Dear readers,
The youtube clip that rabbi gideon brings at the end of his post is extremely worrying for anyone who cares about the future of the 'dati leumi' community-which was supposed to be the bridge between the secular and ultra-orthodox sects in israeli society.
The boys demonstrating in the clip are wearing normal sized kippot serugot and not the oversized/very large ones worn by youth who associate themselves with the far right wing/ the youth from the hilltops.
rabbi gideon rightly has brought this horrific scene to the attention of jewish educators.
However, i would point out the following points:
1) These boys demontrating are representing the communities they are coming from-their rabbanim in their shuls/ yishuvim/communities and schools-the problem is with the 'role models' who are 'educating' and influencing them-the root of the problem is with their 'leadership'-when you hear the way some right wing dati leumi rabbanim talk about arabs, it is hardly surprising their talmidim behave in such a way.
2) Ofcourse one cannot generalise-i was at the kotel on yom yerushalayim with the school i work at- a regular, dati leumi yeshiva high school, and the boys did not run riot in the arab market on their way to the kotel and danced very nicely in the plaza of the kotel, as did other yeshivot at the same time-inviting other people in the plaza area of the kotel to join them dancing-including secular jews without kippot, non-jewish tourists etc..-it was a lovely, moving scene.
3) From my personal experiences in yeshiva high schools in israel-there is a fundamental problem that the mechanchim-form tutors, are the boys ramim (the boys rabbis-gemara an tenach teachers), this means that the role models the boys have-their mechanchim, are rabbis who usually have no proper secular education-they don't have real university degrees from good israeli universities and have never really left the yeshiva world and as a result the boys take on the narrow minded and often right wing religious and political views of their mechanchim.
4) In every israeli sect/ ideology there are extremes- that reflects the nature of the people here and the passion they have for their beliefs.When i see the 'women in black' demonstrating by the prima kings hotel in jerusalem-i
find them equally provocative.
So i agree with rabbi gideon,that these pictures are very worrying, especially as the views of these boys reflects the views of their rabbaim in their yeshivot and communities, but i am not sure if one can generalise and say this youtube clip reflects the dati leumi commmunity at large.
Benjy
