Why Israel’s government tolerates Haredi excesses

By Rabbi Dow Marmur

Rabbi Dow Marmur

JERUSALEM–Without any initiative on my part, the comments about events in Israel that friends receive from me appear on several websites. One of them is the San Diego Jewish World. The piece I wrote about the attack on the Baptist Church in downtown Jerusalem resulted in the following letter by the spiritual leader of the church, Pastor Chuck Kopp. I believe that it’s of general interest, so I’m reproducing it below:

As pastor of the Narkis Street Congregation, I want to thank you for writing this excellent article. Indeed, most of our Israeli Jewish friends have expressed similar attitudes as the one you have so eloquently described. We have tried to make it clear that we, in no way, blame Jews in general or the vast majority of Israelis for what happened this week.

Having lived in Israel for the past forty-six years, it is encouraging to me to observe the readiness of the local media to cover these types of incidents more extensively; to see Israelis speaking out against acts of extremism as you have done.

The most heart-warming aspect of this whole week has been to witness concerned citizens coming to the church with beautiful bouquets of flowers and their reassuring words of solidarity.

You have accurately and carefully described the incident except for one minor detail of the cars being torched. The cars simply had all four tires slashed and redesigned with hateful graffiti. While we have been subjected to arson in years past, we were spared that form of vandalism this time.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to pen your position so boldly and we hope there will be many pastors who will come on the record condemning all acts of anti-semitism should the need, God forbid, arise.

Despite the embarrassing and undeserved praise I decided to forward this letter because of a few reactions I’ve had that assume that vandalizing church property is the norm in Israel. Though such and similar incidents do occur, they’re by no means typical. They’re manifestations of the propensity in some ultra-Orthodox circles to give vent to their sick and dangerous distortion of Judaism.

I’m sure that it’s no comfort to the pastor and his colleagues that the zealots attack fellow-Jews in similar ways. Thus a place that houses a non-Orthodox Jewish scout troupe in Jerusalem has just been vandalized. And women are subjected to frequent abuse – of course, all in the name of God and Torah.

The reason why sterner measurers aren’t deployed in dealing with the thugs is political. The present government coalition depends on the support of the ultra-Orthodox some of whom sit around the cabinet table. They’re there to defend the zealots rather than act for the good of the country. Unfortunately, the prime minister and his secular colleagues rationalize their ostensible tolerance of ultra-Orthodox antics by telling us that a break-up of the government would cause much more damage.

In view of the absence of any credible alternative political constellation, at least until the next general election they may be right. Sadly. But that’s no reason for us outside the power structure to be silent.

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Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.  Now dividing his time between Canada and Israel, he may be reached at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com . And, yes, he’s right about our taking the initiative to sign him up as a columnist.  We were introduced to his writings by mutual acquaintances and contacted him years ago for permission to run his works.  We’re so glad we did!