Photo Credit:

{Originally posted to author’s website, Emes Ve-Emunah}

When I read the editorial on YWN (Yeshiva World News), I became sick to my stomach. And then it made my blood boil! I wanted to explode in anger. Not at YWN. But at the very target of that editorial – members of the Charedi world. What makes this particular editorial unique is that it comes from a website that is decidedly geared to Charedim. I believe it follows guidelines set by Charedi rabbinic advisers. The YWN editor calls it a massive Chilul HaShem.




What makes this Chilul HaShem so massive is precisely the type of Orthodox Jews doing it. Charedim. This is not to say that all Charedim are like this. Most are not. Nor does it mean that there aren’t other people who behave this way. There are – Jew and non Jew alike. But I don’t believe that there is an entitlement attitude of the type that fosters this kind of behavior among other groups of people like there is among these Charedim.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that the more religious one looks, the greater the Chilul HaShem. Why do they look that way? I believe it is out of a sense of religiosity. Which I also believe makes them feel superior to other Jews. Even to other religious Jews.

And the world responds – calling them ultra-Orthodox. Where Orthodox are seen as the most religious of Jews, ultra-Orthodox are the most religious among them!

In many ways they are more religious. When it comes to Bein Adam L’Makom (laws between man and God – often called ritual observance) they go out of their way to be strict. Consider the recent story reported in the Forward about Chasidim refusing to eat any processed food on Pesach. No matter how reliable the Hechsher they fear the remotest possibility that processed food might contain Chametz. And yet when it comes to the kind of Chilul HaShem described by the YWN editor, they seem to be clueless – and couldn’t care less. The following in his own words is what the YWN editor witnessed:

A Charedi woman with her husband and family in a NYC subway station. A fare was paid for the mother to push her baby carriage through. Along with her carriage, however, went through FIVE others – all without meeting the fare requirement.

Three Charedi children in South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan tossing empty Kosher box drink containers into the East River. The parents sat on a nearby bench as this behavior continued for 15 minutes. With the river littered with chocolate bar wrappers, empty snack bag wrappers etc., not one – not two – but THREE non-Jewish passersby told the parents to have their children stop this behavior.

On the second day of Chol HaMoed, this writer witnessed a Charedi father pull his child’s pants down on a major street and allow his child to relieve himself on a public sidewalk. Later that day, this writer witnessed a Charedi woman walk her child to the front of a line in a popular amusement park, and simply cut the entire line of more than 50 people patiently waiting for their turn.

What makes matters even worse is the response the YWN editor got from one of these Charedim after trying to get them to be aware of the Chilul HaShem he was making:

After this writer confronted her and told her respectfully that approximately 45 of the 50 people on line were not Jewish and she caused a massive Chillul hashem, her Charedi husband reprimanded this writer and told him not to give other people “Musar”, and “mind his own business.”