The Flotilla of the Haredim

I’m mad at Haaretz.

I mean, I’m mad at Yediot and Maariv too, but I thought Haaretz had a conscience, professionalism.

Every Haaretz article I read on Emanuel said that the parents who pulled their daughters out of the Bais Yaakov were fighting for their right to keep Sephardim out of their schools.

This is so misleading that it’s almost a lie.

The truth is that the litigants, or the prosecution, or whatever you call the lawyers who were trying to force the Emanuel parents to send their daughters back to the Bais Yaakov, claimed that the Emanuel parents intentions’ were to keep Sephardim out of their school (or, at an arm’s length in the same building). However, the Emanuel parents disputed this, and claimed that they were trying to institute a separate Bais Yaakov with higher religious standards than the original Bais Yaakov.

Who was telling the truth? I don’t know. I admit I’m a bit curious, but it’s irrelevant to my point in this blog post. My point is, that in reporting on Emanuel, Haaretz and the rest of the secular media grossly misrepresented the position of the Emanuel parents.

That was lie #1. Lie #1 was just to set the stage for Lie #2, which was much more appalling.

Having established that the Emanuel parents were fighting for their right to discriminate against Sephardim, the secular media “reported” that the huge Haredi demonstrations, staged with the support of the leaders of Ashkenazi Haredim, were in support of the right to discriminate against Sephardim.

Now, who was telling the truth, the Emanuel parents or the litigants? I don’t know. I do know one thing, though: the Haredi leaders and the Haredi demonstrators believed the parents. They were not demonstrating in support of ethnic/racial segregation -- they were demonstrating in support of the claim that the Emanuel parents were not practicing segregation. More specifically, they were demonstrating in support of the right to set religious standards for their schools.

(The policy of admitting students based on the religious standards of the parents is theoretically controversial, but it’s understandable IMAO.)

Emanuel was a trap set by the secular media, and the Haredim fell for it in the worst possible way. It was like the Tar Baby. The more the Haredim kicked and screamed and protested, the more the secular media could say, “Look how much they cherish their racism. All of them. From the leaders to the foot soldiers.” In my arrogant opinion, Emanuel did real, serious damage to the public image of the Haredim.

Why was Emanuel handled this way by the Haredim? Was it simple incompetence? I don’t think so. I think the Haredim have a PR problem. I know that the cry “Bad PR” is often an excuse, but I think in this case it’s true. The Haredim are so insular, so countercultural, so inwardly directed, that they can’t be bothered with PR. The basic attitude is, “Everyone hates us anyway.”