I don’t often write about the Israeli scene, but I can’t silently pass over the interview with the manager of the Plesner Committee, Aviad Friedman, that appeared in these pages last week. The interviewee’s responses were embarrassingly ignorant, largely incoherent, deeply offensive, and entirely un-Jewish.
Others more knowledgeable than me in Torah or l’havdil about Israeli politics may wish to respond substantively. I just want to make one point.
I know that the interviewer in referring to Friedman’s learning and davening his yichus and his chareidi family connections intended to use all that only to set up and add more power to the following concluding sentence the second half of which appeared boldly in red for emphasis: “But none of this prevents him from stating that he will do everything in his power to draft as many yeshivah bochurim as possible into the military.”
But I also believe that the writer made his point far too subtly and some readers will come away with an impression very different from the one he sought to convey. I’m a simple person. When I hear someone who seeks the destruction of my community’s way of life and the values we hold more precious than life itself tout his religious credentials and commitment I instinctively recoil. It is the worst sort of “some of my best friends are …” condescension and it alerts me to be on guard.
Do you know why? Because I have been observing the Jewish scene for many years and here’s what I’ve seen: For the most part the people who’ve done the most damage to Torah and the Torah community are sadly those with yarmulkes.
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