Ultra-Orthodox refuse all state duties
Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Manhattan, June 2013, protest in solidarity with their Israeli brethren. Photo by Stefano Giovannini/VINnews.com
Ultra-Orthodox leadership silent over violent demonstration
Much like the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community, Israeli politicians and ministers are afraid to condemn the violent demonstrations against the summoning of ultra-Orthodox students to IDF induction centres.
By Mazal Mualem, trans. Danny Wool, Al Monitor
March 30, 2017
Fliers distributed throughout the ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Beit Shemesh on March 24 called for people to pray for the death of Major Yaakov Rashi, the commander of the Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) ultra-Orthodox induction centre. These threats against Rashi are part of a violent ultra-Orthodox struggle against the IDF, which has broken out over the past few weeks after several rabbinical college students were arrested. They had violated an accepted procedure, agreed upon by the ultra-Orthodox seminars, and refused to show up at the IDF induction centre upon receiving their first draft notice, so that they could request an exemption from military service. This got them listed as deserters.
The protests included violent demonstrations, the blocking of roads and physical attacks against ultra-Orthodox men serving in the IDF and their families. The struggle has intensified over the past few days, reaching its climax in a violent incident captured by a Channel 2 film crew, in which young ultra-Orthodox men and boys attacked a young secular woman, who got caught in the middle of a Jerusalem demonstration. Anyone who has seen the chilling footage cannot help but think that if the woman had not been extracted so quickly by border patrol officers at the site, the incident could have ended much worse than it did.
In the case of Rashi, incitement against him is unhinged and particularly focused on him personally. The demonstrators describe him as nothing less than the enemy and as someone who deserves to die. Rashi, a religious man, was appointed to the position in 2014 as part of the IDF’s preparations to fulfil the “Sharing the Burden” law — by which all young men must enlist in the IDF, including ultra-Orthodox men — enacted under the leadership of the Chairman of Yesh Atid Yair Lapid (in the previous Netanyahu government). That law was intended to boost significantly the number of ultra-Orthodox men serving in the IDF.
But then, in 2015, the fourth Netanyahu government overturned the revolutionary new law as part of coalition agreements with ultra-Orthodox parties. Instead, the old status quo — where students of rabbinical colleges are exempt from enlisting — was restored. Since that time, ultra-Orthodox men were no longer required to enlist. They were simply required to show up at the induction centre upon receiving their first draft notice so that they could declare that “studying the Torah was their profession.”
It is hard to believe, but the trigger for these violent demonstrations, which are only getting worse, was the requirement that young ultra-Orthodox men pay a single visit to the induction centre, rather than commit to compulsory military service, like all the other Jewish citizens of Israel.
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, protesting the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, hold a rally against army recruitment in Jerusalem, March 28, 2017. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Most of the ultra-Orthodox public, including its top political leadership, is not a part of these protests. Most even oppose them, realizing that if anyone gets hurt, “sharing the burden” will once again climb to the top of Israel’s agenda. In other words, they will be the ones to pay the price for it.
The violent protests are being led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, a leader of a Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox faction known as the “Jerusalem branch.” This is a radical, anti-Zionist community, which rejects all the institutions of the state and its very legitimacy. It does not even send representatives to the Knesset.
That is why its leaders consider something as trivial as insisting that its young men appear once at the induction centre to receive an exemption to be a crime by the State of Israel against Judaism itself. Auerbach and his followers do not accept the authority of the foremost leader of the Lithuanian faction, Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman.
Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach speaks during a rally against the army recruitment in Jerusalem. March 28, 2017. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
For this reason, over the past few days, the most prominent ultra-Orthodox journalists have taken a very hard line against the violent demonstrations led by Auerbach. In an interview with the ultra-Orthodox paper Kikar HaShabbat, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas Party) called the struggle “a desecration of the Divine Name.” As an experienced politician, Deri recognizes the potential damage to the reputation of the ultra-Orthodox community among the larger public, which is being exposed to such violent demonstrations.
It is true that internecine political squabbling within the Lithuanian faction of ultra-Orthodoxy has erupted outward, staining the reputation of the ultra-Orthodox community at large. Nevertheless, the silence of politicians in the wake of the violence and death threats is disappointing. Deri’s statement is not enough. Right now there is a vital need to recruit the entire ultra-Orthodox leadership for this state of emergency, so that they do what they can to restore calm.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish protest against the jailing of a Jewish seminary student who failed to comply with a recruitment order, in Jerusalem on February 9, 2017. Photo by Flash90
In a March 27 interview, Chaim Rashi, the father of Yaakov Rashi, said that his son was strong and that he would not break, despite the threats against him. At the same time, he rightfully criticized the ultra-Orthodox leadership, saying,
“Where are all the ultra-Orthodox leaders? The heads of the rabbinical colleges? Why aren’t they being heard? … These demonstrators are doing a disservice to all of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. … Where are all the members of the Knesset? They’re allowing anarchy to run rampant and for what? They have to take the financial oxygen [state budgetary support of the colleges] away from the demonstrators. Then these demonstrations will die. Right now it is anarchy in every sense of the word.”
