It’s been a little more than three decades since Daniel Patrick Moynihan published his famous essay on “Defining Deviancy Down.”
Every society, the senator-scholar from New York argued, could afford
to penalize only a certain amount of behavior it deemed “deviant.” As
the stock of such behavior increased — whether in the form of
out-of-wedlock births, or mentally ill people living outdoors, or
violence in urban streets — society would most easily adapt not by
cracking down, but instead by normalizing what used to be considered
unacceptable, immoral or outrageous.
Perspectives would shift. Standards would fall. And people would get used to it.
Moynihan’s
great example was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, in which
“four gangsters killed seven gangsters.” In 1929, the crime so shocked
the nation that it helped spell the end of Prohibition. By the early
1990s, that sort of episode would barely rate a story in the inside
pages of a newspaper.
If Moynihan were
writing his essay today, he might have added a section about politics.
In 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the presidency, it was still considered
something of a political liability that he had been divorced 32 years
earlier. In 1987, one of Reagan’s nominees for the Supreme Court,
Douglas Ginsburg, had to withdraw his name
after NPR’s Nina Totenberg revealed that, years earlier, the judge had
smoked pot. A few years later, two of Bill Clinton’s early candidates
for attorney general, Zoë Baird and Kimba Wood, were felled by
revelations of hiring illegal immigrants as nannies (and, in Baird’s
case, of not paying Social Security taxes).
How quaint.
On
Monday, a lawyer for two women told several news outlets that former
Representative Matt Gaetz used Venmo to pay for sex with multiple women,
one of whom says she saw him having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a
drug-fueled house party in 2017. Donald Trump is doubling down on
Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general, even as the president-elect privately acknowledges that the chances of confirmation are not great.
It’s
important to note that Gaetz was the target of a separate federal
inquiry into sex trafficking allegations that fell apart last year
because of questions about witnesses. That isn’t the only high-profile
Justice Department investigation that went nowhere. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was politically ruined
by a conviction that was overturned because of prosecutorial
misconduct. Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia turned out to be a
liberal pipe dream.
Liberals
especially should always want to guard the presumption of innocence,
not least for unpopular defendants. But if that is — or used to be —
true of liberals, didn’t it also used to be true of conservatives that
they at least pretended to care about moral standards?
Whatever
turns out to be true about Gaetz’s behavior, nothing so indicts today’s
Republican Party as the refusal by the House speaker, Mike Johnson, to
release the Ethics Committee report about Gaetz, on the patently
disingenuous pretext that he has resigned his House seat. If there’s
nothing to hide in the report, full transparency could only help Gaetz’s
case. Smoke may not always amount to fire, but darkness inevitably
means dirt.
Still, all this misses the
meaning of the Gaetz nomination, the point of which has nothing to do
with his suitability for the job. His virtue, in Trump’s eyes, is his
unsuitability. He is the proverbial tip of the spear in a larger effort
to define deviancy down. If someone accused of statutory rape can be
attorney general, anything else is possible — not just Tulsi Gabbard as
director of national intelligence or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and
human services secretary, but anything. Alex Jones as press secretary? Donald Trump Jr. already floated the idea.
There’s
a guiding logic here — and it isn’t to “own the libs,” in the sense of
driving Trump’s opponents to fits of moralistic rage (even if, from the
president-elect’s perspective, that’s an ancillary benefit). It’s to
perpetuate the spirit of cynicism, which is the core of Trumpism. If
truth has no currency, you cannot use it. If power is the only coin of
the realm, you’d better be on the side of it. If the government is run
by cads and lackeys, you’ll need to make your peace with them.
“Man
gets used to everything, the beast!” Dostoyevsky has Raskolnikov
observe in “Crime and Punishment.” That’s Trump’s insight, too — the
method by which he seems intent to govern.
There’s
a hopeful coda to Moynihan’s warning. In the years after he published
his essay, Americans collectively decided that there were forms of
deviancy — particularly violent crime — that they were not, in fact,
prepared to accept as an unalterable fact of life. A powerful crime bill
was passed in Congress, the police adopted innovative methods to deter
violence, urban leaders enforced rules against low-level lawbreakers,
bad guys were locked away, and cities became civilized and livable
again.
Part of that achievement has
been undone in recent years, but it’s a reminder that it’s also possible
to define deviancy up. In politics, we can’t start soon enough.
Once
a week, early in the morning, community health worker Kiden Josephine
Francis Laja mounts her bicycle and pedals as far as 10 miles away from
her small village in South Sudan. Some weeks Laja is doing outreach,
spending her day educating a community about which vaccines she can
provide and what diseases they prevent. “It’s my responsibility to tell
the mothers to bring the children for vaccination,” she says. She
answers their questions and lets them know she’ll be back, usually the
following week, to vaccinate their children. Late in the evening she
mounts her bike and heads home.
When
Laja returns with the vaccines, kept in a cooler with ice packs, she
will spend the day immunizing anywhere from a few to 200 children
against a range of diseases: polio, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis,
hepatitis B, influenza, bacterial meningitis, tuberculosis and, more
recently, COVID. Most people in high-income countries haven’t seen these
diseases in decades, but the people of South Sudan know them well. Many
have seen family and friends die from them.
During
the rest of the week Laja works at the community health center in her
village of Pure, monitoring the solar-powered refrigerator and the vials
inside. She vaccinates anyone who comes to the facility and metes out
drugs for a few maladies such as ulcers, malaria and typhoid. But the
village doesn’t have antibiotics—or electricity. Villagers grow their
own food, raise goats and chickens, and get their water from wells in
the ground.
It’s not easy
work for just $102 a month, especially when it sometimes takes three
months for the 25-year-old mother of two to get her pay. When it rains
on travel days, she and her outreach pamphlets get soaked. She must
regularly check the temperature of the vials in the cooler and replace
the ice packs at just the right time to ensure the vaccines don’t go
bad.
