Not Enough

Extremism is a funny thing. Almost always, the group the extremists claim to represent act horrified by the combativeness and language of these fringe rioters. Often, mainstream leaders will denounce these radicals and claim that they do not represent the majority of people in their group. For the most part, this is true, but here is where it usually ends.

I recall after 9/11 how media outlets clamored over each other to find Imams who denounced the terrorism perpetrated in the name of their religion. There were plenty, especially Imams based here in the United States. What was left out was how many Mosques tolerated militant preaching and encouraged if not outright terrorism, then hostility towards the United States, Israel, the West, Christians and Jews.

Speaking with many people regarding the radicals in Beit Shemesh and the Hilltop Youth in Judea and Samaria the response is not much different. I have heard that they are a minority of Haredim or just a bunch of kids from the settlements. I read the statements of the Rabbinical Council of America and Agudath Israel denouncing the violence. I have seen statements from Rabbis and leaders both political and religious condemning these cowardly acts. My response, not enough!

I was pleased to see that locally, the Five Towns Jewish Times for the most part denounced the radicals and their use of violence and Holocaust imagery. 5TJT caters to a right of center crowd and these statements especially from the editor were an important step in reining in the lunatic fringe. However, sometimes in publications like 5TJT it is just as important to see what’s missing as it is to see what’s there. Take last week’s column by Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzberg http://www.5tjt.com/local-news/12865-the-real-yerushalayim who just returned from a trip to Israel. It was a beautiful article about some of the great gedolim who recently passed on, their legacies and how we Jews can honor that. What was missing from Rabbi Ginzberg’s submission was the chilul Hashem being perpetrated in the name of these gedolim and their religion in Israel.

Rabbi Ginzberg has no problem criticizing another local Shul who invites a female scholar to address the congregation or Yom Hashoa programs that allow “non-religious historians and writers of novels.” For criticism of Modern or left of center Jews, he has plenty of invective, for crimes by Haredim, none.

Last week’s issue of 5TJT also ran a column by Rabbi Yair Hoffman http://www.5tjt.com/local-news/12864-the-honor-of-women who’s Halachic musings usually show that he is a master of multiple sources to make his point. Last week’s posting used the first 2 small paragraphs to give a cursory denunciation of the violence in Beit Shemesh and then went into ripping former Knesset member Yossi Sarid, a columnist for Haaretz and a self proclaimed secular leftist who took a swipe at all religious Israelis. Wow Rabbi Hoffman, you’ve got guts.

The reason radicals are successful is not because they are supported, it is because they are tolerated. Nobody really likes crazy people who take things too far, but many people like the purpose they serve, which is to make the rest of the warriors look tame in comparison. Rabbi Hoffman at least gets kudos for giving us 2 paragraphs of criticism; Rabbi Ginzberg gets an F for showing zero guts. The time for action is now, not after things are taken too far. We need to hear from the Ginzbergs and the Hoffmans and then we need to plaster the Haredi neigborhoods with Halachic rulings from Haredi rabbis putting in cherem any of these kooks. Instead we hear faint denunciation and widening the chasm by chastising those who don’t like us anyway.