#ultra-Orthodox Jews

[xtruss]

Argument: Israel’s Protesters Refuse To Be Donkeys

An entire generation is taking to the streets to resist what they see as the rise of a corrupt theocracy.

— By Gitit Ginat | Foreign Policy | July 24th, 2023

Demonstrators block a highway during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial reform plan in Tel Aviv on July 24. Jack Guez/AFP Via Getty Images

Kaplan Street is one of the main thoroughfares leading into and out of Tel Aviv. It was built along the outline of a German Templar colony, whose pro-Nazi descendants were expelled from British Mandate Palestine during World War II. During the 1960s and 70s, it was filled with Israeli governmental and cultural institutions, such as the Jewish Agency and the Israel Journalists Association. These days, Kaplan is the street where, every Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Israelis protest the attempted judicial coup led by the coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Contrary to the common version in the global press, the protesters are not only the scions of the old, privileged establishment. Those gathering on Kaplan are a big tent, including both the financially comfortable and the struggling. While some of the protest movement leaders are military elites or tech moguls, many others are not. The most vulnerable of them are set to become the main casualties of Netanyahu’s judicial coup. That’s because their children, who study in the public school system, may witness its slow collapse due to funds being redirected to the religious and ultra-Orthodox institutions.

Their kids, who—unlike most ultra-Orthodox Jews—serve a full term in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), will sit idle at home because in Israel, there is no public transport on the Sabbath. Single mothers will have their state support reduced in favor of ultra-Orthodox families with multiple children. People who live in peripheral areas will have to struggle against an ultra-Orthodox takeover of their towns. The first step will be a political takeover of the municipalities, followed by massive benefits to the ultra-Orthodox population. According to reports, this process is already happening in cities such as Tiberias, Safed, Arad, and Mitzpe Ramon.

They are Jews, Palestinians, men, women, native Israelis, and immigrants who arrived from developing countries via the Law of Return. The common denominator for all of them is the struggle against turning into a so-called donkey.

In Jewish tradition, the Messiah’s Donkey refers to the donkey upon which the Messiah will arrive at the end of days. In Israel, the phrase refers to the doctrine ascribed to the teachings of Abraham Isaac Kook: The secular Jews, who represent the material world, are an instrument in the hands of God whose purpose was to establish the state of Israel and begin the process of redemption. Upon Israel’s establishment, the secular Jews would be required to step aside and allow the religious to govern the state.

Kook, who immigrated to Ottoman Palestine from what is now Latvia in 1904, is considered one of the spiritual fathers of religious Zionism. According to him, the Zionist enterprise was a new historical development of the era of redemption. Nevertheless, Kook was terrified of secularism. He believed that secular education had “sinned greatly against the spirit of Israel” and represented “the beginning of the decay and the basis of all bad assimilation.” Kook sought to settle the contradiction. The secular Zionists, he wrote, are allowed to be the bricks of the building of redemption, “but when the secret of the righteous is to be revealed,” it would be easy to differentiate “between God’s servants and those who are not.”

“Ben-Gurion’s compromises with ultra-Orthodox parties turned out to be a disaster for secular Israelis.”

Unlike Kook, Israel’s founder David Ben-Gurion was an atheist. He came from a religious background and respected Jewish heritage. At the end of the 1950s, a Bible study group gathered in his house, and the prophets were his favorite biblical characters. Nevertheless, Ben-Gurion did not attend synagogue and used to travel on the Sabbath. He made compromises with ultra-Orthodox parties only because of political constraints. It turned out to be a disaster for secular Israelis.

Kook’s prediction is about to come true, with one difference: Israel will not be a theocracy. It will be a country using religious law to allow profound corruption. In the past six months, there have been many reports on improper political appointments within the Likud party and its religious partners. Some of the coalition members have past criminal convictions, and there are reports of improper past conduct by others. And the country’s transformation into a corrupt religious state won’t only strengthen its ideological rivals—Israel is also a potential international drug trade route; such a shift may boost organized crime.

