Saturday, August 16, 2008

Chareidi vigilantes strike again (and again)

See this frightening story of women physically attacked for the way they dress or for sitting in the allegedly wrong place on the bus. (Hat tip: DovBear.) And see this older story about a part of the brit milah/circumsion ritual that many Chareidi rabbis demand continue to be done in a manner that has already caused several deaths and infections, even though there's a safer way to do it, as if saving a life takes a lower priority in Jewish law than performing a ritual.

On a much less serious note (you should pardon the pun), I just blogged about muzzling Jewish musicians.

As I've said before, the rightward turn of Orthodox Judaism affects all Jews.

And it also affects those who thought they'd converted to Judaism, even those converted by Orthodox rabbis, even those converted by Israeli Orthodox rabbis.

Some of the more extremist among the Chareidim (fervently right-wing Orthodox Jews) would like to force all Jews into little boxes.

So here, in "honor" of the kannaim--zealots--who are bound and determined to destroy even their own (even if it means leaving children unprotected from sexual abuse) if they deviate from what the kannaim consider the "derech" (correct path of Orthodox--excuse me, "Torah-true"--Judaism) in the slightest, is a new, frummer-than-thou version of "Little Boxes." (Listen to part of the song here.) Please pardon this rant/parody, but as a 59-year-old, I remember all too well the days when blacks were arrested for insisting on their right to sit where they pleased on buses, and were attacked by police with dogs and high-powered water cannons when they demonstrated for that and other rights. Knowing that my Israeli nieces could be attacked for refusing to move to the back of a bus or for wearing jeans makes the increasing violence of the kannaim a matter of personal concern to me.


Little zealots on the hillside
Little zealots all in black and white
Little zealots, little zealots, little zealots, all the same
There's the black hat, and the white shirt
And the black pants, with the tzitzis out
And they're all dressed in black and white
And they all look just the same.

And the zealots in the houses
All go to the yeshivas,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's rabbis and there's sofrim
And students in the kollelim,
And they're all dressed in black and white
And they all look just the same.

And they all pray in the shtieble,
And some drink their l'chaims,
And they all have frummie children,
And the boys all go to shul.
And they study in yeshiva
And they all learn the Gemoireh,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.

And some zealots don't do business,
But marry, and raise a family,
And some live off tz'daka and welfare,
and off their kollel wives, all the same.
There's the black skirt and the white top
And the sheitel with the hat on top
And they're all dressed in black and white
And they all look just the same.

Little zealots in the Heights, now,
B'nei B'rak and Ramat Bet Shemesh,
And of course in Yerushalayim, little zealots, all the same
There's the black hat, and the white shirt
And the black pants, with the tzitzis out
And they're all dressed in black and white
And they want all Jews to be the same.


That's the kannaim. But, Baruch HaShem, thank G-d, there are more reasonable souls among the Chareidim.

[Note: Actually posted September 16, 2008.]

2 Comments:

Blogger Shira Salamone said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Mon Sep 22, 06:42:00 PM 2008  
Blogger Shira Salamone said...

Please pardon the "stealth" posting and commenting, but, since I work for a black-hat Orthodox Jewish organization, I don't want this post seen by my co-workers, and probably won't be able to respond to comments until I get home.

Mon Sep 22, 06:43:00 PM 2008  

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