People
in South Sudan don’t have much, but they have this program. “Vaccines
are very important to me and my community and even to my country,” Laja
says. During a large outbreak of measles that began in 2022 in the
country, thousands of children suffered from the disease, and many died,
leading to a nationwide vaccination campaign in 2023. “Now in our
community you cannot find cases of measles,” she says.
In a 2014 interview with the Baltimore Jewish Times, Kamenetsky called vaccines a “hoax”
and his wife, Temi, has been a figure on the anti-vax circuit,
according to reports. A year later, the rabbi signed a letter
authorizing a major yeshiva in Lakewood, N.J. to admit unvaccinated
children. He said the "Polio vaccine is a hoax as well."
Claims of a ‘Hoax’ - Ignoramuses of the Worst Kind In Leadership Positions - The Dangerous Nepo Babies (look it up)
In a 2014 interview with the Baltimore Jewish Times, Kamenetsky called vaccines a “hoax”
and his wife, Temi, has been a figure on the anti-vax circuit,
according to reports. A year later, the rabbi signed a letter
authorizing a major yeshiva in Lakewood, N.J. to admit unvaccinated
children.
“What about the people who clean and sweep in the school?” he told
the Baltimore Jewish Times. “They are mostly Mexican and are
unvaccinated. If there was a problem, the children would already have
gotten sick.”
There is no validity to allegations that South and Central American immigrants are vaccinated at a lower rate than the rest of the U.S. population.
Some Hasidic anti-vaxxers have cited Kamenetsky’s comments
highlighted in an online pamphlet circulating in the community. They
point out he’s a member of the esteemed Moetzes and considered one of
the leading rabbis of this generation.
Around
the globe the measles vaccine has saved nearly 94 million lives over
the past 50 years.
This and other vaccinations have revolutionized
global health. “Immunization is the most universal innovation that we
have across humankind,” says Orin Levine,
a fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. He
notes that there are people around the world without access to
telephones or even toilets, but they find ways to get their children
immunized. “It’s the innovation that demonstrates what is possible in
terms of delivery of service to everyone everywhere.”
A May study in the Lancet
estimated that vaccines against 14 common pathogens have saved 154
million lives over the past five decades—at a rate of six lives every
minute. They have cut infant mortality by 40 percent globally and by
more than 50 percent in Africa. Throughout history vaccines have saved
more lives than almost any other intervention. And vaccines’ promotion
of health equity goes far beyond preventing death. The Lancet
study found that each life saved through immunization resulted in an
average 66 years of full health, without the long-term problems that
many diseases cause. Vaccines play a role in nearly every measurement of
health equity, from improving access to care, to reducing disability
and long-term morbidity, to preventing loss of labor and the death of
caretakers.
“Vaccines level the playing field....But frankly, it was a really long road to get to that kind of equity.”
—Nicole Lurie Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
“We
say vaccines are one of humanity’s great achievements in terms of
having furthered the lifespan and life quality for humanity in the past
50 years,” says Aurélia Nguyen, chief program officer at Gavi, the
Vaccine Alliance, a public-private partnership that works to ensure low-
and middle-income countries have access to vaccines against more than
20 infectious diseases. Of all the different health interventions that
exist, she says, “vaccines have the widest reach across the world.” The
clearest evidence of vaccines’ impact on equity is that they are often
the first intervention introduced into a community with no other
health-care resources.
“When
you don’t have a health worker or health system, there’s nothing. If
you have no money, then you want the best bang for the buck, and it’s
going to be immunization,” says Seth Berkley,
former CEO of Gavi. “For every dollar you invest in immunization, you
get $54 of benefit. From a cost-effectiveness point of view, it’s the
best investment, so it tends to be the intervention that gets out to
those communities first. And once you do that, you have a health worker
who’s visiting those communities on a regular basis, and then that
begins to start the conversation toward more primary health care, and
that leads to getting a basic clinic set up. Immunization is the
vanguard of the health system.”
Every country in the world has an immunization program thanks to the World Health Organization’s Expanded Program on Immunization,
which was established in 1974. “Every single country and territory” has
access to at least some vaccines, says Kate O’Brien, director of the
WHO’s immunization, vaccines and biologicals department. Poverty,
malnutrition, underlying health conditions, overcrowding, human
conflict, displacement, and lack of access to medical care, hygiene or
sanitation—all of these are risk factors for infectious disease, O’Brien
says. Vaccines’ ability to reduce disease in the settings most plagued
by these problems gives them disproportionate power to improve equity.
There
may be no greater demonstration of vaccines’ power to deliver health
equity than their success with smallpox. “The magnitude of the
accomplishment of having eradicated smallpox, where absolutely nobody on
this earth gets the disease,” O’Brien says, “that’s the ultimate in the
issue of equity.”
A version of a smallpox vaccine was developed in 1796, and in 1959
global health experts decided to pursue full eradication. In the decade
that followed, it became clear that such an ambitious goal would
require more than political will. Although smallpox had been eliminated
from North America and Europe, frequent outbreaks continued in South
America, Africa and Asia.
In 1967 the WHO started its Intensified Eradication Program, which prompted a series of innovations. The bifurcated needle,
which was developed around that time, allowed for smaller doses and
required less user expertise for vaccine delivery than the previously
favored jet injector. Researchers created a surveillance system to
better track disease and vaccinate close contacts of infected people,
making mass vaccination campaigns more effective. The last documented
case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977, and the WHO declared smallpox officially eradicated three years later.
GEDOLIM CRACKPOTS SHOULD BE SHIPPED TO IRAN - TELLING HAREDIM "NOT TO GO TO THE "ZIONIST" DRAFT CENTERS WHEN SUMMONS RECEIVED"
Moshe Hillel Hirsch: “It Is A Mitzvah To Be Draft Evaders From The Army”
WE DON'T CARE IF THE HESDER YESHIVA BOYS DIE TO KEEP US SAFE!
