Official statement:
At the request of Gedolim in Eretz Yisroel, American manhigei hador have asked that Jews join in a large tefilla-gathering to take place on Water Street in lower Manhattan this Sunday, 7 Adar Sheni (March 9) beginning at 2:00 p.m.
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| Atzeres gathering in Manhatan Giyus protest |
The gathering will echo this past Sunday's huge atzeres tefilla in Yerushalyim, which brought out hundreds of thousands of Jews in response to the Israeli government's ongoing attempt at social engineering of the charedi community, including wholesale conscription of bnei yeshiva.
Since the state of Israel's inception, young men engaged in full-time Torah study have been deferred from military service. Those avreichim and their families have willingly accepted the consequent relative poverty and the limitations thereby placed on their ability to eventually enter the work force. In recent years, political and legal efforts have been made to change that modus vivendi and pressure talmidei hayeshivos to join the military.
Most recently, the chairman of the Yesh Atid party and current minister of finance Yair Lapid, has mobilized Israeli sentiment against the charedi community's way of life, and promoted universal (although not for women or Arab Israelis) conscription. Legislation to draft large numbers of full-time yeshiva students in stages, complete with criminal penalties, even including imprisonment, for conscientious objectors, is currently before the Knesset, which is expected to pass the bill within weeks.
The New York asifa, which will include a special area for women who wish to participate, will begin with Mincha and consist only of the recital of Tehillim and special tefillos in unison.
Buses are expected to bring participants to the gathering location from communities and institutions outside the immediate New York area, but New York residents are being urged to take public transportation to the site, which is well serviced by the subway system, and to not attempt to drive into Manhattan for the gathering.
From Hamodia The Atzeres will take place in Lower manhattan near Wall street
From Hamodia The Atzeres will take place in Lower manhattan near Wall street
The podium where the shaliach tzibbur will stand will be on the corner of Water St. and Old Slip (midway between Broad Street and Wall Street). Massive sound trucks will be strategically placed throughout the vicinity to project audio.
As organizers expect a large turnout, New York residents are urged to take public transportation to the site, which is well serviced by the subway system, and not to attempt to drive into Manhattan for the gathering. They request that anyone driving in should park on the Brooklyn or New Jersey side and take a train in to the city. The A and C trains stop nearby.
The Brooklyn Battery tunnel will have all lanes open on Sunday, a departure from the usual weekend schedule. In addition, there are ongoing discussions with transit officials to have regular weekday schedules for trains going from south Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan.
For those outside the subway system, such as Lakewood and Monsey, buses will bring participants to the location. There are already plans for chartered buses from cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, upstate New York, Orange, Sullivan and Rockland counties, Lakewood, and other New Jersey communities.
Detailed maps of the area, with access points, bus parking areas, and the place set aside for women, will be released on Friday.
The weather Sunday is predicted to be much warmer than now. While attendees should dress warmly, Accuweather.com is forecasting that Manhattan will be 40 degrees with calm winds during the day.
A huge security presence will be in the area, with the NYPD conducting periodic sweeps prior to the event. Most major streets in the area will be closed to vehicular traffic and everyone will need to pass through a security check before being allowed in. Organizers ask that attendees not bring knapsacks, briefcases or packages in order to keep lines flowing.
Hatzolah and Shomrim will be on hand.
According to the police, they will not allow any signs or placards to be held aloft during the atzeres.
Organizers asked that all participants cooperate fully with demands by the NYPD and MTA. “We want to show police and the world that this is an orderly respectable gathering,” Rabbi Gertzulin said.
Why are they calling for a atzeres again. it was about a half a year ago when the American Roshei yeshiva held the exact same protest together with Satmar in Lower Manhattan?
ReplyDeleteWhen you play baseball, do you sit down after only one strike?
DeleteWho are the "American manhigei hador"? I don't remember hearing such a phrase before
ReplyDeleteRegarding "social engineering", what do you think religous laws that the Haredim support such as having all personal status determined by the Rabbinate are (e.g. marriage, divorce, funerals, etc) ? What about banning the importation of pork and non-kosher meat? What about banning the sale of hametz on Pesach? Isn't the imposition of religous laws on unwiling people a form of "social engineering"? (Do not get me wrong, I am Orthodox/religious and I do not favor separation of state and religion in Israel, but I am asking questions a non-religious Israeli might ask).
ReplyDeleteIf it is okay for the Haredim to impose their values on people that don't want them, then why can't the larger society do the same to the Haredim who get all kinds of benefits from the state that non-Haredi society supports?
I also strongly reject the assertion the Lapid "has mobliiized Israeli sentiment" against the Haredim. This problelm is NOT caused by Lapid, and will continue to fester long after Lapid has left politics, if it is not dealt with. Anyone who talks to non-Haredi Israelis will hear ongoing resentment about the situation. As I said previously, to make such a claim that it is Lapid's fault is typical of the mentality of the Israeli political leadership of all parties which tends to dismiss public opinion.
This demonstration in the US is a disaster, worse than the demonstration that was held in Jerusalem which at least is in the spirit of democratic protest, even though I believe it is going to prove to be counterproductive. The protest in New York will be perceived by people as being anti-Israel (regardless of the intentions of the organizers), Radical anti-Zionist groups will likely use ugly slogans. Obama and the anti-Israeli forces in the US will drool at the idea of dividing American Jewry away from support for Israel.
I call on the organizers to wake up at the last minute and prevent this disaster from ocurring.
Y. Ben-David:
ReplyDeleteYour comparison is rather unfair because, for starters, nobody is forcing a chiloni to eat Matzah on Pesach and nobody is forcing that chiloni to keep his TV off either. The chilonim can more or less do as they please. As opposed to "hareidim" who are denied by the State the permission to earn a living and who are a scapegoat and target of the State because, simply, the Zionists want all Jews to become pseudo-gentiles like the Zionists while the "hareidim" refuse to do so.
More importantly, however, the Zionists obscenely claim Israel to be a "Jewish State". If they were to immediately do away with every last vestige of Judaism - though, of course, this is their ultimate goal - then neither Jew nor non-Jew would fall for this particular Zionist lie. Their establishment of a State Rabbinate has other uses for Zionism, as it gives a general hechsher to their State in general and to various atrocities in particular.
So this is not "Hareidim imposing their values". The "Hareidim" want to be left alone and allowed to keep their faith and, for that matter, to work for a living, which the Zionists cruelly denied them, unlike in any normal country where they would work if allowed to do so without giving up their faith.
It's way past time that the world knows that while we, as ordinary observant Jews, care for our brethren in the land of Israel no less than we do for those in France or elsewhere, the State of Israel is a Zionist state, not a Jewish state, and the State's very existence as well as its current (and past) actions are a gross affront to Hashem and His holy Torah.