Orthodox Jews walking through the Old City of Jerusalem on their way to the Kotel were caught on video spitting in front of passing Christians. There were other videos that surfaced at the same time as they passed the doorway of a church or monastery some were spitting at the door or at the ground in front of it.
קבוצה של צליינים יוצאת עם הצלב לרחוב שער האריות ונתקלת בקבוצה של מתפללים יהודים עם 4 המינים ואז מתחילות היריקות. ספרתי לפחות 7 בכמה שניות. pic.twitter.com/YjqaknATLw
— نير حسون Nir Hasson ניר חסון (@nirhasson) October 2, 2023
Many have since condemned this sitting, including Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion, among others. Some have justified it calling it an ancient Jewish custom.
There was a custom, though I am not sure if it was an actual custom or just a common behavior, to spit. It was done during davening, and it was done when seeing such Christian priests. It was understandable - we suffered greatly at the hands of Christians throughout history, until very recently. Those were ancient times. Today, in modern society, this is considered a hate crime. We Jews would not want people spitting at or in front of us just because they saw us or saw our synagogues. We would raise a ruckus throughout the world about antisemitism, hate crimes and the like. As much as we have long memories and remember the pogroms, crusades and genocide perpetrated against the Jews by Christians, and spitting on the ground is not exactly repaying them for their crimes, we do need to be better now.
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