A Deepening Divide Between Haredim and the Jewish community

by Daniel E. Levenson, ALM

June 16, 2010

One of the things that really stood out when I was living in Jerusalem last year was the degree to which the Hardei, or ultra-Orthodox, community seems to be separate from other Jews and the rest of Israeli society. We see traces of this here in the United States as well, as ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities are often relatively closed-off, keeping them separate not only from the rest of American society, but from other Jews as well. While there have always been differences, regardless of where Jews have lived, in terms of degree and manner of observance, I can’t help but feel that in the last 15-20 years these differences are becoming more prominent, and consequently, more problematic.

I can understand wanting to have shuls, schools and communities that reflect the needs and desires of a particular Jewish community, but I worry at times that there is a growing divide between the Haredim and the rest of world Jewry, one that has the potential to do real damage to all Jews.  In the United States this may manifest in the relatively benign form of totally separate shuls or schools, but in Israel I have seen the uglier side of this disconnect. One Shabbat afternoon I witnessed a violent clash between a group of Haredim and the Jerusalem Police over the opening of a municipal parking lot on a Saturday, and I have seen vile and intolerant graffiti, presumably written by a very religious Jew, who felt the need to tell the rest of the world that Reform Jews are actually “goyim.”

This kind of intolerance has the potential to go beyond rhetoric and shoving matches with police officers (which is bad enough) to turning into genuine hatred for other Jews who express and connect to Judaism in different ways. The real tipping point is when the ultra-Orthodox decide that other Jews are so different from themselves that they are no longer to willing engage in any dialogue about Jewish life, culture and tradition. At this point, the conversation between Haredim and other Jews may stop altogether, which would be genuinely tragic, in my opinion.

As the publisher of the New Vilna Review, I find news that this divide is growing to be particularly troubling, given that a major goal of the publication is to foster dialogue and understanding within the Jewish community across denominational, political and geographic lines. It seems like there are constant examples in the press about the ways that the Haredim are clashing with the Israeli government, and today was no exception, as I read on the Haaretz website about an ongoing dispute over a government order to desegregate an ultra-Orthodox girls school in the West Bank, which has been teaching Jewish children of Sephardic and Ashkenazi ancestry in separate classrooms. According to the article by Liel Kyzer, Jonathan Lis and Yair Ettinger in Haaretz, a protest planned by a large group of parents is apparently set to take place in Jerusalem, and the same piece quoted a Haredi MK who said  "We, the ultra-Orthodox community, will not respect rulings, not of lower courts and not of the High Court, that contradict the Torah."

As a Jew whole loves the Torah, the State of Israel and has respect for the rule of law, I find these reports very troubling.  The refusal by parents to follow a court order which does not infringe on their right to educate their children in a religious environment, but does ask that they respect the laws of the State of Israel and do what is morally right as well, is yet another sign that the ultra-Orthodox see themselves as a group set apart from the rest of Israeli society and other Jews. Such an attitude threatens not only the unity of the Jewish people, but in my opinion limits the depth and breadth of conversations we can and should have about what it means to be a Jew in the modern world today,  regardless of where we live or how we worship.

Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2010.