WE WANT KOSHER PIZZA WHILE WE BLOCK STREETS!
WE NEVER PROTEST WITHOUT OUR HATS!
Haredi draft is no longer a mere political issue: The IDF’s readiness depends on it
Over the past year, the outgoing head of the
Personnel Directorate devoted most of his time to quiet diplomacy with
rabbis in the ultra-Orthodox community. It didn’t work!
Thousands
of ultra-Orthodox -- photographed here through a metal fence -- attend a
rally against the conscription of Haredi yeshiva students to the
military, in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood
After nearly five years as head of the IDF’s Personnel
Directorate, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor will soon step down from the role and
await the next round of appointments in the General Staff. Asor holds a
significant advantage over many other generals: While he has been part
of the General Staff for several years, he was not directly involved in
operational decisions prior to the October 7 Hamas invasion and
massacre.
Asor, who went up the army ladder in the Golani Brigade, had long
been on the operational front lines, however, commanding the 51st
Battalion, the Egoz Unit, Golani Brigade and the Golan Heights Division.
Stories abound from his days as a young company commander during the
1990s in the South Lebanon security zone, where he reportedly knew every
valley and hill better than many of the intelligence officers in the
command.
He commanded the 51st Battalion during the fierce 2006 battle in the
town of Bint Jbeil in South Lebanon, where his deputy, Major Roi Klein,
famously jumped on a grenade to save his soldiers and was killed.
That battle,
one of the most grueling in the Second Lebanon War, with eight soldiers
killed and dozens wounded, remains etched in Asor’s memory. Hezbollah
was well-prepared in the town, and Golani forces found themselves caught
in a planned ambush and at a severe disadvantage. Under those
conditions, evacuation of the wounded was impossible, and some succumbed
to their injuries. Asor has carried that with him ever since.
His tenure as head of the Personnel Directorate has been the longest
he has spent in a single role and his first outside the operational
sphere. Not that this is a bad thing; it appears to have given him a
different perspective on the army — or more precisely, on what it should
look like after the current war ends.
Over the past year, Asor has maintained a measured tone in
conversations with colleagues and friends, but between the lines, there
has been discernible criticism and disappointment regarding the lack of
understanding in the political echelon and government bureaucracy of the
military’s needs.
Filling the ranks
Asor’s primary task this past year was, unsurprisingly, filling the ranks.
The IDF is currently short nearly 20% of its combat forces, a figure
expected to increase by another 5% in the next few years. In simple
terms, the military is now scraping together combat personnel from every
possible source — including the recall of tens of thousands of
reservists previously discharged due to their age. But that isn’t
enough.
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The IDF finds itself in a prolonged war on multiple fronts, which is
exhausting its regular and reserve combat forces, while also facing a
political environment that stymies efforts to expand its numbers by
drafting from the ultra-Orthodox communities.
In the meantime, it is seeking to partially bridge the gap by
extending mandatory service to 36 months. However, this emergency
measure is being held up by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein, who explains his hesitation as a matter of
fairness: he does not want to place a heavier burden on the serving
population without addressing the conscription law for the
ultra-Orthodox. This seems logical and just, but in the meantime, IDF
ranks continue to dwindle.
Over the past year, Asor met several times with prominent rabbis
in the ultra-Orthodox community, which seems to have convinced him to
prefer a soft, inclusive approach — attempting to increase recruitment
through dialogue rather than coercion. In closed forums, he has said,
“Respect is needed; don’t storm in. Bring them in not by force. The war
has sparked solidarity in this community.”
His successor, Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, hails from the
national-religious camp. It will be interesting to see how he approaches
the growing divide between religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox Jews
regarding military service versus Torah study.
Modest goals
Starting this week, the IDF will gradually issue 7,000 draft orders
to ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 26. Why 7,000? Because in the previous
round, when 3,000 orders were issued, the army fell far short of its
target, with only 120 ultra-Orthodox men reporting for duty. The hope,
albeit slim, is that increasing the number of orders will improve
enlistment rates.
It’s worth noting that the decision to issue 7,000 draft orders was
made by outgoing defense minister Yoav Gallant, who was seen by the
ultra-Orthodox as confrontational. This fueled pressure on Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to replace him.
It was clear that with the resolute Gallant, Netanyahu would struggle
to secure ultra-Orthodox support for the state budget without a
conscription law that meets their demands. And without a state budget,
the Knesset automatically disassembles and new elections are declared —
the last thing Netanyahu wants.
Gallant’s decision to issue these 7,000 draft orders faced sharp
criticism within his own party, Likud, but it was not rescinded by
incoming Defense Minister Israel Katz. Katz has hinted that while he
won’t cancel the move, he might water it down to avoid upsetting the
ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, Aryeh Deri’s Shas and Yitzhak
Goldknopf’s United Torah Judaism.
As if in a parallel universe, the IDF recently presented to the
government its updated personnel figures from the latest conflict. The
bottom line is clear: the IDF must grow, which means significant budget
increases. For now, discussions focus on principles rather than numbers,
and the Finance Ministry has yet to weigh in.
But the IDF has no choice: It is moving forward with its plans,
regardless of what the government decides. The establishment of an
ultra-Orthodox brigade has already begun, independent of the numbers
that will be dictated by political deals in the coming weeks.
Numerically, the IDF is modestly aiming for the enlistment of 4,800
ultra-Orthodox men in 2025, most of them for combat roles. In the coming
years, the army’s ground forces will need 7,500 new combat soldiers
annually, in addition to 2,500 combat support personnel.
In the coming years, the army’s ground forces will need
7,500 new combat soldiers annually, in addition to 2,500 combat support
personnel
In total, this translates to an increase of 10,000 soldiers per year
over the next five years — just to meet current standards and missions.
The current recruitment pool has been exhausted, even assuming the
36-month service extension is ultimately approved by the Knesset.
