the change of Haredim and Yom Hazikaron

In recent years I have stopped commenting on what was the annual event of Haredim publicly disrespecting the day of Yom Hazikaron. It had become routine, and after commenting on it a number of times in years past, I had nothing new to say on the matter, and my opinion did not need to be repeated again and again.

This year I had no intention of writing anything about the Haredi community and Yom Hazikaron, but then something happened. Everything changed. What was a minor, perhaps insignificant, phenomenon in years past of small numbers of people hosting or participating in memorial ceremonies suddenly has become almost mainstream.

Instead of talking about a community of crazy extremists looking to provoke, year after year, by doing insensitive things in public, this year they are no longer even watched and admired from afar. This year there were calls from people to ignore those provocateurs and instead focus on images of Haredim standing in silence during the sirens. This year there were well-attended memorials for Haredi soldiers killed in action and Haredim killed in terror attacks. This year there were events held in Bnei Braq, Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh and maybe elsewhere, specifically for the Haredi community - and they were well-attended by the public and by Haredi leadership including rabbonim and askanim. This year there were Haredi members of government, ministers and deputy ministers, that were the official government representatives at official memorials in different parts of the country.

The change is phenomenal, and whoever worked hard, quietly, to effect this change, to change attitudes and approaches, should be blessed. I do believe some of the change happened naturally, as the younger Israeli crowd is out more in the workforce, is increasingly going through the various army programs for Haredim, and naturally are more patriotic, even if they don't always agree with everything about the State or that the State does. The younger generation of Haredim is generally (not entirely) more integrated in Israeli society and takes part more than the previous generation did. That coupled with work done by activists to change attitudes, has caused what we are witnessing this year and what it will likely grow into in coming years.

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