Over the next decade, the government plans to increase the budget of ultra-Orthodox educational institutions by 40 percent. This will make Israel the first country in the developed world that incentivizes schools that barely teach core subjects such as math, science, and English. The governmental supervision of ultra-Orthodox schools is weak, leaving vague information available about their curriculum. But according to sources in the education ministry, these schools teach primarily religious topics: the Talmud, Mishna and Torah.

English, math, and even Hebrew are studied at an elementary level. In addition, more than $600 million of the coalition budget will be dedicated to empowering Jewish identity among students in the state education system, IDF soldiers, university students, and residents of secular and liberal cities. Aryeh Deri, the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a convicted tax evader and one of the most powerful politicians in the coalition, plans a series of laws that might allow the ultra-Orthodox to take over secular towns politically.

Meanwhile, secular Israelis will pay six times more in taxes than the ultra-Orthodox, who constitute only 8 percent of the Israeli workforce. Their children will be obligated, as they are today, to serve a full term in the army (three years for men and two for women), while so-called national-religious men can serve in the army for a reduced term and most ultra-Orthodox are exempt.

Despite these facts, since the country’s founding, the secular population has been deprived of some basic liberties. This is because Israel has never created a constitution separating church and state. As a result, among other things, the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate holds a monopoly on marriage, which forces many secular Israelis to get married in other countries, or even online. Israel has no formal public transportation on Saturdays, which strands the millions of residents who don’t own a car.

“The liberals are beginning to realize that they will be used as the donkey up to the moment Israel is subjected to religious law,” said Yair Nehorai, a lawyer and the author of The Third Revolution, a book documenting the teachings of the rabbinic mentors of the messianic movement. “But this realization,” he noted, “is too difficult.”

“They will no longer be the majority in the country within a few decades, and they will have to say: This is not my country,” Nehorai said.

Israeli security forces use a water cannon to disperse demonstrators blocking the entrance of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem on July 24. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

The idea of dividing Israel into cantons, which for years has been received with mockery due to the country’s small size and security challenges, has been gaining more and more traction over the past few months, and liberals are angrily calling to separate “Israel” from “Judea.” For some, Judea means the occupied territories. For others, Judea represents all ultra-Orthodox and messianic Jews, whether they live in Bnei Brak (in Israel proper) or Hebron (in the West Bank).

Sagi Elbaz, the author of Emergency Exit: From Tribalism to Federation, the Road to Healing Israeli Society, told me that these cantons will begin with the liberal Israeli cities. “A secular rebellion manifested itself, for example, when the municipalities of Tel Aviv and several other liberal cities launched a network of bus routes that operate on the Sabbath,” he explained.

Until recently, Kaplan Street appeared to welcome protesters of all stripes. Next to No. 8, where the offices of the tech company Fiverr are located, CEO Micha Kaufman hands out free water bottles. Not far from Kaplan 17-19 stand the protesters of the “Anti-Occupation Bloc,” forcing passers-by to acknowledge the elephant in the room with signs such as “No Democracy with Occupation.” Kaplan 22 looks like the mother base of “Women Building an Alternative,” whose photos dressed as handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel A Handmaid’s Tale have gained worldwide publicity. Next to them are the members of “The Pink Front,” who have ironically swapped the Israeli blue-and-white flag for a pink-and-white one.

At the end of Kaplan and on the adjacent Namir Street, you can find the unironic blue-and-white. And khaki. This is the center of activity for “Brothers in Arms—Warriors Journeying to Save Democracy,” a grassroots umbrella organization that includes several reservist groups.

Israeli researchers have often noted that, compared to developed Western countries, Israel struggles with establishing a free and open civil society, as the Israelis are attached at the hip to their army. Despite this, the veterans demonstrating on Kaplan are not all the same: Some served in the special forces. Others spent three unremarkable years, mostly killing time. Some veterans abused their power over the Palestinians. Others were discharged with physical and mental scars.