The bottom line is that the gap must be filled by ultra-Orthodox
recruits. Without them, the day is fast approaching when the IDF will
have to announce a decline in its readiness — not due to conscientious
objectors but because of officially sanctioned draft dodgers.
Prominent NYC synagogue reveals sexual assault allegation against its renowned late rabbi
"I Have No Right To Be Silent", The Human Rights Legacy of the Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer ----- Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer, who died in 1993, transformed B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side.
B'nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side
A vibrant New York City synagogue is removing the name of its
former rabbi from a prestigious rabbinic training program after
determining that a sexual assault allegation against him was credible.
Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer led B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side
from 1985 until his death in 1993 and has become synonymous with its
revival, after transforming the congregation from a sleepy Conservative
synagogue into an independent community bustling with attendees of all
ages. Meyer was also known as a pioneer in interfaith relations and for
his work as a human rights activist, including against the “Dirty War”
in Argentina.
Now, according to B’nai Jeshurun, a years-long process has concluded
that Meyer may have sexually assaulted an adult who was a congregant in
the 1980s.
According to a community-wide email sent Wednesday, a person who was
involved in the synagogue at that time reported several years ago that
Meyer had “sexually assaulted them by engaging in non-consensual
contact.” The email did not offer additional details about the
allegation. Since then, according to the email, the synagogue’s leaders
engaged in a “restorative justice process” supported by two groups with
expertise helping Jewish organizations navigate misconduct allegations.
“Although it is no longer possible to speak with Rabbi Meyer, we
found the report credible that he abused his position of power,” said
the email, signed by Rabbis Rolando Matalon and Felicia Sol, along with
board president Ilene Rosenthal and board chair Suzanne Schechter.
(Matalon, following his 1986 ordination from the Jewish Theological
Seminary, shared the pulpit with Meyer.)
“While this relates to a historical incident, our sense of
responsibility remains as strong today as if it occurred recently.
(Waiting for the Agudath Israel Response to this Goofy Position)
The
thought that anyone could be harmed in our community is painful,” they
wrote. “We thank the individual for coming forward to report their
experiences and providing us with the opportunity to address the harm
caused. We offer our deepest apology on behalf of B’nai Jeshurun.”
Representatives for B’nai Jeshurun did not respond to a request for comment.
The revelation makes B’nai Jeshurun the latest among Jewish
institutions to reckon with allegations about inappropriate behavior by
former leaders who have since died. The Reform movement commissioned an investigation that reported in 2021
that the leaders of its New York rabbinical school for more than three
decades had engaged in misconduct, including the sexual assault of
students.
That investigation was spurred by a recent societal movement to
prevent abuse and improve the response to allegations of abuse. In its
letter, B’nai Jeshurun said it had already taken on changes in recent
years meant to ensure a safe environment.
In addition to having the synagogue’s rabbinic internship named for
him, Meyer is also the namesake of a rabbinical school he founded in
Argentina and of social justice retreats operated by the Interfaith Center of New York City.
After serving as the personal secretary to the famed Rabbi Abraham
Joshua Heschel, Meyer spent 25 years as a rabbi in Buenos Aires, where
he grew his Conservative synagogue to have more than 1,000 members and
also helped the community navigate political instability. He served as spiritual advisor to the Jewish journalist Jacobo Timerman,
arguably the most famous prisoner taken captive during the Dirty War, a
repressive and violent campaign waged by the military junta from 1974
to 1983. Meyer helped organize Timerman’s release and exile in Israel
and accompanied him on his return to the country in the 1980s as
Argentina began to face down its recent past. Timerman dedicated his
book to Meyer.
Returning to his native New York after a year at American Jewish
University in Los Angeles, Meyer poured himself into interfaith work and
activism. He gained repute for inviting Palestinians to speak during
services, for welcoming gay congregants and for his captivating sermons.
Today, B’nai Jeshurun is known for its spirited worship services,
which include communal dancing and spiritual music. Its Moorish Revival
sanctuary also serves as a Jewish events space and provided the
synagogue setting for the 2000 film “Keeping the Faith.” Its rabbinic
internship, considered one of the most desirable placements for seminary
students in New York, has dozens of alumni working in synagogues and
Jewish organizations around the world.
The internship will get a new name, according to the synagogue’s
announcement. Other changes could be forthcoming, according to the
community letter, which said, “As we move forward, we will continue to
reflect on how and when Rabbi Meyer’s contributions are acknowledged in
our community.”
The synagogue has contracted a law firm that specializes in
investigating misconduct allegations, Cozen O’Connor’s Institutional
Response Group, to further assess claims against Meyer and B’nai
Jeshurun. Anticipating that the revelations could be painful for some in
the community, it has also scheduled a meeting for members who knew
Meyer personally.
“We know this is a lot to take in,” the letter said. “Our rabbis are
here to provide pastoral care related to this matter. We are here to
listen and support.”
As
small but growing numbers of Haredi men enlist in the Israeli military,
attitudes in their strictly observant communities start to shift?
Former Defense Minister Yoav Galant visits Haim Traitel at Soroka Medical Center
Haim
Traitel reclined in bed in a third-floor room at Soroka Medical Center
in Beersheba on a late-October afternoon. During a two-hour interview,
he discussed the battle injury he suffered the previous week in the Gaza
Strip, his service in the Israel Defense Forces, and his motivation for
enlisting.
Traitel
spoke on the record and OK’d his photo appearing with this story. But
he declined to name the specific Hasidic sect to which he and his family
belong, beyond saying that it’s an “important” group in the
Haredi-majority town of Bnai Brak, where he lives with his parents,
brother, and sisters.
The 19-year-old sergeant plans to return to his unit after recuperating. Haim’s father, Moshe, plans to host a seudat hodaya,
a thanksgiving feast—a traditional celebration after someone survives a
life-threatening circumstance—and expects no problem in renting a hall
for the occasion, but he’s sure the community’s leadership won’t attend.
