The new haredi warriors

Who are the hardakim? And why are they coming under attack from their community?

By LAURENCE BROWN
HAREDI YOUTH participate in a protest against the draft521 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
HAREDI YOUTH participate in a protest against the draft521
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Anonymous death threats sent to haredi (ultra-Orthodox) soldiers and police recruits serving in the Israel Defense Forces warn that an all-out war will be fought at the “right time and place,” if these members of the haredi community in Israel choose not to abandon their military bases and discard their “tamei [ritually unclean]” uniforms.
The arrangement between the IDF and the haredi community since the establishment of the state means that most haredi conscripts can be exempted from army service just because they are full time yeshiva students. Those who choose to enlist form a small minority of potential recruits from the haredi population: 1,300 out of 40 000.
Most haredi conscripts choose either the police force or the Nahal Haredi battalion. The battalion, known as Netzah Yehuda, was established in 1999 as part of the Kfir Brigade and operates under the Central Israel Command, West Bank Command, and Jenin Local Command. Its motto is “act wisely and decisively win.” In addition, the Israel Air Force also has a haredi computer unit.
But haredi conscripts have come under attack from elements in their own community. As things stand today there are just under 40,000 haredi men eligible for immediate enlistment. However, more intriguing, is the discrimination faced by current haredi soldiers in their own neighborhoods. This discrimination has manifested itself in vociferous campaigns against the conscription and increasing acts of physical violence, so much so that the situation is being referred to as a Milhemet ahim, a war between brothers.
The word hardakim first appeared earlier this year.
This name replaces a previous tag referring to the haredi soldiers – haharedim hahadashim, the new haredim.
The Jewish Encyclopedia explains that hardakim is a derogatory epithet for Nahal Haredi soldiers and is an acronym for Haredim Kalei Da’at (unintelligent haredim) or haredim haidakim, meaning polluted insects that undermine the ultra-Orthodox world and cause it to become impure.
The Tal Law that granted an indefinite exemption to haredi conscripts expired in July 2012. Since the release of the Peri Commission and the adoption of the bill for haredi enlistment on May 29, the public debate in Israel has in the main been about universal haredi conscription by 2017. While it is undoubtedly true that segments in the haredi community would always boycott any action of the state, the issue of the impending draft of haredim has ignited the haredi community across the entire world in ways not seen before – even as far as Manhattan where, last month, tens of thousands of haredim protested.
THIS IS not the first time in Jewish history that we find religious extremists rebelling against the popular leadership. During the period leading to the destruction of the Jewish Commonwealth and the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70CE, the thugs of the Sicarii gangs terrorized the residents of the city. Led by Ben Battia, Menahem, and Abba Sikra, they opposed the leadership of Yohanan Ben-Zakkai using brutal and violent tactics. Armed with 15-cm. Roman knives called sicae, the Sicarii gangs assassinated anyone who dared appose their narrow religious ideology.
In an act of defiance, Abba Sikra burned down the food storerooms of the besieged city leaving the Jerusalemites without vital supplies. Ben-Zakkai then acquiesced to Vespasian and the city was lost.
A soldier from Bnei Brak posted this account on his blog on May 23: “When I alighted from the bus, I went into the yeshiva, and all of a sudden a group of boys shouted at me ‘Hardak! Get out of here! Are you not ashamed to appear in Bnei Brak in your army uniform?’ They shoved me, all the while more boys joined in….
It was my luck that I managed to flee.” Within days of the blog posting, pashkevilim (wall posters) appeared throughout haredi neighborhoods urging the ultra-Orthodox community to expel the hardakim from their enclaves immediately.
On Monday, a sub-committee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee convened in a session to hear evidence and reports about the latest campaign in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods throughout the country against haredi conscripts. MK Elazar Stern, a former IDF general and commander of the IDF Manpower Directorate, warned, “Anyone who is embittering the lives of haredi soldiers needs to have his life embittered in return…. Just as we do with the most serious criminals in our midst.”
Addressing the Knesset Sub-Committee for Personnel and Training on Monday, Brigadier General Gadi Agmon of the IDF Manpower Directorate, compared the campaign to the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer.
Agmon told the committee that the directorate has received 80 reports of physical violence and verbal intimidation against haredi soldiers, although the police reported only one formal complaint. Acts of physical violence reported to the IDF Manpower Directorate include stone throwing, being spat at, tires slashed and graffiti. “The moment you submit a complaint, the harassment against you just gets worse,” said Elchanan Fromer, a former soldier in Nahal Haredi.
Head of Planning in the IDF’s Personnel Directorate Brig.-Gen. Gadi Agmon expressed a dire prediction that an escalation of this campaign against the haredi conscripts would “intensify to the level of physical injuries. We are in the midst of a delegitimizing campaign of haredi society against those serving in the IDF. They go through severe harassment – they are not counted in a minyan [prayer quorum], excommunicated and their kids are condemned whilst at kindergarten.”
Agmon summarized that “action is needed on the matter in the legal sphere as well, in order to secure the safety of the haredi soldiers, who are exemplary models.”