Some believe that serving in the occupied territories is a critical security goal. Others feel that they were forced to go there, but never came out in public to say so. Some of them committed acts of heroism. A few others proved their heroism by refusing to commit acts that they have deemed immoral.

“This is the Most Irresponsible Government in the History of Israel.”

Brothers in Arms, the embodiment of the liberal side of the “People’s Army,” has the most leverage of any group in the Israeli protest movement. Now, with the coalition resuming its legislative blitz, special forces veterans have declared that hundreds of them will stop volunteering for reserve duty. The number of objectors is rising. Former directors of special intelligence operations have warned that units across the IDF, the Shin Bet and Mossad are angry and in a state of unrest.

Reserve Col. Ronen Koehler, one of the Brothers in Arms coordinators, told Foreign Policy that until mid-March, “we were just another activist group.” But in the time since, “we received a flood of phone calls from reservists who were expecting us to tell them what to do about their service.” There were questions from high-ranking commanders who have an in-depth understanding of Israel’s strategic infrastructure: What if you are ordered to shoot in a way you were never ordered to before, and you are experienced enough to know that you shouldn’t do it? What happens if a submarine crew is not sure that the person who sent them to sea is trustworthy?

“The flood of phone calls made us realize that something bigger than our protest activities was happening here,” said Koehler, who served as a submarine captain and is a former vice president at Checkpoint, a U.S.-Israeli hardware and software products company.

The government reached the same realization. A secret report that was submitted to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant caused a temporary halt of the judicial coup at the end of February, but it has now resumed with the passage of a law limiting judicial review on Monday—sparking even larger protests.

As successful as the protests have been, liberal civil society and the army veterans struggle to see eye to eye. For various reasons, some practical (to attract right-wing voters) and some ideological, the occupation is barely mentioned in speeches along the Kaplan encampment, and the number of Palestinian-Israelis joining the protests is low.

“The law could grant unlimited power to white-collar criminals, members of organized crime families, cocaine addicts, or messianic fundamentalists.”

Recently, the Anti-Occupation Bloc, which usually demonstrates far from the main stage, decided to pass through the main avenue. The protesters carried a massive sign reading: “We Must Resist Settler Terror.” Some of the Brothers in Arms tried to forcefully remove the sign. After a time, they published a half-hearted apology, and a few days later, they met with Anti-Occupation Bloc representatives to settle matters peacefully.

Some protest participants hate each other, while others love each other. Some are caught in love-hate relationships. “We should be glad about the greatest achievement we got: the creation of a new kind of centrist identity,” Koehler said. “This center includes various shades, from the capitalist, hawkish right that believed in Netanyahu so far but not anymore, through the liberal center and up to the social-democratic left.”

“The protest doesn’t have intrinsic content yet,” Nehorai admitted. “But when a serving coalition is acting in a frenzy, it makes us feel, every minute of every day, that we are connected. The liberal camp is a country that is just being formed.”

All Israelis are facing legislation that will grant unlimited power to anyone the government chooses; they could be white-collar criminals, rehabilitated members of organized crime families, cocaine addicts, or messianic fundamentalists.

A growing number of Israeli liberals, especially younger ones, will soon start negotiating the cargo loaded on their backs, the identity of the hand holding the reins, and the direction of travel. And ultimately, they will refuse to continue being used as donkeys.

— Gitit Ginat is a Freelance Journalist and a former writer for Haaretz.

[trendynewsnow]

Netanyahu Dismisses Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Amidst Wartime Strategy Shift

Netanyahu Dismisses Defense Minister, Shifting Israel’s Wartime Strategy In a significant political move, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, a decision analysts believe will allow Netanyahu to more easily dictate the country’s wartime policies. This dismissal, however, is not without its complexities and potential repercussions. Gallant, known…

[munaeem]

Leaving thevultra-orthodox - Jews seeking a new life in Germany

The journey of self-discovery and transformation can lead individuals to make bold choices that challenge the expectations of their community and upbringing. In recent years, an increasing number of ultra-Orthodox Jews have chosen to leave their strict religious communities in search of a different life in Germany. This phenomenon sheds light on the complex dynamics of personal freedom, cultural…

[yz]

Purim. Bnei Brak. March 2023.

