Monday, January 21, 2008

A call to action

I'm waiting for a statement from the Orthodox Jew who was brutally attacked by zealots yesterday in Ramot Bet Shemesh. I hope to have it soon.

In the meantime, if you are offended as I am about the ongoing Orthodox Jew-on-Orthodox Jew violence in that city please take twenty seconds today to do something about it. My suggestions:

1 - Write the Haredi Members of Knesset and tell them they are standing by while a chilul hashem of monsterous proportions is being carried out by men who dress like them and look them. Tell them the Orthodox Jewish world is watching and waiting for one of them to stand up for justice. You can start with MK Moshe Gafni [mgafni@knesset.gov.il] MK Meir Porush [mporush@knesset.gov.il] and MK Yaakov Litzman [litzman@knesset.gov.il]

2 - Contact Yitzchak "beyond the pale" Alderstan via the comment section at his blog and ask him if labels like  "beyond the pale" are reserved for Nosson Slifkin, or if maybe he can find the energy/guts to criticize the barbarians of RBS as powerfully as he's criticized woman prayer groups.

3 - Contact Avi Shafron at Aggudah and ask him to please summon some outrage. His ire and indignation are never in short supply when a Reform Jew says something positive about homosexuals. Ask him why his voice has vanished now that Orthodox Jews like you and me are under attack in Ramot Bet Shemesh. While you're at it contact the editor of YeshivaWorld (via the blog) and ask him to stop being such an insufferable coward.

4 - Contact Yanky Horowitz via the comment section on his blog, and tell him you want this issue front and center, starting now. We can back burner the at-risk teens for a few days. In fact, the behavior of these haredi Jews in Ramot Bet Shemesh - specifically their attacks on other Orthodox Jews - are driving people away from the religion of our  ancestors just as surely as badly trained HS teachers are.

5 - Call Kupat Hair and tell them that you're cutting them off - no more donations, period - until they affirm that our contributions are not being used to support the hooligans of RBS.

6 - Call Moshe Friedman 972-57-317-7844 and tell him you've seen his name and words attached to almost every RBS story published in an Israeli paper. Tell him he appears to be a spokesman for the community. Tell him you want an unequivocal denouncement of the attacks, and if it isn't immediately forthcoming tell him he is neither a man nor a Jew. 

7 - Put this post on your own blogs.

Its time to say enough. Its time to push back. The world, or at least the Orthodox Jewish world, is watching.

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