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Oct 20, 2013

Email of the Day

The following email was sent out to the local community email lists, after it was first passed out in shul on Shabbos... and I am a firsthand witness to the events described within..

At 13:50 on Friday, my wife was passing the RBS Alef shopping center, where she saw scores of religious boys (she estimates over a hundred)pelting Mr. Eli Cohen with papers and hounding him into a hasty retreat into a nearby car. There were numerous adults watching this incident, and apparently none of them saw it as their business to intervene.
This spontaneous outpouring of sina’ah has deeply shocked me. It wasn’t that these lovable 10 year olds are disillusioned with Mr. Cohen’s plans for urban development, or even have any idea who this person is. It was just a pure, spontaneous outpouring of hatred. It seems to balance quite well as the flip-side of the barbed-wire imagery from last week’s Chadash.
PLEASE, for the sake of our city, let’s ask our politicians where they think this hatred comes from, and what they are going to do to see to it that it is wiped off the face of our city BEFORE these overenthusiastic 10 year olds turn into a next generation of 20 year old thugs.
Daniel Michaels


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11 comments:

  1. The original letter handed out in Shul used more direct language blaming Abutbol and the Charedi parties (chen ...) for this hatred.

    While all acts of violence and hatred should be condemned. Let it be clear the writer has a clear political view.

    Let's not be sooo naive, the hatred and disdain for the other side from both camps is obvious. The Dati Leumi / Chiloni camps has no shortage of hatred and viscous attacks against the Charedi camp. Lying and distortion in this campaign is rampant by all. This hatred is both on a national (lapid) and local level. In fact the question that should also be asked is what are you doing to stop the demonizing of the whole charedi tzibbur. A small bunch of fanatics doesn't give anyone the right to attack a whole tzibbur. This ongoing hatred and smearing of the charedi 'parasites' incites the haredi tzibbur to also respond in kind. The whole campaign against Abutbol is perceived (and stated explicitly) as the final chance to stop the Charedim in Beit Shemesh. This is not hatred!!??

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  2. I just wanted to thank Anyonymous above for stating exactly what I would have. No reason to repeat.
    But it is time for people to take a deep breath and think about what Anonymous wrote.

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  3. Excuse me. Who pelted Eli Cohen, and chased him away? Did anyone do anything similar to Abutbul? Of course, not all charedim are been blamed. But when 100 boys are behaving like this, and not one adult intervened (who put them up to this in th first place), what can one think? Is there not one righteous person in Sdom - eh, sorry, I meant Beit Shemesh. If I was Eli Cohen, I'd think why do I want to be mayor of such a city?

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  4. Nobody is talking about getting rid of Charedim in Bet Shemesh. The only desire is to (A) stop the city becoming ENTIRELY charedi (is there anything wrong with wanting that?), and (B) stopping the extremism - people who are violent, call others Nazis, etc. The only demonization of an entire group is done by charedim towards Eli-voters.

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  5. the argument of "its a small number of people" "it is just a minority" "its just a few crazies making us all look bad" is the one that has normally been reserved for the crazies in RBS B who riot over tzniyus signs, over non-mehadrin buses, over graves, etc. To apply that same argument to the average haredi in RBS A who lives on Kishon/Soreq (on Friday) or Dolev or wherever (on Thursday night) is stretching the argument a bit thin.

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  6. don't generalizeOctober 20, 2013 5:15 PM

    As the saying goes: It's not right that 98% of the lawyers are giving the rest of them a bad name.

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  7. To anon # 1 - you are absolutely correct in that there is demonization of Chareidim taking place at the national level - but you are wrong to attribute such sentiment to those who oppose Abutbul here in (R)BS. With respect to the local elections, I've seen nothing on the Eli Cohen supporters' side that approaches the level of hate - yes, hate - that Abutbul followers have shown toward other Shomrei Torah uMitzvos who support a non-Chareidi party and candidate. Accordingly, I see nothing wrong with calling out those who encourage or participate in such acts.

    "Osim Ma'as'e Zimri, uMevakshim Secharo shel Pinchas".

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  8. Anon as far as I know they are sincere members of Beis Tefilla, not dati leumi as you insinuate. Did Rav Malinowitz have a reaction to the letter?

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  9. Rav Malinowitz's letter to his Kehillah about the elections is insulting and condescending. Have any of you read it? He basically asserts that anyone who doesn't vote the way he thinks they should is an idiot who deserves to be treated like an immature teen. He accuses those who may consider voting for Eli Cohen as doing it to be "cool." This is very condescending. I think that many mature, responsible, Ango charidi are voting for Cohen precisely to get away from this kind of coercion, spiritual abuse, and misuse of power. Rabbi Malinowitz communicates to his kahillah that if they dare to disagree with him they are lacking sechel. He paints a very black and white picture of the issues. You either love it here in Ramat Bet Shemesh, and out of hakaras hatov you will vote for Abutbul. Or you hate it here, and you should live somewhere else, and not recommend our city to anyone. What about appreciating the things we like about our city, and trying to legally change the things we don't? According to Rabbi M. anyone who thinks this way, or disagrees with him is an idiot. If this is the kind of leadership people in his shul want then I guess they have what they deserve. Contrast this to two other Anglo Charaidi shuls in RBS A. One rav told his kehillah to "use your da'at" when voting. Wow! You can actually think for yourself and make your own decisions! What a concept. The other rav didn't get into the politics at all, to his credit.

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    Replies
    1. Sounds like Abutbul has a pathological desire to drive the entire tax-paying base out of his city. But then, welfare recipients are notoriously easy to enslave. Beit Shemesh, where is your self-respect?

      Delete

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