January 16 2012 Ultra-Orthodox Problem Orthodox Jews in Israel are concerned about a rapidly growing radical group of fundamentalist Jews called Haredi... Cenk Uygur/ Steve Oh discuss on “The Young Turks”... Steven Oh: in Israel there is a big rift between the ultra-orthodox Jews v. the rest of the Jews in Israel... the ultra-orthodox Jews... a group known as the Haredi... recently protested because they are very/ very angry that the government made them take down signs in their neighborhood that said that women have to walk on the other side of the street... because of that they allege that the state of Israel is no better than the Nazis... claim that Israelis were agents of Hitler... when they see young girls walking to school they run over to them... spit on the girls... call them “sluts”/ “whores” for daring to go to school... if they see a sliver of skin exposed they just lose it because they think these girls are being whores... recently there was a big fuss because a female Israeli soldier was on a bus... she refused to go to the back of the bus... these Orthodox Haredi Jews told her to go to the back... they accused her of being a whore/ slut... Dilan: that is the one time I would like the Israeli army to regulate Steven Oh: she is now known as the Israeli “Rosa Parks”... the Haredi refuse to work... they do not do any work... they refuse to serve in the Israeli army... they reject the legitimacy of the State of Israel itself... they take welfare from the state... Dilan: Haredi Jews live here in the US... they do the same thing in the US... they are in fact some of the worst abusers of welfare in the country... Steven Oh: in Jerusalem... the Haredi forced all the pictures of women to be taken down... billboards/ signs/ everything... although the billboards had no pictures of women... in fact there was a nationally provided promotion for organ donation... they had to redo all the ads to take out all the women... the Haredi men take organs when they need them but they refuse to donate their organs because they say that is in contravention of Jewish law... they are the worst of the worst... Dilan: if it is such a contravention of Jewish law then why do you not take the organs... Steven Oh: the problem is there is a small minority right now... they say around 10%... however like most fundamentalists they have massive numbers of babies so the fear is that by mid-century they will be about 25% to 40% of the Jewish population in Israel... this is terrifying for the rest of Israel... Ephraim Halevy... a former head of the Israeli Mossad said that these ultra-orthodox Jews have darkened all of the lives of all Israelis... that they are a greater threat to Israel than Iran... * * * * * I followed this up by watching a 5-part documentary on Haredi Jews... indeed they quote Bible scripture to insist that there is no basis in the Bible for a state for the Jews... indeed they have big families... indeed they believe the man of the household should devote himself as much as possible to the study of the Torah... they state that the Torah is authentic but that the Talmud is a degradation of Judaism... indeed they are among the poorest Jews in Israel because they believe it is more valuable to gain spiritually than materially... this is a wife of an Haredi who is running a school for girls/ women... helping them to become professionals so they can support the family... the women are happy to do this as they admire the spirituality of their husbands... the Haredi refused television... now they are having difficulty with the Internet... they do not want the outside world to corrupt their purity of religion... there is an Haredi businessman who is introducing a “kosher”/ security protected Internet for the Haredi community... Dilan: fundamentalists of all stripes are unreasonable... I believe in religious liberty... it is one of the fundamental principles upon which the US was founded... so there is only so much you can do... you do not have to accommodate them... it means they can do what they want to in terms of organ transplants etc... that is none of our business... they should not be able to mandate what the rest of Israel does... the police should come to regulate when they spit on little girls... it is not like the Israeli police do not know how to take control of a situation... here in the US we are going after the people who are protesting the big banks... pepper spraying the protestors... hitting protestors with batons... when there is a time for police regulation is when a man would spit on a little girl... Cenk Uygur: what I would say as a fellow Jew... it really upsets me... I was thinking... what if I were there?... what if it were my sisters that were being spit on by a fellow Jew?... it really upsets me... if my sister were to be walking down the street... if I saw this happening... I do not know what I would do... it is Jews against Jews... it should never be that way... that is not what Judaism is about at all... Steven Oh: they believe that because they believe in their God... because they are so pure with their belief... that they are ultra-orthodox/ super fundamental... they think that they are closer to God... that everyone else is beneath them because they are not as close to God... this is why in its purest/ most fundamental form religion is a very dangerous thing... * * * * * the problem with Judaism is the belief of being the “chosen” people of God in all degrees... here we see Jews against Jews on the basis of the degree of “chosenness”... the fear of contamination by anyone not as “pure” as oneself... https://youtube/watch?v=rhQjHJJI6U0 5.49
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 19:17:51 +0000
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