Wednesday 4 January 2012

Hareidim Put on a Good Face

Note this video is in Hebrew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5zNjQktisI&feature=colike
Shalom,
RRW

2 comments:

Mighty Garnel Ironheart said...

Well for one thing I find it highly offensive that you posted a video in which a woman not only appeared without her face blurred out but was also allowed to speak! Oy to the ears and eyes that hear and see such things!
You know, come to think of it, I think I recognize a couple of the guys in the video. I think they've come to me for cheques in the past.
Look, there is no question that Chareidim and Chareidi organizations do good and important work and that this is often not reported in the media because it's not sensationalist. It's an important reminder but if the point was "And don't pay attention to those nuts in Beit Shemesh because we're all a great bunch otherwise" then no, I'm not distracted.

Rabbi Ben Hecht said...

No one is denying that this does present another view of charedim...and a truthful, positive one. But, then again, does it have anything to do with the charedim from Beit Shemesh? Is it not interesting that in this video there are not only non-religious men who declare how those that helped them only cared about other Jews but also there were non-religious women dressed clearly in a manner that does not meet not only charedi standards of tzniut but general Orthodox ones? How would these women be treated in 'militant' charedi districts?

Maybe its time to not judge a group by the actions of some members but maybe, more importantly, it is time for a group to police itself. This video should not have described itself as the truth about the charedim but, rather, the truth about some charedim. Its incumbent on charedim such as those described in this video to distance themselves from the others who use the same term to describe themselves.

We get upset with Jews for Jesus. If you want to be a Christian, that your business, but don't describe your religion as a form of Judaism. Charedim who want to improve their image, have to go beyond stating that their good, they have declare, loudly and emphatically, that they are not in the same grouping with those who malign an eight year old girl. And that cannot just be lip service. It has to have the same intensity as the Jewish community expressed in response to a bunch of Christians calling themselves Jews.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

PS Maybe, then, they will also do their own cheshbon hanefesh to determine how someone without similar beliefs could have even attempted to portray themselves in this manner.