[nando161mando]

▶️ Israeli police brutally assaulted a group of Haredi ultra-Orthodox Jews who were protesting against the military draft.

[rosalesbeausderholle]

Friend, your religion is the reason why LGBT Muslims are oppressed in Muslim-majority countries. It's not 'islamophobia', religion, all religions, MUST be criticized and torn apart, it's anti-arab racism that's the problem.

[dutifullyjovialstarfish]

No Trust / No Peace

6.—“No state at war with another shall countenance such modes of hostility as would make mutual confidence impossible in a subsequent state of peace: such are the employment of assassins (percussores) or of poisoners (venefici), breaches of capitulation,

 6.—“No state at war with another shall countenance such modes of hostility as would make mutual confidence impossible in a subsequent state of peace: such are the employment of assassins (percussores) or of poisoners (venefici), breaches of capitulation, the instigating and making use of treachery (perduellio) in the hostile state.” Kant, Perpetual Peace, Preliminary Articles Only the weapons…

[stabbedthrutheeye]

ptsd is like playing fucking whack a mole with your subconscious. every time i think i have all my trauma shit sorted some new trigger pops up and throws my shit off completely

[storiesfromgaza]

Today, during a police raid to take down Palestinian flags in the anti-Zionist Jewish neighborhood, Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, the Israeli policemen were recorded attacking residents and knocking residents down on the road, hitting, and punching them in the face. Police violence against ultra-Orthodox Jews continues constantly, Zionists constantly attack Jews. The only crime of these Jews is that they stand with the Palestinian people and are against Zionism.

Do you see their savagery and their crimes against their own people?! https://www.tumblr.com/storiesfromgaza/732757191726071808/israeli-soldiers-heartlessly-ejected-a-disabled?source=share

Also, watch this video of Israeli soldiers after they fired upon a teenage girl, leaving her wounded and abandoned by the side of the road. They even prevented anyone from aiding her, and when a disabled man in a wheelchair couldn't bear it any longer and rushed to help her, one of the soldiers ejected him from his wheelchair with utmost brutality.

Watch and share it to comprehend what kind of monsters these people are, as these are the things that Western media will never show you. Because they want you to always dwell in darkness.

[tamamita]

I've been hearing a lot of Zionists claim that Neturei Karta is an anti-lgbtq group (see pink-washing, homonationalism), and while it's obvious, considering they're well... Ultra-orthodox Jews, it doesn't matter, because even if we consider the most progressive of Jewish organizations, like Jewish voices for peace, they're still being accused of being self-hating Jews or out-right defamed as non-Jews, so Zionists don't really discriminate between Anti-Zionist Jews. As long as you're a Jewish person who is against the settler state, they'll look consider you their enemy.

Lastly, who cares what a Zionist has to say, they support a genocide.

[jellybeanium124]

something I don't think goyim realize is that the vast, vast majority of jews, at least in my circles (reform plus some conservative american) self id as zionists. I know there are groups that are antizonist, the ultra-orthodox communities in new york for example, but by and large, if you meet a jew or know a jew, especially an older one, they are a zionist. this is why "antizionism not antisemitism" doesn't work. because almost all jews are zionists. in that they believe israel should exist, not that all of its actions are great (because I have to explain that every time I post about this bc goyim have defined "zionist" as "evil person" and "zionism" as "evil beliefs"). so if you hate all zionists and want all zionists to die and think all zionists are evil, congrats! you hate almost every jew, want almost every jew to die, and think almost every jew is evil. and if you think the vast majority of an ethnic minority deserve to die you're a bigot against them. you can't separate jews and zionists because most jews are zionists. you are convincing yourself that there's two separate independent groups here when by and large there's massive overlap. are you beginning to understand the problem?? please??

