It Won't End Until We Demand It Does

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/12/israeli-beit-shemesh-religious-battle.html - Click on the link and be prepared to be disgusted beyond your wildest dreams. The story from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times with a video from Israeli TV speaks for itself. It shows that in the name of Torah, in the name of God, in the name of religious modesty all sorts of perverted, grotesque behavior are performed. The venom is not reserved just for adults but little children. All in the name of a God not recognizable to most Jews.

We demand that radical Islam be denounced by imams. We insist that pastors and priests condemn radicalism and violence within their communities. Now is the time that we Jews DEMAND, that the government of Israel and ALL OF OUR RABBINIC LEADERS denounce in no uncertain terms, the violence and venom being perpetrated by terrorists who cloak themselves in the dress and manner of Haredim.

Forgive my parochialism, but I don’t seek the condemnation of this behavior from our Young Israel or big Shul rabbis who rail against these animals pretty regularly. No I want to hear from the rabbis who condemn the internet and modernity. I want to hear condemnation from those rabbis who find intolerance emanating from any Jew without a beard, hat or velvet yarmulke or God forbid a Conservative or Reform Jew. I want to see the Jewish Press and The Five Towns Jewish Times running headline stories about these low life animals who terrorize fellow Jews. I anxiously await the halachic rulings of the self proclaimed “Greats of Torah” to unequivocally condemn this vile behavior.

Trust me my friends and readers, you won’t see it unless we all speak out loudly and often so that they will hear from the rooftops, from the pews of our Shuls, in the classrooms of our schools, in the Knesset, in the street and in our homes. If we don’t demand an end to terror by our own people we will never see it end and we will lose all moral authority to demand it from others.