Three Ladies, Three Lattes: Is the media to blame?
The media caters to the small-minded part in each of us that wants to be told what to think. Is this what you want to teach your children? How to blame, fear, hate, ostracize?
By THREE LADIES, THREE LATTESBnei Brak street scene, April 3(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
I have lived in Bnei Brak for 40 years and I am terribly distressed at the negativity I feel from some of the general public toward us at this point. Do you ladies believe that the media plays a role in exacerbating the tensions between the different sectors of society in Israel? Intellectual honesty is a value, no?EdithBnei BrakPam Peled:It’s easy to claim that because God created Adam first and Eve from his rib to be his helpmeet, He prefers men to women. It’s equally easy to make the case that Adam was the prototype; with Eve God corrected the mistakes and made a perfect person. How you spin facts depends on your agenda.Agenda always informs writing, just ask Donald Trump. Of course irate readers can scoff: “Fake news! Incendiary! Shame on the media!” But underneath the spin, the facts remain: first came man, woman followed. That narrative can’t be tweaked.Whatever you think of the media, it’s hard to argue with this: the haredim comprise just over 10% of Israel’s population and constitute over a third of all corona cases in the country. The Israeli army is deployed in their cities, like Bnei Brak, although most of the inhabitants don’t go to the army. Our soldiers are distributing food parcels to the ultra-Orthodox, on our tax dollars, although many of the recipients have never worked, nor paid taxes.I’m not sure the media is to blame for the fury. I feel sorry for the average haredi. I’m sure he/she would love to get a proper education and step out of a poverty-driven life. I believe they deserve leaders who lead toward safety and health, and a productive, sustainable lifestyle combined with belief and Torah stringencies. A life of supporting themselves, and contributing to society in every way. Not merely being led to keep the non-sustainable status quo. Maybe “media-driven” discussion will lead to welcome change.Danit Shemesh:Sing along with me... ”Who is the haredi who infected the bat; who infected the monkey; who infected the Chinese; who infected the haredi; who infected the good upstanding people of Israel; chad gadya, chad gadya.” Pam says this hatred and anger is understandable; she mongers it in her columns. She says “…something is wrong with haredim!” and insists her opinion is representative of many. So, yet again I feel called upon to defend us. But I’m tired of feeling disregarded when I proclaim that the very essence of haredim is togetherness; fellowship manifested in families, in quorums, in communities. I am scoffed at when I explain we don’t have instantaneous access to social media or that our population is wary of media edicts when we do access them. I am shrugged off for claiming the vast majority of haredim and their rabbis abide by the laws.All I have left to say is that the “just add water” instant brand of hate is getting more and more dangerous. Today all you need is to headline haredim to be popularly read. Words matter. They kill. They blow the fissure wide open to a point of no return. In the wake of hateful words, can we survive as one nation?The media caters to the small-minded part in each of us that wants to be told what to think. Is this what you want to teach your children? How to blame, fear, hate, ostracize? Come to Bnei Brak and see children and soldiers sharing a laugh. Come to Telz-Stone (Kiryat Ye’arim) and see the police thanked for their hard work. I still believe in coexistence. If only the media would give peace a chance.Tzippi Sha-ked:And darkness hovered upon the face of the world and it was not only COVID-19.Newspaper headlines report both Israel and America knew about the virus for months and did nothing about it. Media coverage suggests that while Israelis have to abide by the law, haredim choose otherwise. Rivlin, Netanyahu, Litzman, Tel Aviv beach-goers, Floridian beach revelers and others choose to flout rules, but this news takes a back seat to searing television coverage of haredim coughing, spitting and jeering at our police and army.I’m no apologist for poor haredi behaviors. Still, the media is less a sounding board of haredi-secular tensions than a seasoned agitator. Tensions run high in the Promised Land, with even the prime minister slamming incitement against haredim. But where to begin addressing this issue when headlines are more interested in selling papers than informing the public?Here’s the deal: haredim are in vogue on Netflix and on bestseller memoir lists. They never make the news for anything good. Bnei Brak is the 10th most densely populated city in the world with at least six children in a tiny apartment. (They are making up for Holocaust numeric deficits while the secular, like Pam, decry their having too many children whom they can’t sustain). To a great extent, the fact of large families, in and of itself, explains the disproportionate corona infection rates.Media coverage of COVID-19 exposes a raw, festering nerve of communal tensions. We need to practice sound dentistry and not go for the tooth extraction that some suggest.Comments and questions: 3ladies3lattes@gmail.com www.facebook.com/3ladies3lattes
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