Nehemia Shtrasler
Ha’aretz
Why do we tolerate the odious behavior of the ultra-Orthodox? asked Nehemia Shtrasler. Men from the Haredi community have been harassing women on buses and spitting at little girls for being “immodestly” dressed. When criticized for these sexist offenses, they parade their families in Auschwitz prison garb and shout “Nazi!” at police—to the disgust of the whole country. But it’s our own fault for giving in to their “blackmail.”
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The Haredim sponge off the rest of us, benefiting from huge state handouts as a reward for helping to keep the right-wing Likud party in power. Their schools get generous grants, even though they brainwash children into believing “that democracy is the evil regime” and “that studying math, English, and history is idolatry.” Worst of all, they teach that army service is worthy of contempt, “suited only to the secular donkey who is stupid enough to sacrifice his life for the homeland.”
It’s time to call them on their hypocrisy. If they despise us so much, they can stop taking our money. Israel should halt state subsidies to Haredi yeshivas and force the Haredim to join the army like everyone else. After all, “in no part of the Diaspora, neither in Poland nor in Morocco, did Jews even dream of living as parasites at the public’s expense.”
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