The increasing violence in the Haredi community

It used to be that whenever the issue would be raised of the lack of general education in the haredi school systems, the haredi response would be that the haredi system might not teach math and English, but it teaches behavior, character, and how to think, and the secular community should deal with the level of violence in their schools before preaching to the haredim how to educate their kids.

And it was a powerful response. It said, even though things by us might not be perfect, "we" are clearly doing something right and "you" are doing something wrong. And that aspect is even more important than math and English.

Unfortunately, that response can no longer be reasonably expressed.

For a few years the level of violence in Haredi society has been steadily increasing. It "began" (by "began" I mean on a communal level), I think, with some fairly contained incidents within Ponovezh Yeshiva in which students entered a fracas over which of the rosh yeshivas was really the leader of the yeshiva. The violence mostly stayed in that arena for a while, but more recently has expanded community-wide.

The last round of elections brought out the worst in many (and I don't mean just in Bet Shemesh). Rabbis cursed each other due to political differences, followers of said rabbis attacked each other based on perceived insults to their leaders. It led to one group of yeshiva boys recently attacking another group from a competing dynasty with tear gas, and then it led to a physical attack on Rav Shteinman, a 99 year old rosh yeshiva in frail condition, and just the other day a group of yeshiva boys burned books of Rav Chaim Kanievsky and of Rav Gershon Edelstein.

Locally in Bet Shemesh we had much verbal violence, along with kids getting violent with other kids and even throwing things at adults just for the crime of thinking differently, along with destruction of private property.

I called out the violence, naively thinking it was not something really supported by the haredi community. Maybe it was the unfortunate result of a broader issue, rather than an indication of a communal trend. I asked how people could be behind it, behind the people in whose name it is perpetrated. The truth is that I was wrong. The reason people were able to be behind it is because something has changed, and violence is now considered a justifiable means to achieve the glorified end.

I remember a number of years ago I heard from a yerushalmi acquaintance that the only reason the haredi community ever got anything from the government or society was because of its willingness to use violence and hold violent protests. They claimed that the country, specifically the government, hates haredim and would not give the haredi community anything, but is forced to because of the violent hafganot.

Since I heard that, I always thought it was relegated to the yerushalmi community. They were famous for their violent hafganot through the first 50 years of the State. The rest of the haredi community benefited from that, without even participating in it.

That is no longer true. The general haredi community is now absorbing those lessons and mainstreaming the violence as part of its repertoire. Sure, not everyone is involved in it, and many don't see it or even reject it, but it is there and it is increasing in scope.

Ediot of Mishpacha Magazine, Moshe Grylak, agrees with me. In his editorial this week he related a conversation he had had with somebody who asked him what he thinks the results of elections would be. Grylak said that the results of the election will be a churban, destruction. Grylak goes on to explain that we have recently had 6 minor earthquakes, and we hope it won't get worse, but we have already suffered a killer earthquake - without deciding who is right and who is wrong, these bnei torah hit those, those hit these, tear gas, excitement, hospitals, no end to the shame.

Families have been torn apart by competing camps in the yeshiva world, gedolim have been scorned, no values are left, no integrity is left. Teenagers are talking about gedolim and explaining why one is not as much of a gadol as the other, what failings this one or that one has. Even those who have not participated in this deterioration, were at least part of the atmosphere that allowed it to happen.

Grylak calls it a destruction of the society. The candidates will be chosen and others will fail, but at the end the fighting will continue.

Grylak mentions the midrash in which it is described how the wife of On ben Peles saved her husband. On was part of the crowd supporting Korach in his fight against Moshe, Mrs. On said to him - whether Moshe or Korach wins this fight, you are not going to benefit one way or the other. So, she said, why take sides? She thereby saved her husband.

That is something that must be remembered, because one day the parents will wake up and see how their kids turned out after being involved in these election campaigns. Who knows, Grylak wonders, how they will have been affected - the results will only come out in a long time from now - many years later in the form of an at risk teen, kids off the derech, or other deviations from haredi society.

Rav Yehuda Gliss also writes about this. In Kikar he writes how Moshe Leon got the haredi support - someone took him to Rav Shteinman's house, pushed his hand into Rav Shteinmans, Rav Shteinman said some bracha that was not understandable, and within minutes they went out proclaiming Rav Shteinman had given hsi bracha. Then they went to Rav Kanievsky where they said he would install a generator in jerusalem, and Rav Kanievsky also gave a bracha that couldn't be heard. They went out to announce the bracha and support. In the meantime, the rabbonim of Yerushalayim were deeply harmed and shamed, and then Leon had to be taken around to the local rabbonim. Gliss says that they lost because of the way they shamed and hurt the gedolim of Yerushalayim.

Then they put out flyers calling Barkat all sorts of names - a kofer, ochel neveilos (someone who eats treif food, a serious insult even if factually correct), and Barkat never responded because he is cultured and does not live in the gutter of yours.

Gliss lets the Sephardim have it too. He says they abused Rav Ovadia. "We love you, Maran!".  Does Rav Ovadia want to be remembered for his Torah lerning and the books he wrote, or for th epoliticians he supported?

Gliss says the community has to beg forgiveness from the rabbonim, from Rav Ovadia, from the school teachers who have to explain to the students what the difference between Gimmel and Etz is, for the harsh expressions used against each other...

Grylak recognizes that something has changed, something is wrong. Gliss recognizes it as well. These elections exacerbated everything and brought out the worst in people. Will the community do something to fix it?

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