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Feb 19, 2013
Violence in the name of the Torah in Beitar
I don't know the details of what is going on over in Beitar, but there is some serious investigation into the possibility of a municipal-controlled and funded modesty squad - vaad hatzniyut - that used violence to enforce its rules.
I have no comment on the issue in general at this point, except for on one point.
According to Bechadrei, when the mayor of Beitar Meir Rubinshtein along with Nissim Hadad, the person appointed by City Hall to deal with the local youth, was called in for questioning, after the police confiscated computers and servers from City Hall, Rubinstein said "How fortunate are we that we were caught on the words of the Torah".
Now, besides for that sounding like an admission of guilt - we were caught - I dispute that running a vaad hatzniyut to beat up kids who don't follow the rules is "caught on the words of the Torah". The Torah does not say to beat up kids for not dressing appropriately or for hanging out, even if they would be getting into trouble and frightening others, and using violence to bully them instead of either educating them and creating programs to interest them, or calling the police to deal with them if they are making trouble, is not Torah mandated.
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It is only when I read such arrant nonsense such as "a municipal-controlled and funded modesty squad" that I remember why I live in the Channel Islands and not in Beitar.
ReplyDeleteThe place for "municipal-controlled and funded modesty squads" might be in Iran, or in Saudi Arabia - both 100% theocracies - but not in Israel.
Silly people -- they misunderstood the United "Tora" Judiasm platform which advocates destruction OF yishuvim and not destruction WITHIN yishuvim.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/165411#.USRoUqVgfoo
Also see UTJ support for 2005 Gush Katif expulsion for 290 million shekels
On the other hand, the proposal to involve tax-payer money for the tzniut squad (are there many taxpayers in Beitar??? or is it like Beit Shemesh with that big fat 90% discount for the voluntarily poor) is a nice twist - award 'em some style points for that.