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Apr 24, 2014
Extremist thugs in Bet Shemesh destroy shul
In what is perhaps one of the most insane things I have seen in a fairly long time, extremist thugs went berserk and destroyed a shul in Bet Shemesh.
If I leave it at that, you might be left with the impression that it was the shul hosting a womens minyan, or perhaps a shul of "amalekites" - aka dati leumi, or perhaps the shul of some egalitarian group.. but that would be wrong. They destroyed a haredi shul, hassidic shul specifically, in the haredi neighborhood of Nahala uMenucha (a.k.a. the kiryah haharedit).
According to Kikar, here is what happened...
The "Nitra" shul, formerly a Satmar shul, is a shul used only on Shabbos. For some unknown (to me) reason, this shul has been targeted by some local askanim as one that should be shut down.
According to the claims, the shul was being used during the week, unofficially of course, by bochurim who would sit there surfing the Internet on their iphones and other non-kosher cellphones. At some point, one of the askanim got the keys and decided he would make surprise visits to see what was going on and catch them in the act.
The other day, this askan went into the shul on one of his surprise visits and caught a group of bochurim using a laptop.
I find the rest of this irrelevant, because what exactly they were doing makes no difference in whether or not he was justified in vandalizing, actually destroying, the shul. But, to continue the story, they claimed the laptop had no internet access, and was actually the personal laptop of the Admor of Nitra - they claim to be doign work for the admor, organizing his divrei torah.
The askan reportedly went berserk when he saw them on the laptop. When they showed him what they were doing, he screamed at them that they are ruining the neighborhood and all the tragedies that happen are because of them. He then went berserk and smashed windows and destroyed the entire shul (you can see some video in the Kikar article).
The Admor of Nitra, when he heard about the incident, cried about it and cursed the people who destroyed the shul with an "unusual death".
Best comment I heard? On Facebook, from DK:
Hopefully this will be the straw that breaks the camels back and maybe their own community, or those right around it, will finally do something about it...
If I leave it at that, you might be left with the impression that it was the shul hosting a womens minyan, or perhaps a shul of "amalekites" - aka dati leumi, or perhaps the shul of some egalitarian group.. but that would be wrong. They destroyed a haredi shul, hassidic shul specifically, in the haredi neighborhood of Nahala uMenucha (a.k.a. the kiryah haharedit).
According to Kikar, here is what happened...
The "Nitra" shul, formerly a Satmar shul, is a shul used only on Shabbos. For some unknown (to me) reason, this shul has been targeted by some local askanim as one that should be shut down.
According to the claims, the shul was being used during the week, unofficially of course, by bochurim who would sit there surfing the Internet on their iphones and other non-kosher cellphones. At some point, one of the askanim got the keys and decided he would make surprise visits to see what was going on and catch them in the act.
The other day, this askan went into the shul on one of his surprise visits and caught a group of bochurim using a laptop.
I find the rest of this irrelevant, because what exactly they were doing makes no difference in whether or not he was justified in vandalizing, actually destroying, the shul. But, to continue the story, they claimed the laptop had no internet access, and was actually the personal laptop of the Admor of Nitra - they claim to be doign work for the admor, organizing his divrei torah.
The askan reportedly went berserk when he saw them on the laptop. When they showed him what they were doing, he screamed at them that they are ruining the neighborhood and all the tragedies that happen are because of them. He then went berserk and smashed windows and destroyed the entire shul (you can see some video in the Kikar article).
The Admor of Nitra, when he heard about the incident, cried about it and cursed the people who destroyed the shul with an "unusual death".
Best comment I heard? On Facebook, from DK:
They came for Orot, and noone protested, then they came for Satmar, and there was no one left to protest...As well, from Ben, maybe it is time some rabbonim consider the weight of their words when they talk about how bad iphones are. This is over the top, and is, at least partially, a result of the demonization of the iphones and their users..
Hopefully this will be the straw that breaks the camels back and maybe their own community, or those right around it, will finally do something about it...
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Labels:
bet shemesh,
haredim,
violence
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Don't be silly. It didn't happen to their Shul. It wasn't done by anyone in their community. The perpetrator wasn't a real Charedi...
ReplyDeleteYou've heard the excuses before.
I'm glad you posted this story. I used to manage an Internet Cafe, and had some similar experiences, including a teacher come in to see kids emailing their parents (Kibud Av v'Em) and looking at some Torah articles and texts.
ReplyDeleteMishmeros HaTzni'us w/o haskamos from Rabbeim caused trouble. But, Avrechim, Hassidish and Litvish simply came in to remove their own personal students, and quietly so, w/o desiring to harm our business. One even said he would pay us to fax things or to print things for him, even though we offered Internet, because we a had commitment to monitor our customers' activity (no curtains in booths). Learning at his yeshiva included an agreement to come to places like these is all.
However, I resent the use of the term extremist in a negative light. I identify as an extremist, because I believe that the Torah touches every aspect of a Jew's life, including the running of a [truly] Jewish gov't, a [truly] Jewish Army, a [truly] Jewish court, etc., etc., and, yes, even a computer.
This only extremism this person represents is extremist idiocy. These boys deserved kaf zekhuth, and it appears they were not doing anything a book publisher, newspaper editor, or rabbi's secretary would do with a computer. In fact, they ARE rabbi's secretaries! (sigh) Furthermore, where else will they be better able to double check sources than in a schul/beth midrash?
P. S. By definition there is no such thing as a women's minyan. Women's prayer group yes; minyan, no.
But smartphones really ARE dangerous. The chinuch should be about that we are not to be kanaim and take matters into our own hands and that is what is missing for these extremists.
ReplyDeletehttp://thepartialview.blogspot.com/2014/04/snow-on-second-night-pesach-good-sign.html
ReplyDeleterare snowon Pesach in America
These extremist are very useful for the mainstream haredi community. This is how the haredi mainstream community "brands" Beit Shemesh as a 'haredi city.'
ReplyDeleteThe next part of the script is that the mainstream haredi community will try to distance themselves from these 'extremists' and 'thugs' who, incidentally, were HEAVILY RECRUITED by --- Moshe Abutbul and the mainstream community !!! -- and DECIDED the Beit Shemesh election. So this 'distancing' is a show -- actually geneivat data.
I note that in 2011 when these same thugs attack an 8-year old girl NOT ONE of the mainstream haredi gedolim and NOT our haredi mayor came out to walk the 8-year old girl to school. Heck -- taking care of the 8-year girls is the Mayor Abutbol's job !!!! Could you imagine the outcry in America if 8-year old girls were verbally harassed and spit on for their dress or ideology in a regular city and the MAYOR did not walk the 8 year old hate-crime victims to school??? There would be a HUGE outcry if this happened if the mayor were Jewish or Italian or African-American or Irish ....
Now the mainstream haredi community, in their 'branding' efforts, can continue to push out the regular non-haredi who don't enjoy living next to nut-jobs and are embarrassed to tell regular Israelis that they live with these nut-jobs.