Rashi’s father also pointed out another disconcerting phenomenon. While politicians, and not just ultra-Orthodox politicians, are silent, other official state bodies have also been lax in responding to the violence. Apart from just arresting a handful of demonstrators, which only exacerbates the fury on the ground, there is a wide range of measures that can be taken, from arresting the people behind the incitement to stopping state funding to those groups involved in the demonstrations. The same is true of the police. While they initially decided to contain the demonstrations only, they must now change course and recognize that the phenomenon is getting worse by the day.
Though Netanyahu is currently busy dealing with the Public Broadcasting Corporation crisis, he could have instructed State Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to come up with an emergency plan to deal with this new wave of violence, in conjunction with law enforcement, the legal system, the IDF and the police. Anyone hoping to hear that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (HaBayit HaYehudi) had been taking action in response to this incitement to murder will come away disappointed as well. If Lapid, who led the struggle on behalf of “sharing the burden,” will not go out of his way now to stop the violent protests against the IDF because of personal political considerations, why should other politicians volunteer to do the job for him and risk getting into a conflict with the ultra-Orthodox parties?
Like Lapid, Isaac Herzog, the leader of the opposition and of the Zionist Camp, realizes that he must maintain good relations with the ultra-Orthodox if he ever plans to put a coalition together. And so, the violence runs rampant, disaster looms right around the corner, and the authorities stand idly by.
Analysis: Temper Tantrum Of Haredi Faction, A Call For Attention, Relevance
By Vos Iz Neias, the Voice of the Orthodox Jewish Community
March 29, 2017
Jerusalem – Despite appearances, the current wave of haredi protests are not about any substantive issue worrying the rabbinical or political leadership, but are rather reflective of an internal power struggle within the haredi community over the very nature of haredi society.
The spate of demonstrations and civil disobedience witnessed over the last few months has been orchestrated by a political splinter group known as the Jerusalem Faction which splintered off from the mainstream political grouping of “Lithuanian” non-hassidic Ashkenazi haredim, Degel Hatorah in 2012.
At that time, the head of this community Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv passed away and the head of the Jerusalem Faction Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach challenged Rabbi Ahraon Leib Shteinman for the leadership of the sector, a challenge won by the latter.
Ever since, Auerbach and his group, thought to be approximately 10 to 15 percent of Ashkenazi haredim, have been seeking to claw their way back into a position of influence and importance within the haredi community, and regain their ability to determine the nature and direction of the sector.
After all, those involved in the Jerusalem Faction used to have the ear of the leader of the haredi world, they edited the Degel Hatorah mouthpiece newspaper Yated Neeman, MKs consulted with them, and they effectively controlled the haredi community because of their proximity to Elyashiv and his predecessor and Degel founder Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach.
Today by contrast, they have no representation in Knesset and are unlikely to get any, they are shunned by the mainstream haredi leadership, and have diminishing influence over the haredi masses.
Most importantly, they are powerless to hold back the changes taking place in haredi society, in which more and more men are leaving the benches of the study halls, getting a higher education, joining the workforce and even going to the army.
According to Shahar Ilan, an expert and commentator on haredi society and a reporter for the Calcalist, the real struggle being waged by the Jerusalem Faction is to fight these changes in accordance with what they believe was the path of Shach, and to try and preserve the haredi community as one that studies Torah to the exclusion of everything it else.
The mainstream leadership in no way encourages leaving yeshiva study, military service or employment, Torah study is still the pinnacle of achievement in haredi society, but at the same time the leadership is not really opposing such trends either.
It is Auerbach and the Jerusalem Faction’s inability to influence and sway haredi society towards their vision of what it should look like which is most troubling to the leadership of the Jerusalem Faction.
But the group has carved out one, highly sensitive area of the haredi agenda for itself which it emphasizes with its demonstrations, riots and civil disobedience and by which it grabs news headlines and, it hopes, relevance: military service.
Even though the current government gutted the previous government’s haredi conscription law, and even though no haredi yeshiva student is being forcibly drafted, and even though state financial support for yeshiva students is at all time highs, the Jerusalem Faction leadership pretends that there is some kind of crisis over enlistment to rally its soldiers and dominate the news agenda.
The group cannot grab headlines, stage demonstrations and cause chaos based on haredi men voluntarily choosing to go to the IDF, learning in college or university and getting a job, it would be impossible to fire up their foot-soldiers on such issues.
