Posts
Communities in crisis
face many challenges, leaving doubts for their future viability. Those with unsustainable economic structures
deal with endemic poverty and unemployment. Crime, abuse, and violence are
evident, even if in arguably smaller proportion to other communities, and there
is a fundamental disconnect from the broader society. Conversely, a
community that is a growing, close knit, respected, well organized unit becomes
known for its righteous charity, its education
and outreach, its support to the sick, as well as its piety, devotion, and obedience.
The truthful
conundrum is that in both Israel
and North America both descriptions illustrate
– with varying degrees of justification - Chareidi (ultra-orthodox) Jewish
communities. In 2012, following the vagaries of the financial crisis and the
realities of disruptive social change, Chareidi communities are in a social,
ethical, and existential flux they have never before experienced. In Israel, for example, though they make up about
10% of the population (700,000), almost 60% of Chareidim live below the poverty
line, and according to a study from Haifa University
(Soffer, Bystrov, November 2010), 30% of births among Jewish Israelis are to
Chareidi families. The way in which their leadership and adherents respond now
to the numerous challenges they face will determine how their future will look.
At a time when many
of today’s societal challenges - including economic woes, job loss, and marital
breakdown - combined for the first time with increasingly accessible media, are
intersecting with the stress points inherent in any insular community,
practical guidance has often given way to blanket prohibitions. The internet,
most smart phones, vacations, sports and even separate-seating concerts by
religious performers have all come under rabbinical ban in recent years. In a
fascinating development, many Chareidim have begun to turn to forums and blogs
to discuss the crises faced by the community in ways they could never before contemplate,
because without the anonymity of the internet, their questions would lead to
their shunning in the community. For individuals raised and living within a
sheltered lifestyle, this is a very real concern. As one recent commenter on
the Yeshivaworld.com website wrote, about an Israeli Rabbi who dared to
suggest that many of those in Yeshivas should look for work: “When he attacks
Torah learning, he removes himself from Klal Yisroel.” Unsurprisingly, it is
this very accessibility that has, in recent months, become the epicenter of the
crisis.
There is no question
that many leaders within the Chareidi community see “the internet” as something
that “attacks Torah learning.” Perhaps more critically than that, they see it
as a direct, growing, and menacing challenge to the authority of rabbinic
leadership – a leadership of intellectual and religious dynasties (both
familial and collegial) that has served their communities with guidance and devotion
for two thousand years.
The recent “Internet Asifa” held at Citifield in Queens, New York, in May 2012 was
heralded as a demonstration of unity in the face of the “threat”. Over 40,000
Chareidi participants listened to leaders from the US, Canada, and Israel
deliver what has been described by a number of attendees as a frankly mixed
message, with some Rabbis demanding filtering and getting rid of smart phones,
and others condemning any internet use at all in the home, on pain of excluding
children from communal Yeshivas.
What, though,
is the threat? Is it access to addictive sites, like gambling or pornography?
Is it anonymous internet dating? Social media? Perhaps it more than anything
else about power, and the capacity of bloggers and anonymous commenters to
publicly doubt or question the authority of the community’s leadership, or,
sometimes, their lack of leadership. Indeed, no less a spokesperson than Rabbi
Paysach Krohn spoke to a reporter at the Asifa decrying this aspect of the use
of the internet as his biggest concern, and his belief that anonymous critics
of Torah authorities should be put in cherem (excommunicated).
Such daring as is
demonstrated daily on numerous websites and blogs is a relatively new
phenomenon. Members of the Chassidic or Lithuanian (otherwise known as
Yeshivish) ultra-Orthodox communities will tell you that they turn to the
Mesorah – the inherited wisdom transmitted through an unbroken line of Rabbis
reaching back to Sinai - for guidance in trying times. Yet in the last 30
years, with the passing of Torah leaders such as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, The
Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Shach and the Satmar Rebbe, among others, the
community lost many of its most respected guides. Some current leaders have
been described as increasingly more remote from the everyday realities their
adherents face. Some consider the advanced age of many leaders to be part of
the challenge. Others cite intermediaries, known as “askonim” with their own
agendas, who control access and information to the leaders, as the problem. As
one puzzled commenter on the Vosizneias.com news site wrote, “We were
all taught to revere our Rabbonim. However, lately I believe many ehrlicher
(good, proper) Yidden are scratching their heads at some of the public
pronouncements.”
The growing disdain
for blind obedience would seem to be a radical new trend, but it has
antecedents in the work of early Chassidic Rebbes, such as Rabbi Menachem
Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859), who cautioned his fellow Jews that “God does not
want yes-men” in an explanation of a passage in Deuteronomy (Sefer Devarim).
The internet allows
for another surprising paradigm shift unheard of in the past. Chareidi men are
engaging with women in theological, halachic, and practical discussions. One
poster, a Chareidi woman from New
York in Yeshivaworld.com’s Coffee Room
discussion forums, gently chided the mostly male writers who she interacts with
almost daily “Everyone has their reasons and everyone is judged by Hashem. No
one else should be doing the judging.”
Chareidim have also
become involved in social issues they may not have even contemplated in the
past. In early 2010, a Jewish man named Martin Grossman was executed in Florida for the murder
of wildlife officer Peggy Park in 1984. Many Chareidi leaders called for public
action to avert the death penalty, but some, like this poster on Yeshivaworld.com,
asked if the concern was about the death penalty or the fact that the condemned
man was a Jew. “Imagine if it was a irreligious Muslim that killed a Jewish
cop, then sat for 26 years and became a ‘born again Muslim’ felt bad for what
he did and all that good stuff, will we say the same thing??”
