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19 Iyar 5760 - May 24, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Even the kibbutz secretary obviously felt that some red line had been crossed. The rosh yeshiva of the hesder yeshiva in Shiloh said that he usually tries to keep a low public profile, but felt that he simply could not keep silent about what had happened. We feel that it shows the true nature of what we have to deal with daily, but this time there are no excuses.

As reported in last week's "Israel News," every year on Yom Ha'atzma'ut, the Shiloh hesder yeshiva goes for a trip to some part of Eretz Yisroel. This year they went to the Golan. At lunchtime, they asked permission of Kfar Charuv, a leftist kibbutz affiliated with the United Kibbutz Movement, to use their lawns, which was granted.

Soon after settling in, a 19-year-old resident of the kibbutz came over and asked them to leave immediately. Rav Brum explained that they had the permission of the kibbutz authorities to be there, but this did not satisfy the youth. He began to curse them, saying, "All our problems are because of you--the religious! It is a shame you did not all burn, all of you, in the Holocaust!"

The young man then called his friends to usher the group off of the kibbutz premises. Rav Brum asked if they could at least finish eating, but even this was denied, and they were forced to leave immediately.

The story reached the electronic media where, for a change, it was allowed to be presented in its full severity without any immediate attempt to "balance" the sad affair. Reached by phone for comment, the secretary of the kibbutz seemed genuinely shaken and sincerely apologetic. Another member of the kibbutz also called up and apologized and said that the affair made him consider if he could remain in a community that could produce such rotten fruits.

Though any chareidi who is exposed to the secular Israeli media knows that such outbursts are periodic features of the Israeli scene, this incident seems to have shaken up some people more than others. There was no way to write off the motive in this case to the "usual" religious criticism: the knitted-kippa-wearing yeshiva students included several in their army uniforms, and clearly not "draft dodgers." Kfar Charuv itself, located on the Golan Heights, cannot cast stones at anyone for being located on Arab land.

The upshot is that the only explanation for the awful outburst, unnecessary and completely unprovoked, is pure hatred for religious Jews. However, it is clear that the youth is not an original thinker, but rather learned his approach from others.

The Hebrew Yated wrote, "It is not enough to apologize publicly, they must search their souls to discover how such antisemitic children can grow up in their midst. Until they identify the roots of this deep hatred that led to the expulsion of the group from the lands of the kibbutz, the people of the United Kibbutz Movement cannot say they have cleansed themselves of the stain . . . "

Members of the kibbutz responded to the criticism in the Yated, and this is perhaps the only positive glimmer in the entire story.

Although it is clear that anyone imbued with a true Torah spirit could never even think such sentiments towards a fellow Jew, we should not miss an opportunity, especially during sefiras ho'omer, to strengthen our own awareness of the deep bonds that bind all Jews and make them precious parts of the Am Hashem.


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