But they can fight the state, and call the government and the police Nazis, and stop traffic and cause mayhem over military enlistment, even if it is on totally false pretences.
Thousands of ultra orthodox Jews protest the arrest of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers, as they attend a rally against army recruitment in Jerusalem. March 28, 2017. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 Sindel
This fight at major highway junctions and central city thoroughfares is therefore not about enlistment at all but first and foremost an internal power struggle, as well as a desire for relevance, and a fight to influence the direction and very character of haredi society.
The timing of the current wave of protests would appear to be largely circumstantial, and is a function of the Jerusalem Faction’s instructions to yeshiva students associated with it to not even report to IDF offices for preliminary processing, in order to receive their military service exemptions, as mainstream yeshiva students do.
Anyone failing to report for preliminary processing is considered by law to be a deserter and liable to arrest by the military police.
After one yeshiva student is arrested by the military police, the leadership instructs masses of other students to protest and riot. Frequently, these students are arrested by the police for disturbing the public order, attacking police, and other misdemeanours, but are then themselves found to be deserters and placed in military detention.
The increasing number of yeshiva students who are now formally deserters plays into the Jerusalem Faction’s hands as it gives them ever increasing opportunities to take to the streets and protest.
But are these protests working, is Auerbach and the Jerusalem Faction becoming more influential because of them?
According to Yisroel Cohen, a senior journalist at the Kikar Shabbat haredi news website, most of the haredi mainstream is being turned off the Jerusalem Faction by these pointless, violent and vitriolic demonstrations.
“Most of the mainstream haredi community thinks they are shooting themselves in the foot, distancing themselves from the sane Lithuanian community, and these people are asking themselves ‘is this our culture, did we grow up like this, do I want to be associated with this’,” says Cohen.
It is significant that the mass demonstration on Tuesday night, as others have been, was done in cooperation with the even more fundamentalist, anti-Zionist Eda Haredit communal organization.
The Eda has long been seen as a marginal, extremist group even within the broader haredi community, and with almost no influence over haredi society.
But by mimicking the Eda’s modus operandi and world view, the Jerusalem Faction is effectively turning itself into a carbon copy of the Eda; radical, violent, and irrelevant.
According to Cohen, until recently there have been significant numbers of people within the haredi mainstream who had sympathies with the Jerusalem Faction, but who the radical group is now losing due to its extremism.
By its very radicalism, this group is pushing itself further and further away from the mainstream, making itself less and less relevant to the average haredi person, and damaging its own ability to influence haredi society.
Unfortunately, the general Israeli public may have to suffer the consequences of this power struggle a little while longer.
Students from Orthodox Jewish academies took to the streets of Manhattan in December to protest against efforts by the Israeli government to draft their counterparts into the Israeli army. Photo by Kathy Willens/AP
Extremists call for death of officer over haredi enlistment
Haredi extremists place leaflets praying for the death of officer involved in haredi enlistment outside his parents’ house.
By Gary Willig, Arutz Sheva
March 26, 2017
The incitement against haredi IDF soldiers and their recruiters reached a new low with death threats made against the head of the IDF branch for yeshiva students Sunday.
Leaflets calling for the death of Maj. Yaakov Roshi were strewn outside of his parents’ house in Petach Tikva, representing an escalation in the campaign of harassment and intimidation against haredi soldiers and their recruiters, the Behadrei Haredim Hebrew news site reported..
A number of demonstrations have been held outside the home of Maj. Roshi’s parents recently. Today, leaflets were left outside of the house with the phrase, “God will break the arm of the wicked,” and calling Roshi and his colleagues “hunters of souls.”
“Therefore, the great Torah scholars instructed that one should do the same as our forefathers did when a wicked person rose up against them, to cry to the Creator of the world that He should spare and comfort us and remove sins from the earth,” the letter continued.
“And in all places, they will pray that the memory of his name will be in disgrace, Yaakov Menachem Ben Naomi, and they will say about him what is written in Psalms, Chapters 10 and 109, about the loss of the wicked, and the Lord will hear our prayers and save us from the wicked Yaakov Roshi, may his name and memory be blotted out,” the letter concluded.
The prayer that an individual’s name and memory be blotted out is reserved by normative religious Jews for perpetrators of genocide against the Jewish people, such as Haman and Hitler.
According to BeHadrei Haredim, a haredi news site, the prayer for the death of a fellow Jew crossed a new red line and showed that “anything goes” in the fight against enlistment.
The extremist Jerusalem Faction also held demonstrations against haredi enlistment in Bnei Brak Sunday. A call was made in the name of Jerusalem Faction leader Rabbi Avraham Auerbach to resist enlistment “until the last drop of blood.”