[nando161mando]

"The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leftists in Israel who aren't afraid to admit it"

[zvaigzdelasas]

Of course, not all West Bank settlers are ultranationalists who believe that living in the Land of the Bible is a religious edict. Most settlers, in fact, including hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, move there seeking affordable housing. 

"don't blame me for settling your land - have you seen rental prices these days?"

[mariacallous]

American Jewish food is most typically defined as pastrami sandwiches, chocolate babka, or bagels and lox. But I am here to argue that the greatest American Jewish food may actually be the humble hot dog. No dish better embodies the totality of the American Jewish experience.

What’s that you say? You didn’t know that hot dogs were a Jewish food? Well, that’s part of the story, too.

Sausages of many varieties have existed since antiquity. The closest relatives of the hot dog are the frankfurter and the wiener, both American terms based on their cities of origin (Frankfurt and Vienna respectively). So what differentiates a hot dog from other sausages? The story begins in 19th century New York, with two German-Jewish immigrants.

In 1870, Charles Feltman sold Frankfurt-style pork-and-beef sausages out of a pushcart in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Sausages not being the neatest street food, Feltman inserted them into soft buns. This innovative sausage/bun combo grew to be known as a hot dog (though Feltman called them Coney Island Red Hots).

Two years later, Isaac Gellis opened a kosher butcher shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He soon began selling all-beef versions of German-style sausages. Beef hot dogs grew into an all-purpose replacement for pork products in kosher homes, leading to such classic dishes as Franks & Beans or split pea soup with hot dogs. Though unknown whether Gellis was the originator of this important shift, he certainly became one of the most successful purveyors.

Like American Jews, the hot dog was an immigrant itself that quickly changed and adapted to life in the U.S. As American Jewry further integrated into society, the hot dog followed.

In 1916, Polish-Jewish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened a hotdog stand to compete with Charles Feltman, his former employer. Feltman’s had grown into a large sit-down restaurant, and Handwerker charged half the price by making his eatery a “grab joint.” (The term fast food hadn’t yet been invented, but it was arguably Handwerker who created that ultra-American culinary institution.)

Nathan’s Famous conquered the hot dog world. Like so many of his American Jewish contemporaries, Handwerker succeeded via entrepreneurship and hard work. His innovative marketing stunts included hiring people to eat his hot dogs while dressed as doctors, overcoming public fears about low-quality ingredients. While his all-beef dogs were not made with kosher meat, he called them “kosher-style,” thus underscoring that they contained no horse meat. Gross.

The “kosher-style” moniker was another American invention. American Jewish history, in part, is the story of a secular populace that embraced Jewish culture while rejecting traditional religious practices. All-beef hotdogs with Ashkenazi-style spicing, yet made from meat that was not traditionally slaughtered or “kosher”, sum up the new Judaism of Handwerker and his contemporaries.

Furthermore, American Jewry came of age alongside the industrial food industry. The hot dog also highlights the explosive growth of the kosher supervision industry (“industrial kashrut”).

Hebrew National began producing hot dogs in 1905. Their production methods met higher standards than were required by law, leading to their famous advertising slogan, “We Answer to a Higher Authority.”

While the majority of Americans may be surprised to hear this, Hebrew National’s self-supervised kosher-ness was not actually accepted by more stringent Orthodox and even Conservative Jews at the time. But non-Jews, believing kosher dogs were inherently better, became the company’s primary market. Eventually, Hebrew National received the more established Triangle-K kashrut supervision, convincing the Conservative Movement to accept their products. Most Orthodox Jews, however, still don’t accept these hot dogs as kosher.

But over the last quarter of the 20th century in America, the Orthodox community has gained prominence and their opinions, and food preferences, hold more weight in the food industry.

