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Mar 10, 2014
Bet Shemesh Will Prevail Over the Extremists
A guest post by Shoshana Halberstadt
After returning from a trip abroad to visit family, with the
campaign in full swing
two weeks ago, I was quite surprised that the Eli Cohen campaign's
slogan in the header was cause for
the haredi population of BS/RBS to take offense. It seems to be that
we are not allowed to be negative in
our campaign tactics. Abutbol's campaign has sunk to the lowest levels
in both campaigns, employing Holocaust imagery and religious coercion
liberally... but we can't use the word "extremist"???
Even if you try to see the positive side of Bet Shemesh, I believe
we can all admit that the media has not fabricated stories about
extremists. We have a small percentage of real extremists living in our
midst. They make headlines because their actions are extreme, giving
our city a terrible reputation. The most recent international hillul
Hashem-extreme actions are the systematic election fraud.
I would like not to be embarrassed to say I live in Ramat Bet Shemesh. But these images are real:
burning
garbage dumpsters and construction sites, Israeli flags ripped off of
passing cars, nasty grafitti about
gravesites and tzniut, broken bus windows, vandalized half-built
buildings (Resido Center, many city construction projects), and
perpetrators of fraud in haredi garb being led away in handcuffs. Every
year at the same times there are extremist actions, flare-ups of the
simmering tensions they cause in the city: sefirat haomer (yom
haatzmaut) and the 9 days (bein hazmanim). How sick is it that sinat chinam makes its resurgence davka at these times of year??
A few years
ago I volunteered as an escort for elementary school children from the
Orot school. I passed by hoodlums half-blocking the sidewalk,
masquerading as haredi men. They called us "shiksa, prutza". The kids
were freaked out by the cult-like chanting but didn't understand Yiddish
and I didn't translate for them. One of the saddest extreme
behaviors around the Orot events was when a group of righteous women
from RBS, mostly haredi in hashkafa, decided to show support and love
for the girls of Orot banot. They arranged to arrive on Friday morning
at the girls school with a prominent educator to give a shiur and hand
out roses to the girls. In the end, only a few non-haredi women made
the trip because extremists had threatened both the educator's school
and family, spreading fear in the haredi women who had planned to
attend. How sick is that???
Our
current mayor has not acted in words or deeds to deal with the
extremists who give the vast majority of haredi residents a bad name. The
vast majority of haredim who simply want to live and educate their
children in this city feel as if they have a mob in
their midst. A real leader would have immediately dealt with illegal
and immoral behavior to protect all populations of this city. The law
must be applied equally to all. The extremists have been allowed to
feel comfortable in Bet Shemesh. We have become the international capitol of chilul Hashem.
With all of the amazing people and chesed organizations here, why shouldn't we become a model of achdut and gemilut chasadim?
This
local election is NOT a referendum on the new draft law or on our
opinions about whether the country should fund a kollel lifestyle.
Abutbol's campaign makes this supposed connection in its' ads very
clearly. No, Eli Cohen is not supported by Yair Lapid and has been
clear in his intention to maintain the traditional nature of the city.
Religious institutions and schools will be funded well...In fact Eli has
stated clearly his intention to get haredi children out of temporary
caravans and build permanent buildings for them!! Public transport will not be running in BS/RBS with Eli Cohen as mayor. Just
ask the long list of rabbis who support Eli Cohen for
mayor. While as a campaign we don't believe that rabbis should tell us
how to vote, we believe
that having the backing of rabbis has become critical since Abutbol has
made Eli's traditional religious practice into a campaign issue.
This
letter is long enough, though of course this is the tip of the
iceberg...please feel free to contact me if you have questions.
And please make sure you vote for Eli Cohen as mayor in Tuesday's elections!!
May we all be zoche to live together in this city in shalom and
achdut
Shoshana Halberstadt
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Labels:
bet shemesh,
election,
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Nice rambling.
ReplyDeleteYou are smarter than all frum Rabbis. No problem. I doubt your kids and grandkids will be religious at all.
Nice to see the mizrachists joining the secular Jew-haters. And yes, Lapid is full-blown for Cohen.
Hi, anonymous, if you want to insult or curse people, at least be a mentsch and put your name. By the way, what the Torah says about cursing and insulting. Only people without argument use insult and curse.
