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racism

שו”תracism
asked 2 years ago

Following the video by Ulpanat Horev…do you think there is deep-rooted racism in the mainstream national religious community? Or is it a marginal phenomenon?
How do you think the problem of racism can be solved?
Is it legitimate not to accept many Sephardic women into an Ashkenazi institution because it would change the style of the institution?
And another question: Can you understand racism, which I really think exists in almost everyone… When they see simple Sephardim from Jerusalem behaving in a folkish manner and it seems authentic… And when someone is more “civilized” they say they are being racist… Obviously it’s shocking… But is it possible to understand that it is actually a fairly natural process [you have seen certain Sephardim as representing authenticism]

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מיכי Staff answered 2 years ago

Sorry for the delay. For some reason I missed this question.
The question of racism is complicated. You can search here on the Torim website where I wrote about it, and you will see that it actually has no definition. And I certainly do not see it as a serious problem that requires a solution, even if there are occasionally problematic phenomena in this area. I also dealt there with the refusal to admit male or female students to institutions because of the spirit of the institution. Again, this has nothing to do with racism, whether I like it or not.
Beyond all of this, it is clear that there is crazy hysteria surrounding the issue of racism. For example, the statements you quoted at the end are really not shocking to me. I refuse to give in to the accepted demagogy and brainwashing. There is indeed primitive religiosity, and sometimes it has an affinity with origin and ethnicity. In my opinion, this is a fact. This does not mean that it is true for all individuals in the same ethnicity, but referring to the public always involves generalizations. Such statements can be with or without taste, but I do not necessarily see them as anything wrong. Similarly, Garbuz’s words about those who kiss amulets are in my opinion an accurate description of the prevailing religious primitivism (by the way, as far as I remember, he did not mention ethnicity, and therefore the victims are only testifying to themselves that they are racists in their own way. But even if he had mentioned it, I do not see this as a reason for a flaw. At most, a little tactless).
When I was sent the above video (even before I saw the uproar it caused online), I chuckled to myself for several reasons. First, I wasn’t impressed that it was necessarily about the racism of these girls. The possibility occurred to me that it was mocking the racism of the Ulpana. Beyond that, there are more or less good jokes in Purim videos by high school students, and it seems ridiculous to me to draw conclusions from them. And third, in an era when the entire Zionist-religious public, with its rabbinical and political leadership, is one big attack of blasphemy, to see such an attack in a stupid video of a few girls (as Roy Lachmanovitz wrote on the Kippa website) is simply a sad joke. If this is what makes him ashamed of his affiliation with the sector, then this is itself a crazy attack on the sector.

גבריאל replied 2 years ago

Discrimination on the basis of sect unfortunately exists in Israel and is much more noticeable in the religious community where sectarian differences such as the text of the prayer remind the holy congregation 3 times a day that there are others/different/lesser with them…

I studied in a high school yeshiva where 12 out of 12 rabbis were Ashkenazim and when we once asked the head of the yeshiva why there wasn't even one Sephardic rabbi, the answer was that they couldn't find a single Sephardic rabbi of a high enough level for our yeshiva…

שואל על מנת לדעת replied 2 years ago

“And third, in an era when the entire Zionist-religious public, with its rabbinical and political leadership, is one big attack of blasphemy”. (Quote from your words above)

I didn't understand what you were talking about. Could you please explain?

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

Are you a resident of Mars? In the last hundred days, the representatives of the religious public in all its shades have been complicit in the greatest blasphemy in history.

שואל על מנת לדעת replied 2 years ago

I'm not a Martian, but I honestly don't have a TV at home. I really don't understand what you're talking about. Honestly, I'd love for you to make a point or two so I know what you're talking about.

מיכי Staff replied 2 years ago

It has nothing to do with television. Open a newspaper or the Internet any time you want and see what these people are up to in everything they touch. That's it.

א replied 2 years ago

The question may be which newspaper or website he will open. It is worth reading what is written from all sides. Unfortunately, people are influenced quite a bit by the way the wording is worded and certainly by the partial presentation of facts (scientifically proven according to Daniel Kahneman's experiments). Of course, this will be the case in a time when so much bias is embedded in journalistic writing (I know examples of this from both sides, but I do not guarantee that it is symmetrical).

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