We Are The 99%

The Connections magazine, a local monthly magazine, was preparing the current edition and the main theme was going to be article regarding the recent escalation of tension between communities in Bet Shemesh. I was asked to write an article. The following is what I wrote and has been published in the magazine. Let me know what you think.

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A terrible crime was recently perpetrated against the OROT school, the children that attend it, the parent body, and perhaps by extension the Sheinfeld community and the Dati Leumi community in general. That crime is the crime of indifference.

While the children of OROT Banot were being harassed daily for months, even with some brief periods of respite, most people were indifferent to the situation. Many people, very many people, got involved, both from the immediate community and from other parts of Bet Shemesh, but most people remained indifferent, perhaps watching curiously from the sidelines.

It hurts when Jews fight with each other. Everybody loses. In the portions of the Torah we have been reading recently, the brothers of Yosef fought with him, and that led to Yosef being sold, and eventually the slavery. Before that we saw Yaakov fighting with his brother Eisav. Before that it was Yishmael being thrown out of Avraham’s house because of his poor behavior towards Yitzchak. Going back further, even Cain and Abel fought, and there were just the two of them and their parents at the time! Sibling rivalry, and quarrels and fights, are clearly nothing new.

I believe that the Torah relates to us these incidents for many reasons; to teach us many lessons. One lesson is to teach us how bad it is to fight with each other. How it leads to division and strife and all sorts of bad outcomes.

Another lesson I think we must learn from these portions is that sometimes we must fight, despite the horror of fighting with a brother and a sister. Sometimes we must take a stand, we must reject evil, we must reject the bad.

Clearly we must work to mend rifts. It is a horrible thing when brothers are fighting, and we must do what we can to rectify the problem, and learn to respect each other despite, and possible even because of, our differences. At the same time we must reject the evil and intolerance.

My 5 year old son was having a “chazak chazak” party in gan the other day for sefer Breishis. He needed to bring a short dvar torah to say at the party. I suggested he say that there were 12 sons of Yaakov that were made into 12 Tribes. Why 12 Tribes – why not have them all under one big Tribe? I told my son (in different words) that we are 12 Tribes because each person is unique and has his way of serving Hashem. There is room under the umbrella of Judaism for everybody, and for everybody’s style.

Indifference is not an option. Too many have been indifferent for too long. It is time to step up and do whatever can be done to chase away the evil from our midst. The thugs who have perpetrated the violence and harassment of little girls and their families need to be banished, the way Yishmael was banished from Avraham’s home.

The mayor and the city council need to no longer coddle them and let them continue their ways in the name of dialog. The Haredi community needs to reject them and push them out, and no longer tolerate what they do in the name of Haredim and in the name of Hashem. The Dati Leumi community needs to keep up the pressure. The police especially need to do their job of arresting these criminals and not standing down to communal pressure.

We all need to realize that 99% of the people in Bet Shemesh are wonderful people who can live together peacefully, side by side. We are the 99%. In our situation the 1% is not the elite, upper-crust of society that is indifferent to our plight. In our situation, the 1% is evil, and needs to finally be dealt with.

We are the 99%.