Double Standards

We cannot be sure if those chareidim who picnicked in aJerusalempark while the rest of the country was remembering the Holocaust had a good time but they certainly gave the Israeli secular media a good time. In a dry news period the media pounced on it voraciously: columnists thundered editors condemned speakers decried. For them the picnics were — they will pardon the expression — a “godsend.” (Media always looking for a sensation are known to dispatch cameramen routinely on such occasions to record chareidi behavior.)

Let it be stated that to have picnics or cookouts inJerusalemon a day when the rest ofIsraelis mourning the Holocaust is at the very least grossly insensitive. Would any sentient being have a picnic on the lawn of a house of mourning? Even a few religious Jews behaving thusly brings no glory to G-d or Torah and only pours oil onto anti-chareidi fires that require no additional fuel.

The rationales are well-known: remembrance of the Shoah should be more distinctively Jewish rather than the Goyish ways of a siren and silent standing. Or: we will mourn in our own way and will not be dictated to by this secular government. But despite the rationalizations those who behaved so mindlessly on that day not only brought obloquy to the name of Torah but also showed disdain for the feelings of thousands of Shoah survivors and victim families scattered throughout Israel plus disrespect for those murdered in the Shoah.

But one question nags: do the ever-vigilant secular watchdogs get into similar high dudgeon when non-religious Israelis display their own brand of insensitivity toward sacred religious days? On Tisha B’Av the historic day of national Jewish mourning for the sacking ofJerusalemand theHolyTemples do the media scour the countryside in search of Israelis who carry on normally: shopping going on outings attending pork-serving restaurants and pubs? I don’t recall seeing any photos of secular Jews drinking at a bar on Tisha B’Av night while thousands of other Jews are sitting on the ground and reading Lamentations. And on Rosh Hashanah when millions of Jews are in synagogue returning to G-d and praying for a good year for everyone is there editorial indignation at those secular Israelis who spend the day at the beach or fly off to the garden spots of Europe? Granted such people are a tiny minority who don’t know any better and the vast majority of Israelis do honor the High Holidays. But then again the chareidi disrespecters of Yom HaShoah were also a tiny minority — which did not prevent bitter condemnation of all chareidim.