Discussions range
across the spectrum of interest on dozens of websites. Of particular debate
have been socio-economic issues, with more and more Chareidi individuals
questioning the concept of Torah learning exclusive of work, and criticizing
the sense of entitlement they perceive among some kollel yungerleit (young
scholars). Some cite the words of Maimonides (Rambam) in the Laws of Torah
Study declaring the folly of assuming the community should shoulder the
responsibility of supporting individuals who learn but do not work. Many
others, particularly in the Chassidic communities, have been able to build a happy
medium allowing them to support their families while setting aside time for
learning. In fact, Haaretz’s The Marker recently reported that the number of
Chareidi men in professional training programs had risen exponentially to
6,500, and the number of Chareidi men with jobs had risen 8% in eight years.
Another heated topic
of online conversation in Chareidi circles revolves around military service in
the IDF in Israel,
and the Chareidi community’s historic exemptions from service. In Israel,
a lack of army service closes doors to many jobs, so even when many Chareidi
men wish to join the workforce, they have been handicapped. Creative solutions
have helped, and an IDF unit meeting the needs of the community was formed. The
Netzach Yehuda Nachal Chareidi battalion in the IDF has grown from platoon to
battalion size in its nearly 10 year history, and it continues to draw Chareidi
men who are not suited for the kollel lifestyle. A 2007 study conducted by the
Netzach Yehuda Foundation found that 90% of its veterans were employed,
compared with only 40% of males among the broader Israeli Chareidi community,
as reported by the Van Leer Institute. Nonetheless, the recent unity deal
completed by the Netanyahu government with the Kadima party has as its centrepiece
the replacement of the Tal law, which has, until now, perpetuated the system of
exemptions. The Chareidi community is facing a huge challenge, as the political
will to revamp the system has finally been supported by large enough Knesset
support to make the leverage that the Religious parties such as Degel HaTorah
have had a thing of the past.
Sometimes, the cost
of speaking publicly about social ills in Chareidi society can be high. One
intellectual, a resident of the Chareidi community in Stamford Hill, UK, wrote about his
progressive loss of faith – in both God and his community’s leadership, in the
face of corruption, abuse and intolerance. His blog, called The Shaigetz -
Doing it Maai Vey, exposed these and other issues for all to see and read –
and comment on, a unique experience for some readers. By the time he stopped
posting regularly in March, 2008, the site had received over 500,000 page
views. He felt forced to quit, though, when his anonymity was threatened, and admitted
he still wanted his family to be a part of a community he no longer respected.
“The Shaigetz” left a
legacy in his last post, four points he feels that the Chareidi world have only
begun to address.
1.
According to the
anonymous blogger, materialism has changed the Chareidi world – as it has
changed all of western society - and many within it have forgotten the concept
of self sacrifice.
2.
To survive and
prosper, he feels that Chareidim must make themselves demonstrably useful to
society at large, as groups such as ZAKA, Yad Sarah and many others have done.
3.
The Shaigetz is
convinced that there is a vacuum of leadership in the Chareidi community. Torah
Sages may not address real, practical issues in part because they are not
getting or do not have all of the information from their support apparatus they
need to impart wisdom. They seem to have become even more insular, distant and
reactionary at a time when their followers are searching for critical answers.
4.
He feels that there
can be no hiding from the realities of abuse in Chareidi communities. (While
Shaigetz focuses on children, the same holds true for emotional, physical,
financial, and other abuses which exist in Chareidi communities as they do
anywhere else).
There is no doubt
that these and other issues have rocked the foundations of Chareidi communities
across the globe. Many in these communities will do as they have done in the
past, continuing to build up the many positive elements in their communities,
while studiously ignoring the growing problems. Others have taken to the tools
of modernity and have begun to address the problems they face in new ways. Still
others have left the fold, trying to find fulfillment and community in a
secular world they are ill equipped to engage and whose values seem alien.
Yet despite the
undeniable challenges, these communities still serve as a beacon of kindness
and righteousness in many respects. For example, despite the broad brush of
disdain with which ex-Chareidi author Deborah Feldman painted the Satmar Hasidic
community, especially its apparent relegation of women to a subservient,
compliant and submissive role, Satmar women have for many years organized and
run an incredible network of volunteers who deliver thousands of Kosher meals
to patients in New York area hospitals every day. Travelers around the world
will describe instant, unquestioning help and kindness, from providing a hot
meal to finding a local doctor, dispensed with a smile by local Chabad emissaries.
And who can forget the scenes of ten
years ago in Israel,
where Chareidi ZAKA volunteers provided the final, unrequitable kindness of
bringing the victims of terror attacks, Jews and Arabs alike, to a full and
respectful burial?
The truth is that this
growing and fundamentally good element of Jewish society will continue to be
the backbone of perpetuating Torah and its values to an increasingly troubled
world. The internet, like any mode of communication, presents its users, Chareidi
and non Chareidi alike, with the same challenges of discretion, honesty, and
morality that we faced in everyday life before it existed. With truth and self
reflection like that increasingly demonstrated within online communities,
healing, strengthening, and a new approach to new and old problems can and may
begin. Why, you may have wondered, did I
title this article with a Chinese word? It may bear suggesting that the
Chareidi community recognize the old adage that the Chinese word for crisis, weiji, is made up of two characters, one
meaning “danger” and the other often meaning “opportunity”. As they fit
together, one shouldn’t be missed because of fear of the other.