That’s
because military service is not encouraged where they live, Moshe told
me while visiting his son the same day. For that reason, Haim added,
he’s sure he won’t be asked to speak about his Gaza experiences at the
family’s synagogue or the schools he attended.
Haim
grew up knowing little about life beyond Bnai Brak, a city of more than
200,000 bordering Tel Aviv. He attended yeshiva, but wasn’t studious.
He secretly bought a smartphone—Moshe, himself holding a smartphone
during our interview, smiled at his son’s daring—and went online to
learn about politics and national affairs. He read about the IDF and
watched videos of soldiers’ exploits.
“I
saw heroes with weapons,” said Haim. “It fires you up. When there was a
terrorist attack, I’d say, ‘I’m enlisting.’ When there wasn’t, I
didn’t. It hurt me that I wasn’t taking part in the [country’s]
defense.”
Haim
was fortunate to receive his parents’ support, and their hugs, when he
announced at age 17 his intention to join the IDF. They attended the
ceremonies when he was sworn in and completed basic training.
The
reality of life for an IDF soldier from Bnai Brak, as in many Haredi
(strictly observant) communities, is complex, even after Haim nearly was
killed in Jabalia by a Hamas sniper’s bullet from behind that tore a
muscle, exited his left shin, required seven stitches, and necessitated a
monthslong rehabilitation.
And their community, Moshe and Haim explained, is—on the Haredi spectrum—relatively liberal.
“Is the blood of Haredim worth more?” reads a sign hanging from an overpass on Highway 7, east of Ashdod.
The
question was jarring and ironic, given that I passed it while driving
to meet this Haredi teenager who nearly was killed defending Israel.
The
message apparently was painted by a secular Jewish Israeli upset by
Haredim not sharing the burden of military service—specifically,
fighting in the ongoing wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon that, as of
Nov. 5, have taken the lives of 780 Israeli soldiers and other security
personnel. Israeli governments since 1948 have allowed Haredim to study
full time in yeshivot and skip IDF service that’s otherwise mandatory
for Jews and Druze.
But many Israelis have long resented what they see as Haredi abuse of
the system to also exempt those not studying Torah full time.
“The sign is very, very painful,” Traitel said when I told him of it. “I understand the pain. There are not many like me.”
An
IDF spokeswoman said figures aren’t available on how many Haredim are
serving in the military. Experts estimate the number in the low
thousands, minuscule in a population of 1.3 million Haredim.
The
simmering social pot has been boiling over the past six months due to
the long stretches, some more than a year, served by IDF reservists in
the ongoing wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The
renewed friction led the Supreme Court to rule in July that authority
for the exemptions had lapsed and that draft notices must be sent to
approximately 60,000 Haredi men. Three thousand notices went out—Defense
Minister Yoav Gallant announced last week, before he was fired from his
post, that 7,000 more would be sent—but only a fraction of those
summoned showed up at induction centers.
Anti-draft
demonstrations continue to be held in Haredi areas. And last week,
Haredi members of Knesset were threatening to withhold their votes for a
national budget if a draft-exemption bill isn’t passed.
The
issue continues to anger—and not only secular Jewish Israelis are
venting. Resentment has come recently from the religious-Zionist (akin
to modern Orthodox in the United States) camp, usually among Israel’s
most unity-preaching sectors.
One
such member, Rachel Goldberg, spoke emotionally during the shiva for
her husband and the father of the couple’s eight children, Avi, killed
in battle in Lebanon on Oct. 26.
Israel
is at war “against accursed enemies, and many people wear green
uniforms and join to fight in God’s army, the IDF, but we don’t have
enough people,” Goldberg said in a video clip posted on Facebook.
“I want to call on people learning Torah and not serving in the
military to enlist in the Jewish people’s military.” She drew a parallel
with pre-Shabbat preparations: “It’s not that one person sits at the
table, praying that the house will be clean. Everyone must clean.
Everyone must stand and act and exert one’s body. And whoever
doesn’t—it’s not educational, not Jewish, not moral to give him
something,” Goldberg said, referring to governmental subsidies for
yeshiva students.
Rabbi
Menachem Bombach, whose organization, Netzach, runs Haredi schools
teaching secular subjects alongside Judaic studies, said in a phone
interview: “There is an ethical and moral price for not participating in
defending the Jewish state. … If this is your way, it is very selfish.”
Bombach
served in the IDF, as did his son. “There’s now an awakening,” Bombach
said of Haredim, of which he is one. “It’s not enough, but it’s a
change.”
The
social tension comes as Haredi opposition to IDF service appears to be
softening, at least in the short term, due in part to Hamas’ Oct. 7,
2023, murderous rampage across the western Negev that stirred Haredim
emotionally. That’s the view of several community members interviewed
for this article, including one who mentioned Haredim murdered that day.
Haredim have visited those recovering from the attacks and soldiers
wounded in battle, cooked for deployed soldiers, and donated needed
products. Some interviewees reported Psalms and other prayers now being
recited in their synagogues for the IDF’s success and for wounded
soldiers’ recovery.
From
there, they said, it’s less of a leap to Haredi men enlisting and to
community members accepting their decisions to do so. But anything
approaching broad Haredi enlistment “will take two or three
generations,” said Dov Lipman, a U.S.-raised former Knesset member who
is Haredi and whose son served in the IDF.
Tel Aviv University professor Nechumi Yaffe said she detects Haredi attitudes toward military service changing.
Yaffe
and colleague Yael Itzhaki-Braun polled approximately 1,000 Haredim
throughout Israel after Russia launched its war against Ukraine in
February 2022, then following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, and then at points
throughout the ensuing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
The
researchers asked whether the Haredi public must find a way to
contribute to Israel’s defense, and found that affirmative answers
jumped from 42% to 63% following the massacre. On whether the respondent
personally should contribute to Israel’s military effort, the increase
was higher over the same period: from 35% to 58%.