Reacting to the latest threats, Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and chairman of the Peri Commission remarked that, “any attempt to interfere with haredi soldiers, either with force or intimidation, will be met with the full legal force of the state.”
In April, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former chief rabbi and leader of the Shas Party, who was sitting shiva for his son. During his condolence call, the rabbi told the prime minster, “I am a mourner now, a father burying his son. And yet, my greatest pain is my sorrow over the enlistment of yeshiva students.”
A HAREDI organization called “Fortress – The Center for Protection of Draft Issues” published a 32-page brochure urging the haredi public; “If we ever get to the point where they put a choice before us to do one of the three cardinal sins (incest, murder, and idol worship) or be killed, we will choose death instead of a life of betrayal of God.” The brochure details how enlistment in the IDF is on par with these transgressions.
Posters depict IDF soldiers, easily identifiable as haredi conscripts, chasing young children in an attempt to round them up for their army superiors.
As they run away, the artist portrays the children shouting, “Mommy, save us… a hardak!” Others show the Nahal Haredi conscripts walking on all fours underneath the caption “Katzon latevah – like lambs to the slaughter” – the motif invoked by critiques of the perceived passive response of a significant part of European Jewry during the Second World War.
Stickers posted on lampposts and walls serve to warn the residents to be aware of the hardak presence in the area. One such sticker reads; “Beware – there are hardakim in our neighborhood! “For the sake of our future! For the sake of our children’s future! Keep this place clean! This area is free from hardakim! Passage through this neighborhood is absolutely forbidden for hardakim!” And yet another sign depicts a black boot on the foot of a shadowy figure, presumably a haredi extremist, stomping on caricatures of haredi soldiers. And a particularly disturbing poster serves as a warning, “Hardakim, let us live! Stop contaminating the air!” The pashkevilim warn that by joining the army, young haredim men will lose their identity; “There were Sadducees…. Assimilationalists…Frankists….
Zionists… Reformists… now there are the hardakim.”
Yehuda, a young man walking the streets photographing the signs and posters, said “This campaign reminds me of the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Thirties in Nazi Germany. New stickers and posters appear every day.”
The pashkevilim on the billboards tend to be more inflammatory. There are photos of soldiers graphically distorted to resemble cockroaches.
One such poster depicts a large roach exclaiming, “Great, my hardakim have already infiltrated the community. They are successfully bringing the youth of the neighborhood into the clutches of the IDF and community service.”
Within a period of three weeks, there were two serious assaults on haredi conscripts in Jerusalem. On June 16, a group of haredi youth attacked a Nahal Haredi soldier as he drove through the Bukharian Quarter. “A number of haredi youth blocked the soldier’s car from the front, threatened him and then dragged him out of the vehicle and attacked him,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. “They then tore off his kippa and fled the scene when police arrived.”
Two weeks earlier, two soldiers were attacked in a haredi area and ended up in the hospital. In both cases, no arrests were made.
Jerusalem police recently raided the Ahva printing press in the Makor Baruch neighborhood and removed hundreds of posters that were to be pasted in haredi areas. In photographs taken of the raid, there is a picture of one of the confiscated pashkevilim promoting “hardakim competitions.”
One competition is for so-called “professionals” and another for children. The professional competition asks the public to submit cartoons and caricatures of haredi IDF soldiers that will promote a clear message to the ultra-Orthodox world. The other competition called on children to submit entries instructing them; “In each illustration there must be an image of a hardak and children around, plus attitudes of children to the hardak. The best entries from both competitions will be published once a month.” At the bottom of the poster, the following disclaimer appears – “bringing awareness [of hardakim] does not lead one to sin.”
IT APPEARS that two disparate positions have emerged within the haredi world.
The first faction comprises the opponents of enlistment. Among their number are Rabbi Aaron Steinman and Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, both veritable scions of the Lithuanian camp. Auerbach recently declared that young men receiving their draft notices should not go to the enlistment office. Alongside the Lithuanian camp stand the hassidic courts of Gur, Belz, Satmar, Vishnitz, and Natorei Karta.
In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Zvi, an activist within the Satmar community, explained why the community has ganged up against the haredi soldiers. “The soldiers are a threat to our existence. The hardakim must be driven out of our neighborhood, if necessary by force. Violence is always the last resort. I do not want my children playing with theirs. I do not want my children visiting their homes and seeing bad things.” According to him, leaders within the community are coordinating the violence. “I give more than most to the state,” said Zvi. “I am a first responder for Hatzalah as are many of my friends. Without being told or forced to, I do community service. I save people’s lives. Yet the public does not give us credit for the work that we do. I am a person who will put down my life for my beliefs. All I want is to live the lifestyle of my father and grandfather.”
The haredi website Kikar Shabbat quoted Motti Rosenstein, Steinman’s right-hand man, stating that “whoever does not learn [Torah] should be selfconscious, and it is incumbent on us to teach him to be embarrassed.” He stressed that the fault lies with the soldiers and the haredi police conscripts who continually provoke the public by appearing in their uniforms in the neighborhood.