DeleteI don't see any curse here.
DeleteJust stating some obvious facts gleaned from our rich history.
I don't see any Jew-haters. But it seems that by telling Shoshana that you doubt that her children or grand children will be frum, it's a kind of curse. My charedi rabbonim taught me that we always have to say something nice or positive to others people. By the way, i can introduce you to a lot of kids coming from ultra orthodox, yeshivist (use the term yiu prefer) families who went off the derech. Hagaon haRav Shach zatza"l had a son who went off until he became a dati leumi, getting a Phd from Yeshivah University. I assume that someine who don't agree with charedim is a Jew-hater, isn't it?
Delete1st of all, I respect what you are trying to do. With that said....
ReplyDeleteYes there are some extremists(about 20-50, in a population of almost 90,000. Yes they have done real stupid things. The city has a bad name because of a certain person who wanted to go to the knesset so he brought the media circus here on a feeding frenzy. He was successful as he got his name in lights. That doesnt excuse the fools that did what they did, but the media circus was totally uncalled for.
Your campaign slogan of stop the extremeists was insulting to me. I support Abutbol, however I am not an extremist and I found it insulting.
Right now, there is nasty graffit in Luz park about Hareidim. Who wrote it? Abutbol supporters or Eli Cohen supporters. How come you arent outraged about that?
We are all transplanted from America to here. Abutbol grew up here. The middle east is different. Our western tactics dont always work here. Thats why America always fails at the peace talks because they think western ideals prevail in all cases. You must understand the culture and teh extremeists wont always be stopped by the mayor making a scene. Abutbol worked out a compromise but the orot girls side refused it. Yes you can argue why should compromise however if the goal is peace and things to work then sometimes even the good guys need to compromise.
Eli Cohen is supported by Bennet, Shaked, Labor, Yair Kapid. At the rally Sat night, some politicians came. What, were they stopping for pizza? Yesh Atid and bayit Yehudi both support Eli Cohen. This is about the national fight. A vote for Eli Cohen is a vote for Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi. Its Eli's own fault. He should have told the national parties to stay out of it instead of making statements like Bennets and SHaked sthat this is do or die for bet Shemesh.
ELi Cohen might be traditional but he isnt shomer shabbos. Am I wrong? Shomer shabbos according to halacha, not shomer shabbos that he makes kiddush on fri night and then watches tv.
How do all of you and the Rabbis who signed a letter for him know he wont allow a mall on the outskirts to open on shabbos? Because he told u so? Did he put it in writing that can be held up in a court of law? Ask Aliza Bloch if she thinks Eli can be trusted. I bet I know the answer to that one...................
I hope that after tomorrow, who ever wins, there is peace in the city. This new election brought up all the filth of the last ones, from both sides and it would have been better left as is.
Yawn.
DeleteVery well said. Thanks.
DeleteAs far as public transportation on Shabbos, that isn't even in the hands of the mayor - in Tel Aviv the mayor tried, and the Ministry of Transportation shot it down. So even if Eli Cohen DOES want it, he won't be able to get it.
ReplyDeleteOnce again to clarify and to get some of the very important facts that are always missing when people want to blame the Mayor for the Orot school fiasco.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor saw this coming and made an agreement with the school and the Dati Leumi rabbinic leadership. But somewhere along the way the dati leumi community felt it was more important to exercise their rights rather than to compromise and have peace. The protests, name calling, the alleged spitting on Naama and the chillul Hashem from that were the results.
That was bad enough, but as was pointed out in other comments, Lipman got involved and by going against halacha to the secular newspapers caused an even greater chillul Hashem.
The incident was not (entirely) Moshe's fault. He has said he could have handled it better and would try to differently next time, if G-d forbid an issue like this came up.
Frankly, I have no idea why you think Eli Cohen would be better at dealing with these hooligans.
Hopefully Eli would have the fortitude to call the police and have them arrested. Abutbol didn't even do that much. (And I don't know why no one else did either.)
DeleteThe fact is that other Charedim tolerate the actions of these extremists. As a famous author once said: all that is required for Evil to triumph is for Good to do nothing. These extremists are Resha'im Gemurim. CHaZaL, I believe, would consider them Rodfim for shaming girls in public. Charedim who do not protest these actions are inherently complicit.