Like many, I also carefully read the interview with top lawyer Yaakov Weinroth conducted by family journalists Yossi Elitov and Shimon Breitkopf.<\/p>\r\n
The interview was fascinating and contained several gems.<\/p>\r\n
Weinroth actually begins by praising Torah scholars, as befits an ultra-Orthodox person. He is concerned about working Haredim who are moving away from the Haredi ethos and the centrality of the Torah world and support for the Torah.<\/p>\r\n
So far everything is expected.<\/p>\r\n
But then, after he presents the traditional and accepted position, he opens up several fronts, all of them facing an ultra-Orthodox face.<\/p>\r\n
According to Weinroth, Haredi politics has long since forgotten its place. Instead of concentrating on representing the great men of the generation and protecting Torah scholars in particular and the Haredi public in general, they have become part of the national landscape of politics, with their responsibility long since going beyond lobbying for the holy community. For example, we encounter a Haredi chairman of the Finance Committee, Haredi ministers of the interior and health, and a Haredi chairman of the Knesset Education Committee.<\/p>\r\n
For Weinroth, it doesn't matter that they are successful and popular [Litzman has been repeatedly voted the most beloved minister among the government ministers]. He issues a serious warning that in a health crisis, Litzman will be the first to be kidnapped, and far beyond what is expected. The sense of belonging to the ruling systems blinds the 'Drabnan emissaries' in a way that causes a general forgetfulness of their natural and proper place.<\/p>\r\n
In the view of the esteemed lawyer, hatred of Haredim is almost a 'destiny'. This hatred will exist as long as Haredi society persists in the value of separation. Social isolation increases a sense of alienation that translates into hatred towards Haredi society. It can be minimized - and here too he has criticism of the society in which he lives - but it can never be eradicated.<\/p>\r\n
From the lines of the words, it can be understood that the day the hatred disappears will be a sign that there are no longer any authentic Haredim left.<\/p>\r\n
This statement is a little difficult for me to accept.<\/p>\r\n
Is there ingrained hatred between different Jewish sectors, simply because of the existence of differences? This is a somewhat far-fetched assertion.<\/p>\r\n
Weinroth himself suggests that a secular person's visit to the central hall of Poniews at 2:00 p.m. must take the sting out of it. At the same time, he reminds his readers that he understands the secular person who has no interest in coming to visit.<\/p>\r\n
You can't go back to the shtetel.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\r\n
The criticism of the Haredi lawyer who is present in the homes of the great men of Israel, against the Baalbatim and also against the business is not new, but the level of her concern has risen in parallel with the growth of the Haredi public.<\/p>\r\n
The internal alienation between the Torah scholars and the people of action within the Haredi communities is becoming a fact that must be faced, and Yaakov Weiner boldly puts the problem on the table and hides nothing in the interview.<\/p>\r\n
It was easy for me to connect with his nostalgia for his childhood in Netanya when there were secular, religious and ultra-Orthodox people on the same street. What is happening today? Many advocate building a more airtight partition, but Weinroth does not propose the alternative of building a high wall. While it serves the separation, it causes further alienation.<\/p>\r\n
An ultra-Orthodox person who no longer lives in a homogeneous city may need walls that are not physical but more in the direction of the heart. Tools for living together but without forgetting for a moment his ultra-Orthodox identity.<\/p>\r\n
The headline about 'the Haredim returning to the shtetl' is also not very accurate. It simply cannot happen. When in 2016 there are over 900,000 Haredim in the State of Israel, there is no shtetl large enough to accommodate the public. Today there is a diverse and developing Haredi society, at different paces and in different ways, which is precisely seeking the balance between preserving the Haredi identity in outlook and in practice, but at the same time is not interested in playing the game of being hated by society as part of that identity.<\/p>\r\n
Weinrot, then, poses a great challenge to Haredi society. The solution he offers may be ideal, but it is doubtful whether it is realistic in the current era. The Haredi will not exist on the basis of perpetuating the feeling of a lonely and persecuted minority, but rather on a gradual transition to a loyal and authentic Haredi community with full social rights and obligations, with self-confidence as an equal among equals in Israeli society.<\/p>\r\n
And despite all the criticism, the interview is important in highlighting the challenges, which are both those of the ultra-Orthodox (students, workers, and politicians) and those of society in general.<\/p>\r\n
We can only pray that this will lead to increased discourse, both intra-Haredi and inter-sectoral.<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Daniel Goldman is the chairman of the Gesher movement and a businessman who lives in the city of Beit Shemesh.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Goldman read the brave and controversial interview by lawyer Yaakov Weinroth in the newspaper 'Mishpacha' - but despite this he is convinced: The secularists do not necessarily hate us Haredim, and the solution of returning to the shtetel is also unrealistic in the world of 2016.","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[15104,15105,15106],"class_list":["post-326500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-15104","tag-15105","tag-15106"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n