Notices posted on behalf of Moshe Zev Zargar, a rabbi affiliated with the Satmar hassidic camp, declare a total ban on all uniformed soldiers anywhere in the haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem. “To our sorrow, we are witness to an increasing number of those opting to wear the uniform. As we know, they do not have a shortage of soldiers and they do not need the haredim in their army. Their entire goal is to penetrate the haredi community with this nega [infliction].” He instructs his followers that “if a Jew enters the study hall with such clothing, we should yell at him ‚Tamei [impure], get out!’ since these clothes are impure when coming into contact with them. One must not pray in such clothes. These clothes proclaim heresy.” Yankel, another Satmar hassid told the Post that he will always abide by his rabbi’s instructions. When asked whether there were any limitations in this regard, Yankel answered, “I will do anything without question.”
IN CONTRAST, there have indeed been haredi leaders who have reacted in favor of the new law. Among this group is another member of the Jerusalem faction of the extreme Lithuanian camp, Rabbi Dov Tzvi Karelinstein, head of the Grodno Yeshiva. Speaking with his students in Ashdod, he expressed his support for the haredi soldiers. “Whoever humiliates or degrades a haredi soldier has no part in the next world. I’m sure a haredi young man who studied in a yeshiva and was drafted to the IDF received a heter [permission] from his rabbis, and one has to hold a dialogue with them. But to harm them? Degrade them? Watch out for your souls.” He added, “Residents who are really pained by the situation can peacefully go up and ask those soldiers not to offend our public dressed like that and put other clothes on when they are in a haredi neighborhood.”
Rabbi David Bloch, the official spokesman for Nahal Haredi and a resident of Bnei Brak, responded; “We have been told by our ancestors, anyone who opposes the good in his friend, may end up opposing the good of Hashem [God]. Anyone who is ungrateful to the soldier for the defense of the Jews in Israel, so he can live here in relative peace, is unappreciative.”
He concludes, “Even if we were living in exile and there are enemies who want to destroy us, we must be grateful to those who worked and are working to save lives. One could be anti-Zionist and still be grateful to those who saved lives.”
“Haredi anger is not justified. There are those who should study Torah but some, like me, want to join the army to contribute to their country and be part of Israeli society,” said Tzvika Gedalovitz, who served in the unit.
Another soldier contends that the driving force behind the violence is haredi fear of assimilation and independence.
In Betar Illit, an organization was formed to counter the adverse propaganda against the IDF conscripts.
Israel Pachter, of the Tov (Sephardi) faction of the Betar City Council, posted alternative pashkevillim in the city titled, “Thugs have ruled over us!” The IDF Manpower Directorate at the General Staff has responded to requests from the haredi conscripts and opened a hotline for dealing with their complaints. The IDF has received at least 60 requests from Nahal Haredi soldiers to exempt them from the requirement to wear uniform, in spite of the IDF requirement that all soldiers remain in uniform until they have returned home. According to the directorate only 20 such exemptions have been granted. At the end of June, an IDF Manpower Directorate committee convened to discuss soldiers’ petitions to ride public transport in civilian clothing.
Wives and children of these soldiers are also at the receiving end of this malicious campaign. The same IDF directorate reported, “We have heard of incidents in which soldiers were prevented from attending their synagogue, were spat on during prayer in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem… and threatening notices were pinned on doorways.”
There is evidence that children of haredi conscripts have been expelled from their schools, and in some cases communal financial aid is withdrawn from the soldier’s family. Some soldiers have taken to changing in the restrooms at central bus stations to return home in civilian clothing to avoid the harsh communal sanctions applied to haredi conscripts, and risk being caught by the military police. However, being fined is still seen as preferable by these soldiers to being cursed, spat on or beaten.
Shimi, connected to the Breslov community and who describes himself as a Kanai [zealot], met with the Post in the Bukharian Quarter of Geula close to where the Nahal Haredi soldier was attacked on June 16. “Both sides in the conflict are at fault. The money that the IDF pays attracts the young men and they lose their identity as a result of enlisting.
Those who commit acts of hostility are misguided because violence is always wrong. Until they do teshuva, repent, they must be coerced to leave our neighborhood without resorting to violence.
These people will always be welcome back.” Shimi was emphatic to point out that there while there is no rabbinic approval for the actions of “a few individulals who have resorted to violence, the rabbis have insisted that the soldiers and their families leave the haredi neighborhoods.”
Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu Party, wrote on his Facebook page, “It is incumbent on the leaders of the haredi community and their political representatives in the Knesset to condemn the actions… and the violence against soldiers who dared to wear their uniforms in the neighborhood.”
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon equated the campaign with “Jewish terror.” He added “we will do everything in our power to end this vile campaign.”
IDF Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz told soldiers in Netzah Yehuda that any objection to the uniform of the IDF in haredi neighborhoods is dishonorable and disgraceful.
His advice to the conscripts is to, “persevere and to get through this difficult period.” He praised the haredi soldiers saying that their presence in the IDF is a “great honor for you and for the state.”
Chaim S., a soldier in Netzah Yehuda, echoed these sentiments. “This is my commitment, and I am fine with it. The day I realized that I am not able to sit and learn Torah all day, I joined the army and no extremist will move me from my decision. One who serves in the army is no less worthy of the Torah.” ■