A Ray of Light

Israel’s chareidi community views the new government with a good deal of trepidation. And not without reason. The new finance minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has spoken with relish of “chareidim eating out of garbage cans.”

The question we face, however, is what to do about the new situation. Railing against the government and all who joined it, starting with the new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has no self-evident benefit. It just makes us look weak and dependent. Perhaps that is why the Israel media kept replaying last week the imprecations and denunciations of chareidi MKs against the new government.

But there is also a ray of light in our new circumstances. With the decline of chareidi political power, there is a decline in the fear of chareidim. Now that we are no longer able to focus our efforts on securing budget allocations for the chareidi sector, it might be the time to direct our energies to reaching out to the broader Israeli society.

One example of what form that outreach might look like was a three-hour event last week at Jerusalem’s Binyanei Ha’umah, at the conclusion of the shloshim of those who perished at Meron. The event, under the auspices of Kesher Yehudi, was designed to give concrete expression to the widespread feeling that the magnitude of the loss of 45 holy Jews at Meron demands a communal response; that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has issued a wake-up call, and wants us to do something concrete.