An open letter against religiously motivated violence, originally signed and distributed in September by 14 national-religious and chareidi-leumi rabbis of the Ramat Bet Shemesh Alef neighborhood of Bet Shemesh, came to prominence again in Israel last week, following a widely distributed epistle by local communal leader Rabbi Chaim Malinowitz in which the public and “official” condemnation of the actions of the Sicarii extremists of Jerusalem and Bet Shemesh was called into question as a viable tactic.
Rabbi Malinowitz’s letter, titled “Sucker Punched” and initially sent only to members of the rabbi’s Beit Tefilla synagogue, explained, in Rabbi Malinowitz’s view, “how the Chareidi community walked right into the trap set for it [by the media], and how well-meaning people enabled that to happen.”
Although the rabbi opened his 13-page essay with the caveat that it was “written for members of BTYA” and wrote that “its purpose is not to convince anyone that what I am writing is correct, nor is it meant to change anyone’s mind,” it was soon posted on the synagogue’s website, unleashing a storm of criticism among members of the national-religious community.
The essay served as a follow-up and clarification of the rabbi’s e‑mail correspondence with a local resident which was published online with Rabbi Malinowitz’s permission in September.
In the e‑mail exchange, Rabbi Malinowitz explains that he “will not sign the [aforementioned] petition, because I will not be meshtatef pe’ula [collaborate] with people that I hold have a definite anti-chareidi agenda here, loving every minute of this, and painting all ‘chareidim’ with the same brush.”
“To my mind,” he writes, “this is like demanding that every Italian condemn bank robbery after the Mafia pulls off a job. That every Russian condemn murder after the Russian Mafia has someone killed. That every Jew condemn financial fraud after Bernard Madoff was arrested. That every white condemn the KKK after they burn a cross on a black’s lawn.”
Calling the extremists “hired . . . kooks,” the rabbi stated that “by ‘officially’ condemning what is condemned by any sane person, I am playing their game. And so I will not.”
“There is no greater polarization of the Jewish people that can be perpetrated than to demand that any chareidi must show that they do not approve of these hired kooks’ actions. So much for the ‘achdut’ people.”
While some members of Malinowitz’s congregation did rally in support of the Orot girls, they did so without his official endorsement. Such actions indicate that not all ultra-Orthodox residents agree with Malinowitz’s assessment of the situation. One member of the ultra-Orthodox community, writing anonymously to protect her identity, noted that she “went to the first organized protest and, apart from the crazies on the other side of the fence, I felt I was the only chareidi representative there (apart from my husband). My [national-religious] friends were surprised but happy to see me, but where was everyone else? What the moderate/American/working chareidim of this city need to understand is that we cannot expect others to stand up for us when it’s our turn to be challenged. Magen Avot [a local American ultra-Orthodox school] is in RBS Bet. The boys’ and girls’ schools are right next door. The majority of students travel in from Alef. What’s to stop the extremists going after this large, well-equipped, and convenient school building? We have to decide what kind of city we want to live in.”
Following the initial revelation of these e‑mails in the mainstream media through an article in the Jerusalem Post, one Bet Shemesh resident close to Malinowitz accosted this correspondent, who authored the Jerusalem Post article, in a local synagogue and yelled the epithet “heretic” loudly in the middle of prayer services.
Further explaining his views in the e‑mail exchange, Malinowitz, who has declined comment on several occasions prior to the publication of his letter, wrote in “Sucker Punched” that the national-religious faction led by local political and social activist Rabbi Dov Lipman has taken advantage of the trauma suffered by the girls of the embattled Orot Banot school more than the extremists themselves.
Rabbi Malinowitz explained that he believed the media to be waiting for an opportunity to defame the ultra-Orthodox community, and that by condemning the violence, he would be admitting to the wider public that he was connected in some way to the extremist community, something he has no interest in doing.
Rabbi Malinowitz, after describing his views on the media’s efforts to besmirch the ultra-Orthodox community, further said, “Let us say that instead of spitting at the girl the fellow would have violated her. And I would have been asked to condemn his actions. Obviously, I would have thrown the person making the request out of my house. Well, when asked to condemn the kooks, the thugs, I did the equivalent—I said, ‘Sorry, I am not playing the game.’ And if I [had] publicly condemned them, as I was asked to do, davka as a chareidi rabbi, I would have fallen into the trap I just described, and would have been guilty of abetting all I’ve described.”
Malinowitz’s refusal to condemn the violence has many locals scratching their heads, especially in light of the condemnations issued by such rabbis as former Sephardic Chief Rabbi R’ Ovadia Yosef and the leadership of Agudath Israel of America.
Rabbi Lipman, who heads the Committee to Save Bet Shemesh and has led the campaign, both in and out of the media, to publicize the actions of the extremists in a bid to bring about a stronger police response, wrote his own open letter in response.
In the letter, published on the website “Life In Israel,” Lipman countered that Malinowitz “clearly has no concept of the trauma little girls experience when being called ‘prutza’ and ‘shiktza’ and when they are spat at. Maybe children who are familiar with a world where violence and abuse are a part of life would be able to just move on, but in the Margolese home, the children are taught to respect other people and never raise a voice or condemn the actions of others. Therefore, it is very traumatic when a child in that type of home is exposed to this type of behavior.”
“This rabbi never even came to the school to see, firsthand, what was happening. He probably subscribes to the camp that it is all an exaggeration. Isn’t there a concept that one cannot really have an opinion about something without actually experiencing it? The nerve to make light of what many girls, not just Naama, experienced without actually seeing it in person!”
Speaking with the Five Towns Jewish Times, Lipman explained that he has spoken with several chassidic and Lithuanian chareidi leaders, who have expressed their fear to be the first to sign a petition, due to threats of violence against their persons. “There is definitely a level of fear.” One rabbi said that if there was [a letter condemning violence] signed by a few others he would definitely consider it, says Lipman. “I think that a huge opportunity has been lost to unify the entire city against what is happening.”
The extremism, and condemnation of it, seems to have spread to the more American Ramat Bet Shemesh Alef from the chassidic Ramat Bet Shemesh Bet as well. Passing by a local yeshiva ketanah, Alisa Coleman, a national-religious resident, reported being called a “shiksa” by a student this week. However, unlike in Bet, the rabbis immediately stopped the child and apologized on his behalf and dressed down the student in the harshest terms.
“I had a bit of faith restored in me today,” said Coleman.
The dichotomy between the private statements and public actions of local rabbis has angered many religious Zionists such as Coleman, who have decried what they see as a conspiracy of silence.
However, Rabbi Yaakov Haber, an American rabbi and one of those who was seen as keeping silent during much of the period of religious tensions, warned that despite not condemning the violence publicly and standing shoulder to shoulder with the residents of the Sheinfeld neighborhood who have borne the brunt of the violence of the extremists, he and other rabbis have been involved in a great deal of behind-the-scenes efforts to mitigate the violence.
Dialogue, meetings, and negotiations have been attempted, Rabbi Haber told the Five Towns Jewish Times, and not everything being done can be publicly acknowledged. Rabbi Haber recently held a town-hall meeting for local residents to offer suggestions for resolving the conflict.