whenever election time comes around, the UTJ representatives work overtime trying to "bring everyone back home", trying to get all those upset at the party to feel like they have a place within UTJ and are part of the community. Each time it is a different tactic, but at the end of the day it is all the same. This past elections they went with a strong campaign talking about how there is no such thing as "working haredim" - they are just haredim, and their kids need schools and institutions that befit them.
And so far, in every elections, they get their point across and all these people who for years have been upset at UTJ, get made to feel guilty and go "back home" and vote UTJ. If someone is really upset and refuses to vote UTJ, he is at least made guilty enough to give his vote to Shas instead of to either a secular party or a party dubbed as being anti-gedolim.
This happens in both national and municipal elections.
And when it is not election season we get news stories like this:
Kikar reports that the yeshiva high school "Chochmei Lev" had been allocated a building in Ramat Eshkol, 3 years after they were initially allocated a place in Ramot but chased out by the Haredi community there, but Haredi representatives and rabbonim against the institution are meeting in an attempt to thwart the allocation.
Here are the comments of Chochmei Lev, via its Rosh Yeshiva Rav Betzalel Cohen...
translation:
our yeshiva, Chochmei Lev, in the beginning of its third year of existence, finds itself once again against its will in the eye of the storm.
The yeshiva is meant to allow Haredi youth, who for whatever reason are not interested in and not appropriate for the standard format of yeshivot ketanot where only gemara is learned form morning to evening, to integrate spiritual excellence with excellence in limudi kodesh alongside excellence in general studies to the point of accomplishing the matriculation exams (bagrut). It was established after a deep examination of the need for such a model, following discussion with rabbonim gedolei torah, rosh yeshivas and educators, parents and youth. With the understanding that this can prevent the broad dropout rate from the yeshivot, which comes along with a spiritual and normative dropout alongside the educational dropping out.
The opposition to the yeshiva in general and to those behind it specifically began before it was even established, but it got worse about a year ago when the yeshiva was set to move into caravans in Ramot. Then, about 20 rabbonim from Ramot put out a sharp letter against the yeshiva containing false accusations.
The yeshiva is dealing with physical and finacial situations that are not easy. It is under the ownership of the "Organization for the Advancement of Education", headed by... who have spared no efforts to create a quality solution for these youth.
The yeshiva has the support and encouragement of the Ministry of Education, and a commitment from the Jerusalem Municipality headed by the mayor, Nir Barkat.....
[...]
With the great need for the yeshiva, we are witnesses to the constant growth in the numbers of those approaching the yeshiva, of intelligent youth, God fearing, with good character traits, curious and with high motivation for higher education. To our great pleasure, they advance very nicely in all the fields, with personal maturity and taking responsibility for their actions, and their spiritual level.
The struggle that has been forced upon the yeshiva, as a result fo the decision of the mayor to allocate a plot in Ramat Eshkol, is being run by people who have not bothered to fulfill the obligation "hear the case between your bothers and make a righteous judgement between brothers". If they would have bothered to listen to the claims of the yeshiva administration, the staff, the parent body and the students themselves, there is no doubt they would not continue in their struggle and opposition to the yeshiva entering their neighborhood.
[...]
Whomever the idea of this yeshiva is dear to, along with its existence and its message, will find a way to express his position, whether in the virtual online world or in the physical world..
I suggest as a first step taking advantage of the platform available via Facebook, share this post, have your friends "like" this post and the page of Chochmei Lev, and express your opinion of the necessity of this institution and of, with God's help, many more similar institutions.
[...]
1. I find it very interesting that they are using and encouraging the expanded use of Facebook and other online platforms in its fight. There have been a lot of fights in the Haredi communities, no less in recent years than ever before, and I cannot think of a time that an institution that called itself Haredi and insisted it was part of the Hared community, used the online community as a natural part of its fight.
2. I am sure the above point will be used against it by those opposing this institution
3. Full disclosure: my son learns in this school
4. It really is a very good school with great staff. We are very happy, so far, in the one month our son has been there, with what we see spiritually, educationally and socially.
5. come election time, will anybody remember such fights and vote against the party and activists that oppose such institutions, or will people forget and buy the line that there is room for everybody?
6. this is not a fight over a piece of property and a school building. The fight is not because they want the building for a different school. The opposition waged against the school was due to the style of the school and its very existence.
7. This brought to mind the ongoing fight in Kiryat Yovel. Kiryat Yovel was a purely secular neighborhood in Jerusalem. A few years ago haredi families started buying apartments in Kiryat Yovel and moving in. It became a fight as secular residents tried to make it difficult for the incoming haredi community. They fought potential allocations of land or buildings for haredi institutions, they fought the establishment of shuls and kindergartens in apartments, they cut the eruv lines, and found other ways of making it very uncomfortable for haredi residents to live there. And the haredi community fought back. And they fought back, rightfully so, an the rights of anyone to live wherever they want and have their needs met.
Haredi families living in Kiryat Yovel, or anyone else, deserve a school that fits their needs. They need a mikva and a shul and whatever else they need.
And they are right.
Yet in Ramat Eshkol, and previously in Ramot, and we have seen it elsewhere as well, the Haredi community does the exact same thing that is done to it elsewhere and it complains about. They oppose the opening of an institution that isn't theirs or to their liking. And Ramat Eshkol is not even a haredi neighborhood. it is a mixed neighborhood. Until about 15 years ago it was a neighborhood mixed between dati leumi and secular, and then young haredi families also started moving in. Now it is fully mixed.
8. I hope that secular and dati communities around Israel and in places like Kiryat Hayovel, don't look at this fight and use the Haredi tactics against itself. After all, if the Haredi community can discriminate against institutions it does not like, why can't other communities do the same against Haredi institutions they do not like?
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