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' a month/36 months 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." 1997 Lexus LS 400 So down. $7,564.63 total due at start. 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