“The stigma [against] people who have served has significantly lowered,” said Yaffe, who is Haredi.
Still,
negotiations and court rulings on compulsory military service have not
considered any roles for Haredi women. (Druze and non-Haredi Jewish
women, particularly in their observant communities, can perform national
service, such as in schools or hospitals, in lieu of the military.
Otherwise, Jewish women, like Jewish and Druze men, are subject to the
draft.)
Anecdotal evidence of change, at least for Haredi men, abounds.
Haredi
soldiers were known to change into civvies before returning on weekend
leave, lest they face scorn or worse in their neighborhoods. That seems
to be changing.
“They’re
much less concerned about that post-Oct. 7,” said Karmi Gross, a
Miami-raised rabbi in Ramat Beit Shemesh, who founded a program for
Haredim that combines military service with both Torah learning and an
academic program leading to a professional degree. The program is
modeled after the hesder track for religious-Zionist youth, which entails Torah study and military training.
During the recent holiday period, one of Gross’ students told him of entering his synagogue for Mincha prayers in uniform.
“Half
of the men started yelling at him to leave the shul. It’s very normal,”
said Gross. “For the first time, another group—at least half—started
yelling back to say, ‘Leave him alone.’ It’s very significant. Army
service does not make you a leper anymore. A lot of that, I think, is
the Oct. 7 effect. Once that wall falls, time will have its [further]
effect. Are you going to see massive numbers [of recruits] coming? No.
That will take time.”
Several
interviewees remarked that the IDF now faces a golden opportunity to
foster greater Haredi enlistment by enticing, not compelling; by
reaching out to teenagers less drawn to yeshiva study; and by meeting
the religious-observance needs of Haredim, such as their preferred
kashrut for food, dedicated times for Torah study and prayers, and not
having males serve with females—needs the IDF has made great efforts to
meet since the 1990s in its all-Haredi units, including the three now
operating within the paratrooper, Kfir, and Givati brigades. A
full-fledged Haredi brigade, Hasmoneans, is due to launch in December.
But
the military environment makes it “inevitable” that religious
observance will be compromised, said Yitzchok Horowitz, 26, who served
in the Haredi paratrooper unit.
Horowitz,
raised in the Haredi neighborhood of Har Nof in Jerusalem, said he sees
the sense in not forcing the issue: “The Haredi community, me included,
believes that, yes, [Haredim] should sit and learn [Torah] because
these people are protecting the Holy Land in a different way.”
A
promising conduit to normalizing IDF service for the Haredi sector
might be the track known as Phase 2. Revived by the IDF during this
wartime period, it enables Haredi men who passed draft age to enlist,
undergo two or four weeks of basic training, and serve in combat or
noncombat roles. It requires the person to make a five-year commitment
of annual reserve duty.
Phase
2 is “an opportunity we must take advantage of, to bring about a
breakthrough, to show that Haredim are entering the military—and then
youth will enlist,” said Eliezer Safrin, a 44-year-old real estate
developer in Beit Shemesh who entered the program in August after six
months of pressing the IDF to accept him. “It definitely gives a big
sense of satisfaction and belonging, and a feeling of: ‘Why didn’t I do
it earlier when I could’ve contributed more?’ If it weren’t for the war,
it may not have crossed my mind.”
The track holds promise because participants are older and life-seasoned, less prone to social pressures against enlistment.
“If
you draft at 18, they look at you askance. But if you enlist with a
wife and family, it’s more accepted. They judge you less,” said David
Klaristenfeld, 35, a married father of two and owner of an air
conditioning repair business in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Klaristenfeld
had wanted to serve in the IDF in his youth but said he “couldn’t do
it” due to his Haredi surroundings. Then came the Oct. 7 invasion and
the gruesome videos he watched of Hamas slaughtering Israelis. “This was
the chance,” he said. “I jumped at the opportunity.”
He
enlisted, trained for two weeks, served for three months in the
military forensics center, then patrolled along Israel’s border with
Jordan. When Israeli pilots bombed military sites in Iran in late
October, Klaristenfeld didn’t hesitate when his commander summoned
him—on Shabbat morning—in preparation for a potential Iranian
counterattack. “I have secular clients,” he said. “When I say I’ve just
returned from reserve duty, they’re in shock. It’s a form of sanctifying
God’s name.”
As
for Traitel, he aspires, post-army, to study law or political science.
Then, he said, he wants to work in the public sphere. “I can be the
connection,” he said, “between the Haredi community and general society,
to promote Haredi enlistment.”
What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Rising resentment as Haredi men refuse draft
Speaking about one of the most divisive issues
facing Israeli society, ToI’s senior analyst offers perspective — and a
potential way out of the problem
Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues
currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World with host deputy editor
Amanda Borschel-Dan and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.
At the start of the war in retaliation for Hamas’s murderous
onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israel Defense
Forces reported that more than 100 percent of reservists called up for
duty had shown up — nearly 300,000 reservists in total, marking the
largest-ever call-up of reservists in Israel’s history.
This week, we learned
that there has been a significant decline in the rate of reserve
soldiers showing up for duty and the turnout rate in the reservist units
currently fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip has varied between 75%
and 85%.
In an effort to bolster the standing army, over the summer, the IDF
Personnel Directorate sent out 3,000 draft orders to Haredi men aged
18-26. Out of those 3,000 men, only around 10% have shown up to be
drafted into the military. (250 showed up)
The IDF’s overall goal for the just concluded draft period — about
four months — was 1,300 ultra-Orthodox soldiers. Ultimately it reached
just over 900, including those who were drafted outside of the 3,000 new
orders.
This means that the IDF has seen an 85% increase
in the number of Haredi soldiers joining the army, compared to the same
draft period in previous years. However, the military has said that it
currently requires some 10,000 new soldiers — 75% of whom will be combat
troops.
