You've Worked Hard.
You Deserve Some Presence.
Connor At The Wall
The physical attack on Conservative Jews could
be a catalyst for an Israeli pluralism campaign.
$659'
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NECHEMIA MEYERS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
T
he U.S. civil rights move-
ment was much in debt
to former Birmingham
Alabama Police Chief
Bull Connor who, by lead-
ing a brutal assault on the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr., and oth-
er demonstrators, aided the
movement, in President John F.
Kennedy's words, "as much as
Abraham Lincoln."
The Orthodox hooligans who
recently attacked a group of Con-
servative and Reform worshipers
trying to hold a Shavuot service
near the Western Wall may have
unwittingly done the same.
Many ordinary Israelis, who
have hitherto ignored the denial
Prayers at the Western Wall.
of religious rights to the non-Or-
thodox, are beginning to feel the
haredim have gone too far this
time, that nothing justifies their
throwing rocks and feces at their
fellow Jews.
To be sure, the leaders of the
Likud and Labor — true to their
cowardly traditions — haven't
deigned to comment on this af-
fair. But the press and the gen-
eral public are reacting, and
could even force the politicians to
react as well.
Ha'aretz, Israel's most presti-
gious newspaper, said it may
again be claimed — as was the
case with the Bar Ilan Street
demonstrations and the flag
burnings — that only a handful
of marginal individuals were in-
volved. But, the paper goes on,
such a claim won't hold water
"because the leaders of the Or-
thodox community have made no
attempt to distance themselves
from the hooliganism; in fact they
(lore the
"It is not too late," Ha'aretz
went on, "to remind ourselves
that the Western Wall is not a re-
ligious site belonging to the Or-
thodox branch of Judaism; it is a
preeminent symbol for the entire
nation."
The Jerusalem Post expressed
similar sentiments. "It is no
longer possible," the Post argued,
"for the haredim to dismiss such
actions as unreflective of the larg-
er community. A resounding si-
lence emanates from the heads
of the yeshivot whose students
engaged in such atrocities. And
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Haim
Miller of Agudat Israel said that
the very fact that Conservative
Jews, who symbolize the
destruction of the Jewish
people, came to the place
that is holiest to the Jew-
ish people is a provocation.
They have no reason to be
there."'
The Post then angrily
declared: "It is hard to
know what is more ob-
scene, the sight of hordes
of yeshiva students, brim-
ming with hatred at their
follow Jews and calling
them Nazis, or leaders
such as Mr. Miller who,
far from condemning
those students, add to the
incitement themselves."
Together with expres-
sions of outrage at Ortho-
dox behavior, there are
also indications that
growing Orthodox influ-
ence is causing some peo-
ple to give up on Israel itself For
example, Ma'ariv columnist
Yosef Lapid published a piece en-
titled "It Just Isn't My Country
Anymore." Mr. Lapid wrote, "I
still feel at home in Tel Aviv, but
that isn't true of Jerusalem.
`The latter used to have an ec-
centric minority, a vestige of the
ghettoes of Lodz and Casablan-
ca, sanctifying superstitions, fast-
ing on strange days, locking its
women up in the delivery room,
keeping its men in yeshivas, far
away from reality, from the 20th
century.
It was a curiosity.
"Today this curiosity has be-
come a vast, ever-expanding
army. And it is taking over our
lives ... Fanatics dictate govern-
ment policy, sever us from Dias-
pora Jewry, bring us closer to the
fundamentalist international ...
I had a country once, out it's dis-
integrating."
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