Racists within our midsts

The noise from the recent proclamations by Ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel about renting or selling land or houses to non-Jews and therefore Arabs in Israel and specifically Jerusalem has been loud and widespread.

The objections by more than 900 rabbis from around the world who have signed a letter expressing “great shock and pain” at a ruling backed by scores of Israeli rabbis forbidding Jews from renting or selling property to non-Jews has been swift and strong.

The letter describes the ruling as a “painful distortion of our tradition” and a “desecration of God’s name” and appeals to Israeli rabbis to “take a public stand and oppose those who misrepresent our tradition”.

Jews in the diaspora “struggle to maintain a strong, loving relationship” with Israel. “Every day that challenge grows more difficult. Many of our congregants love Israel and want nothing more than the safety and security of the Jewish homeland. Says the letter

The objections are to a ruling, which originated with Shmuel Eliyahu, the municipal rabbi of the city of Safed, which caused controversy and division within Israel. It has also been strongly criticised by Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and president, Shimon Peres.

Australia weighed in with secular leaders including Danny Lamm, President of The executive council of Australian Jewry denouncing Eliyahu’s declaration.

In contrast to this wide spread condemnation. AJN watch, a blog well known in Melbourne publishes a letter from an expat Aussie.

You want Sudanese illegals and Arabs living near your kids?

Dear AJN Watch.
A friend has just sent me a scan of the comments by Danny Lamm and Philip Chester re the statement by our Rabanim against renting properties to undersirables. I would appreciate if you could post these few words on behalf of all ex-Aussies in Israel.

-Former Melbourne Bnei Akiva member

Even if Philip Chester and Danny Lamm were simply doing the politically correct thing in condemning that Rabanim and didn’t really mean it at all, it is still damaging and a massive Chutzpah.

Fancy issuing a statement welcoming potential crooks and murderers into our cities and our neighbourhoods!

Do Lamm and Chester have any family members in Israel? And if so how many Sudanese or Arabs live in their street?  And what do those family members think about their view?

The rabbis here, together with the community leaders know exactly what problems they create – both gashmiut and ruchniut, as well as the crimes and attacks perpetuated by these people.

Sitting in your safe Caulfield mansions and preaching to us is not welcome.

In future, please keep your useless and unhelpful advice to yourself.

Inserted was this picture

Now here is the rub. Ajn watch under its banner describes itself thus

AJN WATCH – the on-line voice of Australian Orthodox Jewry observes and comments on matters of interest to that community. We particularly monitor prejudice and monopolistic abuse of influence in the pages of the Australian Jewish News

The owners of the site should be ashamed of themselves for providing space for such racist and hate filled post. Orthodox should condemn the website. If they believe they represent the opinion of orthodox Jewry then they are certainly living in fantasy land.

Isi Leibler also an expat Aussie living in Israel recently posted his view in the Jerusalem Post.

He stated

The damage these rabbis inflict on the state and on the image of Jews worldwide is enormous.

For those of us educated in the tradition of enlightened Judaism, of Torah im derech eretz, the fact that such primitive statements can emerge from rabbis in a Jewish state is particularly painful.

The only positive aspect to this is that – in stark contrast to the evil incitement from imams in the Arab world, whose views are endorsed by their state governments and media – these offensive outbursts provoked an almost universal eruption of condemnation from all sectors of society.

Many in the religious world have been deathly silent. It seems that the “ghetto mentality” is alive and well. If those who stay silent believe that redemption of our people is based on this kind of attitude, they will find themselves on the outer, bundled together with the other religious extremists of other faiths.

At a time when Israel is fighting daily against deligitimization, statements and attitudes such as those by irrelevant and out of touch Rabbis is counterproductive and out rightly offensive to all Jews.