The haredi leaders who demonstrated against the Women of the Wall on Rosh Hodesh had no intention of harming me. But they should have at least warned their followers not to interpret their words as a license to commit violent acts
By PEGGY CIDORPeggy Cidor Graffiti521(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
At first, the loud knocking on my door on Monday morning was simply annoying. I had woken up rather late that day and was irritated, not imagining for a moment what lay behind the insistent knocking. When I opened the door, I saw two police officers standing there – a man and a woman in black uniforms. My heart skipped a beat, instinctively thinking that something, God forbid, had happened to my children.The policewoman quickly said that nothing was wrong and asked me to step out into the hallway and look at the walls and at my door. It took me a few seconds to understand the words that were written: “Peggy, you are the first” was scrawled on the electricity box. “Tag Torah” was written on my door.And on the wall of the upper flight of stairs were the statements “Women of the Wall are scoundrels” and “The Western Wall is holy.”I looked back at the two police officers, still not sure about the implications. I immediately realized, of course, the connection between the graffiti and my position on the board of the Women of the Wall, but I still failed to really internalize the meaning of it all.“Do you think this graffiti is addressed to you?” asked the policewoman in a soft voice, in sharp contrast to the severity of her austere, dark uniform. “Have you been threatened recently?” asked the policeman. “Do you have any enemies who might want to harm you?” he added.I looked at them again, heard my neighbor from the first floor asking me something, and slowly began to grasp the whole situation. The two officers asked me to go inside. “We have a few questions,” they explained.I realized that I was still in my pajamas, so I went to my room to put on a dressing gown, and then we sat at the table.“Do you have any enemies?” the policeman asked again. “Can you tell us if anyone hates you and might want to harm you?” I remember staring at him and answering as in a daze, “Enemies? Why would I have enemies?” After a few more questions, the two officers left, asking me to remain at home until a detective came for further investigation and the team from forensics turned up to analyze the graffiti.The detective arrived within 15 minutes. I submitted a complaint and posted a short note on my Facebook page.From then on, things became rather hectic. The reactions to my Facebook posting, followed by a tsunami of media (including a reporter from the official Chinese press agency!) turned the graffiti into a major story, and for once I was on the other side – being interviewed and asked to give my reactions instead of my asking for it as I do on a regular basis as a reporter for this newspaper. It was a strange experience.But the major point in this issue remains the simple fact that someone, or perhaps more than one person, took the declarations of a large part of the haredi leadership one step too far in regard to the actions of the Women of the Wall.Until now I have refrained from writing about the Women of the Wall to avoid a conflict of interest due to my position on the board. But, having been unceremoniously cast into the spotlight, I am left with no choice but to relay my message.MONDAY BROUGHT many happy moments (so many friends called and offered their support) but sad and even frustrating ones as well, such as the official letter I received from Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, commonly referred to as the Western Wall rabbi. It began with a condemnation of the graffiti but then launched into condemnation of all the radical and extremist groups that try to diminish the sanctity of the Western Wall.And that is where, in my humble opinion, lies the real problem.The inability of most segments of our society to admit that very different ideas, practices and creeds are equally entitled to exist side by side is the basic cause of such harsh and dangerous situations. But worst of all is the lack of accountability on the part of too many leaders, who do not take a minute to consider where their words can take some of their followers.I have no doubt that the rabbis and haredi leaders who went to the Western Wall on Rosh Hodesh to demonstrate against the Women of the Wall had no intention of harming me personally or any of my friends in the group. But still, they should have thought about it and at least warned their followers, especially the youngsters, not to interpret their words as a license to commit acts of violence. That small but crucial step was not taken, and when it was taken, after the incident at my home, it was too little too late.I have received a few calls of support from haredim, who expressed their disgust at what happened, and I am, of course, grateful for their support. But in my view, the issue is far more serious than what happened to me. To remedy the situation, we need some strong, courageous and sound declarations by the haredi leadership, stating that disagreement does not sanction permission to commit violence.We need the courageous haredi leaders to state loud and clear to their communities that the tools we are all entitled to use in our debates and our polemics do not include intimidation, curses and the use of violence. At the same time, we urgently need the nonharedi leaders to stop using their almost anti-Semitic terminology in describing, talking or writing about their criticism of the haredi community.In a recent conversation I had with a local haredi leader, he told me that the anger aimed at the Women of the Wall was the result of an accumulation of threats the haredi community had been confronted with.“We feel that we are no longer legitimate in this country,” said Deputy Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus, head of United Torah Judaism on the city council. “We feel that it is permitted to spill our blood. We feel persecuted.The anger is very high, as well as the anxiety. Someone has to put a stop to the use of certain language that sounds as if we are no longer part of this people, of this society.”I agree with Pindrus. Too often, legitimate complaints about the attitude and the positions of the haredi community and their representatives sound like they are taken from classical anti-Semitic writings. It doesn’t mean that we should turn a blind eye to such deeds as the graffiti in my home or other acts of vandalism and violence, but the tone and terminology used should be carefully scrutinized before being expressed. •
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