is in the Schools Bill. We have to stand up for our rights,” he said.
I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that this kind of rhetoric is way over the top and undermines their cause.
They are threatening to leave the UK. That is of course their right. But where are they planning to go? New York? Israel? New York is not going to give them what they want anyway if they can help it. And their antipathy for the Jewish state will surely not lead them there. If they are thinking of going to Chicago or Detroit - they are not going to find any schools that do not offer a secular curriculum there. This is an empty threat. They may go underground. But they do that at their own peril. It is not ideal Chinuch to teach your children clandestinely in ways that are illegal - Especially when there are other religious schools that comply with the law.
I just can’t get over an educational philosophy of purposeful ignorance. A philosophy that the majority of Orthodox Jewry completely reject. In their zeal to be different and apart even from their own fellow observant Jews - they seem to be willing to go to the ends of the earth to accomplish it. I understand the need to hold on to tradition. And most of the time I agree with that. But when a tradition begins to hurt the material welfare of so many of them, it is time to rethink that particular tradition.
It’s time for them to reconsider their extreme isolationist ways. Just because there are a substantial number of wealthy Charedim and Chasidim among them, doesn’t mean the majority is thriving. Behind their outwardly positive demeanor may lie a discomfort with the poor education their children receive.
It also means that any respect they currently get for their successful lifestyles despite their iconoclasm - will rapidly deteriorate. As time passes they will become less prepared for the jobs requiring a decent secular education, less capable of dealing with technological advances, and less capable of properly dealing with the evolution of social mores that differ from theirs.
With respect to their concerns about the new LGBTQ requirements, it would be far wiser for the Charedim of Stamford Hill to take a page from Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and learn how to make compromises that do not contradict Halacha. Even though it would change the attitudes their ancestors brought with them from Europe. They should consider it an Eis Laasos – a time to act for purposes of their very existence in the evolving world in which we all must live.