In our conversation this week, we hear personal anecdotes about the
service of Borschel-Dan and Rettig Gur’s family this year and how they
fit into the broader Israeli experience. We also learn about rising
resentment among many segments of Israeli society over the entrenched
refusal of Haredim to draft in necessary numbers — and what could be a
way out.
So this week, we ask Haviv Rettig Gur, what matters now. Listen to one of the smartest people in Israel!
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Statement Regarding the Matter of Representative Matt Gaetz
Jun 18, 2024
Press Release
Pursuant to Committee Rule 7, the Committee on Ethics (Committee) determined to release the following statement:
On April 9, 2021, the Committee
announced it had initiated a review into allegations that Representative
Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug
use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused
state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use,
and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in
violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct. The
Committee deferred its consideration of the matter in response to a
request from the Department of Justice (DOJ). In May 2023, the
Committee reauthorized its investigation after DOJ withdrew its deferral
request.
There has been a significant and
unusual amount of public reporting on the Committee’s activities this
Congress. Much of that reporting has been inaccurate. The Committee’s
investigations are conducted confidentially, but the Committee’s
confidentiality rules do not prohibit witnesses from disclosing
information about the Committee’s requests or conversations with
Committee investigators. The Committee is confident in the integrity of
its process.
Representative Gaetz has categorically
denied all of the allegations before the Committee. Notwithstanding the
difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz
and others, the Committee has spoken with more than a dozen witnesses,
issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in
this matter. Based on its review to date, the Committee has determined
that certain of the allegations merit continued review. During the
course of its investigation, the Committee has also identified
additional allegations that merit review.
Accordingly, the Committee is reviewing
allegations pursuant to Committee Rules 14(a)(3) and 18(a) that
Representative Gaetz may have: engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit
drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and
favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and
sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. The
Committee will take no further action at this time on the allegations
that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House
floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to
personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.
The Committee notes that the mere fact
of an investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that
any violation has occurred. No other public comment will be made on
this matter except in accordance with Committee rules.
Witness tells House Ethics Committee that Matt Gaetz paid her for sex: Sources
Several women who were witnesses in a DOJ probe have been interviewed.
One woman, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a
payment from Gaetz was for sex, while others have said they were paid to
attend parties that Gaetz also attended and that featured drugs and
sex, multiple sources told ABC News.
Haredim flock to Rachel’s Tomb to pray for the IDF – and for God not to make them enlist
On the anniversary of the matriarch’s death,
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community sees no contradiction in asking her to
protect the soldiers while protecting Haredim from serving
This year on the anniversary of the matriarch’s death, her tomb has
become a focal point for a uniquely Haredi rallying cry to support
Israel’s ongoing war effort — not through bullets, bombs, tanks and
fighter planes, but through prayers and Torah study.
“On the eve of the death of Rachel the matriarch, in view of the
severe troubles besetting the people of Israel in the past year, we call
on Jewish communities in the Holy Land and in the Diaspora to hold
prayer rallies in each and every community,” read a pashkevil,
or street notice, posted in predominantly Haredi neighborhoods and in
the Haredi press starting last week both in Israel and in major Jewish
centers in the Diaspora.
Prayers at Rachel’s Tomb, Bethlehem. November 11, 2024
All the major Haredi rabbinic groups in Israel, from various Hasidic
movements to Lithuanian yeshiva heads to the Sephardic Council of Torah
Sages, signed the pashkevil. Rabbis of Haredi yeshivas in the US such as Lakewood, New Jersey, Baltimore, and South Fallsburg, New York, also signed.
The document urges members of the community to pray for the
protection of the Jews from their enemies and laments that for “more
than a year the residents of the Holy Land have been beset with
distress, exile, captivity” and that “the blood of our dear brothers has
been spilled like water,” which seems to be a reference to the Israeli
soldiers and civilians killed in the ongoing war being waged with
terrorist organizations in Gaza and Lebanon.
War erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, which saw some
3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and
sea, killing 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.
The day after Hamas’s onslaught, Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group
began near-daily rocket, missile and drone attacks resulting in dozens
of deaths and the displacement of some 60,000 northern residents from
their homes.
Prayers on the anniversary of matriarch Rachel’s death are the answer
to the Jews’ troubles with their enemies in Gaza and Lebanon, said the
Haredi rabbis. They’re also the answer to another threat facing the
Jews, said the rabbis: the forced enlistment of Haredi military-age men.
Amram Rabinovitz, a liaison between the
Haredi community and Israel Police and the IDF during prayer rallies and
demonstrations, standing at the entrance to Rachel’s Tomb, Bethlehem,
November 11, 2024
“This is a prayer rally about the war and the tragedy of IDF soldiers
being killed,” said Amram Rabinowitz, the official liaison between the
Haredi community and the Israel Police and the IDF, who is responsible
for the smooth flow of Jewish pilgrims in and out of the tomb compound.
“But it’s also about saving yeshiva students from attempts to draft
them,” Rabinowitz said. “The average Haredi person sees no contradiction
between the two.”
But many Israelis do see a contradiction.
The number of IDF soldiers killed or wounded in action continues to
rise, and non-Haredi segments of Jewish Israeli society — both religious
and non-religious — continue to pay a disproportionately high price in
casualties. As such, political and public pressure has risen to end the
status quo — in place since the establishment of the state — demanding
that Haredi young men share in the war effort, not just by praying and
studying Torah, but by joining the ranks of the IDF’s combat units.
But according to Rabbi Daniel De’ei, head of Mosdot Rachel Imeinu
(The Institutes of Rachel the Matriarch), what truly protects the Jewish
people is constant Torah learning and the merit of Rachel and other
righteous figures throughout Jewish history.
Rabbi Daniel De’ei, who organizes and
financially supports round-the-clock Torah studies at Rachel’s Tomb,
Bethlehem, November 11, 2024
“We support Torah scholars who learn here in shifts 24 hours a day
except Shabbat, when the tomb is closed to the public,” said De’ei.
