Before becoming a ba'al teshuva, Azriel Karchov was a
police officer at the Tel Aviv headquarters. His job was
simple: to apprehend criminals. Karchov wasn't a social
worker or a family consultant. So when he was told to
apprehend a particular criminal, he wasn't supposed to
inquire about the guy's family or personal problems. His
sole concern was to convey the crook to a prison cell.
Anyone who has ever seen Karchov knows that this presented
him with no difficulties.
After returning to the Judaism of his fathers, Karchov was
appointed the investigating officer in the Ramat Gan police
department. He gradually became acquainted with a different
type of police work. Over the years, links were formed
between him and chareidi groups in Bnei Brak involved in
welfare, including the Municipal welfare services, the
Mishmeres Hachinuch Vehakodesh, the Family and Child Center,
and Ezer Mitzion. Karchov became familiar with chareidi
reluctance to involve public authorities in their problems.
With time, he became trusted by city rabbonim to handle
local problems appropriately.
Please note: Bnei Brak has the lowest crime rate in the
country. Until now, it didn't even have a police station,
and most of the cases reaching the Ramat Gan police
department were what they call in police jargon,
"genizah" cases. A veteran policeman once told me:
"The cases from Bnei Brak are so simple and easy, that in
the worst case they are dealt with at supersonic speed, and
in most cases, at the speed of light."
What is a genizah case? Social problems: spats
between neighbors, complaints about noise, petty arguments.
These things are hardly ever handled by the Ramat Gan
police, because when compared to the serious crimes they
must deal with, these cases are small potatoes.
There have been more serious cases but they, too, hardly
ever reached the police, because people generally don't
complain to a body they don't trust. But what can one do?
The chareidi community doesn't have a lot of confidence in
the police for various reasons.
Karchov expected to be promoted rapidly in police
investigation ranks. But then, the rabbonim of Bnei Brak and
Mayor Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz asked the upper echelons of
the police department to set up a community police station
in Bnei Brak, one which residents would trust for filing
both serious and light complaints; where they would be
treated at supersonic speed.
The only officer suited for that job was Karchov.
The station was set up. The Bnei Brak Municipality invested
NIS 100,000 in it, and Azriel, along with four more
policemen, began to man the Center for Community Police.
So why I am writing about this?
Because the chareidi community has grown, and although it is
not crime-ridden, there is an urgent need for an enforcement
system for cases that the botei din can't handle.
Most people in Bnei Brak obey the rabbonim, who constitute
the best enforcement system one can find. However, among so
many people, kein yirbu, there is already a periphery
-- mainly youngsters who have left yeshivos, but also some
adults who sometimes need a strong arm that can handle their
problems or the problems they cause their surroundings.
One organization that entered the niche of communal policing
was the Mishmeres Hachinuch Vehakodesh, whose positive
activity is vital for the maintenance of proper communal
life. However, the hands of the Mishmeres are tied in many
areas. They have no legal enforcement authority, a fact that
is frustrating for necessary action in some educational
cases. The feeling has always been that Bnei Brak residents
are exposed to all sorts of problems to which the police do
not relate.
This is why it was urgent to open a police station that
would not conflict with the needs of the chareidi community.
This could only have been achieved by collaboration among
police and local rabbonim. Now there is a strong arm to help
keep order in Bnei Brak, an arm recognized by both the Torah
establishment and the Municipality, an arm to which local
rabbonim can turn when necessary.
"Community police," on principle, is meant to meet the
people's needs, to preserve order with a fatherly,
supportive perspective, not from a unfeeling one of just
"let's catch the thief," and to make certain that there
won't be thieves or thefts.
I've already met families who are suffering greatly because
of the actions of one particular member of the family. Yet
no one utters a word, because they are afraid of the
outcome. Approaching the Ramat Gan police department was
problematic. Now, turning to the police is less problematic,
because the hands are those of Karchov and his mind is in
agreement with directives of local rabbonim as well as
communal leaders who have finally solved the problem which
so oppressed the chareidi community: enforcing order in the
streets of Bnei Brak.
Here's the problem, however: there is no financing for this
small police station, and Karchov and his officers are
struggling more or less on their own. The communal leaders
must help empower this station, because of the importance of
protecting Bnei Brak society from. . . its very own fringe
elements. You should not need it, but the number is
6181748.
Now all we have to do is to hope that activists will
establish such stations in other chareidi centers.
