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40
Friday, July 11, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
OPINION
Preserving Jewish
Unity Is Essential
RONNIE SCHREIBER
Special to The Jewish News
R
ecent events in Israel
have been anguishing
for all Jews. The hatred
between secular and religious
Jews is at dangerous levels.
Anyone familiar with Jewish
history should know that Jews
are most vulnerable when they
are not united. There have al-
ready been too many schisms
and too much chilul Hashem
(desecrating the name of God).
The problem in Israel has
been portrayed as that of a reli-
gious minority exercising its
will over a secular majority.
Examples such as Sabbath ob-
servance, the Law of Return and
marriage/divorce are often dis-
cussed. Unfortunately, this
analysis ignores the fact that
secular Jews have used the
Zionist movement and Israel for
secularist goals for the last 100
years. It also ignores the
presence of anti-religious ex-
tremists in Israel. Though some
of their actions have been coun
terproductive, and violent ex-
tremists in their ranks have
done even more damage to their
cause, the observant community
in Israel is really only trying to
protect the interests of Torah -
Judaism in a democracy whose
power elite has often been hos-
tile to those interests.
The current violence in Israel
has centered around the van-
dalizing of bus-stops by religious
extremists and the subsequent
desecrations of synagogues and
yeshivas by secular extremists.
It seems that the media in this
country (Jewish included) has
been rationalizing the syna-
gogue desecrations with the
attitude of "look at what those
orthodox lunatics drove people
to do." This is a case of blaming
the victim for the crime.
The news reports speak of
"over 100 firebombed and de-
faced bus stops." About 30 shel-
ters were destroyed by arson.
The perpetrators were caught,
tried and sentenced to jail. The
rabbinic leadership in Israel has
condemned such arson. Some
rabbis, however, have
encouraged civil disobedience in
the form of defacing the objec-
tionable advertisements that are
at the heart of this particular
issue. The ads were painted over
in public, in broad daylight and
in sight of the police.
The news reports ignore the
background to the story. Chap-
ter 173 of the Israeli criminal
code prohibits the publication of
material that grossly offends
people's religious beliefs. Prime
Minister Peres has cited this
law to the Knesset. When the
posters in question went up
around the country, including
religious areas, representatives
of the observant community con-
tracted the responsible parties
and asked that the posters be
removed in accordance with the
law. These requests Were ig-
nored. A small number of ex-
tremists responded irresponsibly
by torching the bus stops. They
were imprisoned, and it was
thought that the posters would
be removed to cool things down.
When this action was not forth-
coming, the campaign to deface
the ads began.
I can't get too excited over de-
faced bikini ads because a drive
through any large U.S. city will
reveal hundreds of graffiti
covered posters and billboards.
Besides, political graffiti is an
ancient and sometime noble
form of expression. Modern
examples include feminist and
anti-smoking activists defacing
ads that offend them. To my
knowledge, male chauvinists
and smokers haven't responded
by trashing the offices of the
National Organization For
Women and the Cancer Founda-
tion.
The desecration of sacred
texts, tefilin, talitot and syna-
-
Ronnie Schreiber majored in
Studies in Religion at the
University of Michigan and is
active with Machon L'Torah in
Oak Park.
The observant
community in Israel
is reacting to
decades of secular
domination
gogues should make any Jew,
religious or secular, shudder.
Nothing can justify such Nazi-
like behavior. However, such ac-
tion is not too surprising, be-
cause both secular Jews and
anti-Semites have negative feel-
ings about the Jewish religion.
Often, the comments of secular
Jews about traditional Jews and
Jewish beliefs mimic the state-
ments of gentile anti-Semites.
The current level of anti-
religious violence should indi-
cate that secularists can be even
more extreme than the reli-
gious.
Though by law Israel is a
Jewish state, religious activists
are condemned for trying to
preserve respect for Judaism in
the legal framework of that
state. Yet what they wish to
bring about is not too much
different from what already
exists in the U.S., where the law
mandates state/church separa-
tion. Today, across the U.S., the
sale of alcohol on Sunday is le-
gally restricted. I cannot buy
kosher wine before noon on
Sunday in Michigan. K-Mart
Corporation has been fined by
the state of Texas for being open
on the Sunday before Christmas.
Christmas is a national holiday
and many government agencies
give employees Good Friday and
Christmas Eve off with pay.
These examples make it clear
that U.S. law respects the sen-
sitivities of Christians and
Christian religion. When I bring
this up to secular American
Jews they usually say some-
thing like, "don't be unreason-
able. After all, this is mostly a
Christian country." If Ameri-
cans, who have First Amend-
ment rights. can't buy wine on