“Just like there can be no victory without intelligence officers sitting
in air-conditioned offices doing their work, not out in the field
fighting, so too we need Torah scholars sitting in yeshivas studying.”
Many of the people asked by The Times of Israel to explain why they
made the trip to Rachel’s Tomb to pray believed it was self-evident.
“What do you mean why? It’s mama Rachel,” said one woman, whose
answer was characteristic and who preferred not to be mentioned by name.
Lital Samuels, who wore a wig and a long dress, said that for her Rachel represents the quintessential selfless woman.
“Rachel is able to arouse God’s mercy for the Jewish people more than
anyone else because of all the sacrifices she made for others,” said
Samuels, referring to one interpretation of the story in Genesis,
according to which Rachel willingly allowed her sister Leah to precede
her in marrying Jacob.
“Rachel did not know if she would still be able to marry Jacob, but
she nevertheless let her sister go before her. She also sacrificed her
life so that Benjamin could be born and she agreed to be buried alone
here, and not in Hebron with the rest of the matriarchs, so that she
could pray for her children when they went out to exile,” she said.
Samuels was referring to verses in Jeremiah (31:15-17) in which
Rachel, long since deceased, is depicted as crying while the Jewish
people pass her grave on their way to the Babylonian exile after the
destruction of the First Temple.
God answers Rachel’s cries and promises that the Jews will return to
their country, which happens about 70 years later when Jews return and
construction began on the Second Temple. But the verses are also said to
allude to a future, and final, redemption.
Rabbi Binyamin Hershler, a fixture at Rachel’s Tomb, Bethlehem
“I have one brother fighting in Gaza and another in Lebanon,” said
Samuels. “There is a lot of uncertainty but I believe we can turn to
Rachel our matriarch to intervene for us before God, and this war will
be over and the hostages will return.”
Samuel said she was not bitter that many of the Haredi men who came to Rachel’s Tomb did not serve in the IDF.
“I believe in living and letting the other live. My husband did IDF
service and my parents did too — but if someone is seriously learning
Torah for the sake of the Jewish people that is no less important than
IDF service,” she said.
Rabinowitz, who was constantly interrupted by his team of ushers
during his interview with The Times of Israel, said it was difficult to
say how many people would show up at Rachel’s Tomb this year.
“Last year, we were still in shock from October 7 so there were no
prayers, and two years ago, the day fell on Shabbat. So we don’t really
know,” said Rabinowitz. “But we’re preparing for around 60,000 people to
come through here between now and Tuesday afternoon.”
A narrow street leads women to their small area around the Tomb while
an adjacent hallway is designated for access to the men’s section.
Rabinowitz said that in order to enable the tens of thousands of
faithful to access the tomb over a period of about 24 hours, there must
be a constant flow of people in and out of the compound, which is not an
easy feat since many prayers feel a close connection with “mama
Rachel.”
Prayers at Rachel’s Tomb, Bethlehem. November 11, 2024
Though the tomb is technically located in Palestinian-controlled Area
A, a last-minute change in the Oslo Accords, out of recognition for the
site’s historical importance and emotional resonance for Jews — though
bitterly opposed by Palestinians — ensured Israeli access and military
control.
To protect visitors to the tomb from being shot at from within the
surrounding Palestinian population, massive slabs of concrete four
meters (13 feet) high and a guard turret were erected in 1996, lending
the place a besieged atmosphere.
De’ei said that Rachel’s Tomb was imbued with a unique holiness.
“Since the destruction of the Temple, the heavenly presence can be
found at the gravesite of righteous Jews, and in particular at Rachel’s
Tomb,” said De’ei, quoting from Rabbi Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman, also
known as the Vilna Gaon.
De’ei added that while Rachel was not a deity, Jews should direct their prayers directly to her.
“She is our mother, she was selfless, and therefore God answers her
prayers and her crying on behalf of the Jews. That’s why God tells her
in the book of Jeremiah [31:16] to stop crying because there is reward
for your labor. So we should pray to her,” he said.
“But we are saying something different from God. We are saying, don’t
stop crying for us, Rachel, because we still haven’t been redeemed.”
By day, Hillel Neuhaus is a hardworking senior at Boys Town
Jerusalem majoring in Information and Communications Technology, and a
key member of the school’s prizewinning Robotics team. By late-
afternoon and night, Hillel is a lifesaving volunteer fireman, meeting
danger face to face.
Hillel started volunteering in 10th grade
After a long school day,he contributes 20-30 hours weekly to firefighting. “I’d never seen a fire before I began volunteering from Grade 10 through Boys Town Jerusalem’sCommunity Service program,” Hillel admits. “I was drawn to firefighting by wantingto help protect Nature.”
After completing a preparatory course, Hillel started rescuing
civilians (and pets) trapped in cars or buildings, in conjunction with
the fire department and police. “I first began fighting fires as a backup for veteran firemen, but soon became one of the team,” he notes proudly. “I’ve fought major fires ever since.”
Hillel has trained others to be a firefighter
As older volunteers joined the Israeli Defense Forces,Hillel advanced to take charge of the volunteers, and recentlyheaded his second training course. Asked whether he is concerned about getting hurt on the job, the young firefighter admits, “In major fires,I fully concentrate on fighting the flames. Only afterwards do I let myself think about what really happened here.”
It isn’t always easy to fight fires and be a student
Hillel confesses that at the start, his passion for volunteer firefighting took its toll on his BTJ studies. “Fortunately,my teachers worked with me to make up what I missed and to keep on track,” he says gratefully. Now, as graduation approaches, Hillel has beentapped to serve in the elite, acclaimed IDF Oketz Canine Special Forcesunit
using specially-trained dogs for missions in counter-terrorism and
search and rescue.At a recent BTJ event saluting student volunteers,Hillel Neuhaus was honored for his outstanding accomplishments, to a standing ovation by the entire school.