The community’s stricter kashrut demands and sizable purchasing power created a viable market, and glatt kosher hot dogs hit the scene. Abeles & Heymann, in business since 1954, was purchased in 1997 by current owner Seth Leavitt. Meeting the demands of the Orthodox community’s increasingly sophisticated palate, their hot dogs are gluten-free with no filler. Recently, they’ve begun producing a line of uncured sausages, and the first glatt hot dogs using collagen casing.

Glatt kosher dogs can now be purchased in nearly thirty different sports arenas and stadiums. American Jews have successfully integrated into their society more than any other in history. So too, the hot dog has transcended its humble New York Jewish immigrant roots to enter the pantheon of true American icons. So when you bite into your hot dog this summer, you are really getting a bite of American Jewish history, and the great American Jewish food.

[rotzaprachim]

it’s actually incredibly hard to talk about Jewish religious extremism beyond tzionus you’re met with the fact that half the population thinks Jews are basically just inherently evil parasitic bad actors and ultra orthodox people especially are stupid and/or evil for the crime of Looking Different and then the other half believes that ultra orthodoxy couldn’t possibly do anything problematic or religiously extreme cause hey look at least (some) of them aren’t Zionist!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

A List of "Beautiful" Yiddish Words & Phrases

for your next poem/story

A mensch tracht un Got lacht - man plans and God laughs

Az der soyne falt, tor men zich nit freyen, ober me heybt im nit oyf! When your enemy falls, you shouldn’t gloat, but you don’t have to pick him up either!

Az Got zol voynen af der erd, voltn im di mentschen di fenster oysgeshlogn! If God lived on earth, people would break His windows!

Az ich vel zayn vi er, ver vet zayn vi ich? If I’m going to be like him, who will be like me?

Choshuv - important; notable

Daven - to pray

Di kats hot lib fish, nor zi vil di fis nit ayn-netsn - the cat loves fish, but doesn’t want to get her feet wet

Di liebe is zees, nor zi iz gut mit broyt - love is good, but it’s good with bread

Fargin - to be glad for another person’s success or happiness

Gezunterheit - with health

Heymish - homey, down to earth

Ich hob dich azoi lib, az ich volt dir mayn toit nit gezshalevit - I love you so much I would not even begrudge you my death

Kholem - dream

Kvell - to swoon with happiness and pride

Mensch - a good person

Mishpocheh - (mishpokhe, mishpucha) family, or someone who is "like family"

Schmaltzy - overly emotional or sentimental

Seichel - common sense

Sheifale - lamb

Shmutz - a little dirt or something messy, generally on your face

Shpilkes - impatience, restlessness

Spiel - a generally long story or speech

Vartn - waiting

Verklempt - feeling overwhelmed with emotions

Zeeskeit - sweetness

Yiddish:

Yiddish is about 1,000 years old, and was once the international language of Ashkenazi Jews (the Diaspora Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and their descendants). 

The language is mostly German, but is fused with words from Hebrew, Aramaic and many other languages from the places where Jews have lived or fled to. It’s sort of a melting pot of languages, in a way. Traditionally, It’s written in the Hebrew alphabet.

At its height less than a century ago, Yiddish was spoken and / or understood by an estimated 13 million of the world's 18 million Jews, with many speaking Yiddish as their primary language. But, due to the Holocaust and other atrocities, most Yiddish speakers didn’t survive, and the language almost died.

Aside from Hasidic and Ultra-Orthodox Jews who often speak Yiddish as their primary language, in insular communities, most people today know only a few Yiddish words. However, many young Jews have recently become interested in getting back in touch with their heritage through Yiddish.

Yiddish is a language full of humor and irony, expressing subtle distinctions of human character that other cultures don’t recognize or put into words. It’s a language that expresses our strengths and weaknesses; our hopes, fears and longings. Many of these terms have found their way into English, because there is no English word that can convey the depth and precision of meaning that many Yiddish words can.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ⚜ More: Word Lists

If any of these words make their way into your next poem/story, please tag me, or send me a link. I would love to read them!