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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hoA3xhc9M-8OwT6b-yjxC_DzJ8fQD93JN8IO0

JERUSALEM (AP) — In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.

In recent weeks, self-styled "modesty patrols" have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.

"These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community," said 38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed zealots. "If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it."

Many ultra-Orthodox Jews are dismayed by the violence, but the enforcers often enjoy quiet approval from rabbis eager to protect their own reputations as guardians of the faith, community members say. And while some welcome anything that keeps secular culture out of their cloistered world, others feel terrorized, knowing that the mere perception of impropriety could ruin their lives.
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According to the article the main troubles are in a town called Beit Shemesh.

Okay, this one goes out to all the Israeli Jews. Is this a wide spread problem or just a very small amount of people doing this? I mean I know the people who throw rocks at cars for driving on the sabbath but seriously? when did the Holy Inquisition start?

I really hate how the ultra-Orthodox can be studing Torah one moment and doing things like this the next. It's very sad to hear.

Ok maybe I shoulden't have added the 'the' in there.

They give Jews in general a bad name, and an even worse one to the orthodoxy. -.- I agree with you 100% Divash.. I wish I could give these people a gentle slap on the face and be like simmer down. -.-

they turned one of my friends away from being orthodoxy. So instead of keeping judaism they gave Judaism a bad taste in her mouth. She is really turned off now.

Yeah, but... to play Devil's Advocate.

I look at the motive, not to justify it, but to explain why not only roving gangs of orthodox Jews would militantly organize and crush, burn and destroy any perceived threat to their culture, either real or imagined, and why the Rabbis would not openly condemn such action.

It works like this.

For 5000 years Judaism has been rather an isolationist's religion. Our religion as a whole has a tenet of separating the sacred from the mundane, separating the Holy from everything else, separating the Chosen from the Goyim, separating the Jew from the Gentile.

However, Jews have to deal with modern society. It's not so easy to be an isolationist in a world where walls are being knocked down with the Internet, global communications and up to date real time info on what Hannah Montana is up to, transmitted into your personal cellphone.

It is easy to see that with sexual liberation, gay rights and marriage issues, abortion rights, Independence for women, and enforced multiculturalism taught in schools, you can postulate that Judaism as a whole will just kill itself trying to be what it has never been, accepting to outsiders.

Accepting change means melding the mundane and the sacred, letting one become the other and vice versa.

To the ultra-orthodoxy, who pride themselves on keeping old traditions alive and teaching the way, the proper way, the only way to be a Jew to the rest of their community. This prospect of change must be a terrifying aspect.

Look at some of our converting Jews, who decide to convert directly into the ultra-orthodoxy. To the orthodoxy they're not really Jewish until they say the orthodoxy decides they are. They are put on a level of scrutiny that is not normally found within those born into the religion. Even if you learn the ways of the Talmud, the Mishnah and can recite the Torah in Hebrew, and translate it and interpret it... you're still not Jewish. If a converting Jew happens to have a lifestyle that the rabbi frowns upon, for any reason. Then it's the back of the line for you, until you decide if you can give up your old lifestyle and live as a Jew to the rabbi's standards.

Even if a converting Jew marries a Jew, they're still not Jewish enough for the ultra orthodoxy, and their children will be considered half blooded Jews, or to borrow from Harry Potter, Mudbloods.

Why? because the rabbi doesn't want you to contaminate his sacred space with your outsiders ways.

However, sometimes you cannot keep change from happening. Urban sprawl and land development has pushed the houses further from the synagogues, making them not within walking distance. The world economy is constant and volatile, sometimes it's just not possible to turn off the world on friday night. That's not a small thing, that's a commandment being meddled with. And if a commandment can be meddled with then what cannot be changed to suit society?

Not long ago I wrote about "an Orange on the Seder Plate," representing change in Jewish society. Some people welcome change, some people are intolerant of change. Intolerance leads to hatred, and that's what leads to violence.

And that's why we're having another Kristallnacht in towns like Beit Shemesh and Acre. That's why converting Jews are being discouraged from joining our ranks. That's why it's all happening.

To all those on this board who are either converting Jews, or were born into it. If you identify yourself as a Jew and although you may not have the blessing of the Ultra Orthodoxy, I still consider you Jewish.

It's called practicing a religion, because no one ever gets it right.

PS : Google the news on Acre Israel... a mixed Jewish/Muslim community, that has been rioting since Kol Nidre.

you know you put a new outlook on it Lord Neuf ( stare like freakin always... stupid ambigious nature of mine stare )

I like how you put it, and at first I want to just go and give these people a hug, but then just as I am about to openly embrace these people I push them away. The Judaism they are teaching isn't the Judaism I love. This is taliban Jewish style.

My friend got yelled at by these people because she didn't cover her hair enough, (She had it all wrapped up but didn't wear a hat) This guy just started screaming at her, and that was when she turned her back on orthodoxy judaism. It's killing her because everything she once loved is now tainted by this man's one moment in her life. She can't be something which he represents. Every dream she ever had is now being washed away.

So no I can't rationalize their behavior no more than I can rationlize KKK burning crosses or Neo Nazis forming protests. I can not rationalize these peoples actions, because to do so, to me, would be to accept and rationalize every horrid act which we, as a people, have had to endure through all this time.


THOUGH on a good note, I do agree with Ultra Orthodoxy in a way, that you have to hold to the tradition and keep it as it was. I admire them for everything they do and I will be forever greatful to the ones in my life who would be labeled 'ultra orthodox', and I hope that they live long and healthy lives... they all already got the having-tons-of-kids part down. smile

So in the ends :hugs: to everybody. ^.^


mrgreen