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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

SHAS-ZAM!

A few posts ago, I mentioned the Beit HaKerem neighborhood in Jerusalem, whose original charter included a prohibition against the establishment of any religious institutions in its area.  Ah, Zionism…

When I was a student at Yeshivat Darche Noam over 12 years ago, I often wondered why it was that the yeshiva did not advertise itself on the outside as a yeshiva, preferring a small sign that said, “David Shapell College of Jewish Studies”.  I might add that the ‘i’ and the ‘e’ had fallen off the sign, rendering it as, “David Shapell College of Jewish Studs”.  No wonder there were so many shidduchim made that year…

I also wondered why, on Yom Kippur eve, seemingly the entire population of Beit HaKerem’s youth was gathered in Kikar Denya (Denmark Square) by the Co-Op Supermarket, many of them completely drunk on cheap vodka and hanging all over each other--like, co-ed.

I also wondered why, every year, on the day before Lag B’Omer, when the bachurim were gathering wood for the bonfire, that lady in the building next door would preemptively perch herself at her windowsill, ready to inform us that we had better not do anything, otherwise she would call the fire department.

Then, somebody told me about the heritage of Beit HaKerem as an ardently secular neighborhood, and about its founding charter’s anti-religious clauses.

Well, recently something happened that is, as far as I can imagine, revolutionary.  I had noticed that the building on the corner of Hertzl Boulevard and Beit HaKerem Street was under renovation for quite a while.  Nice, new windows were put in.  The Jerusalem stone facing was sandblasted and cleaned up.  Attractive cast iron window bars were installed.

What was happening?

Well, apparently that building is now the headquarters of the Shas Party.  Now, see if you can appreciate this.  Shas is the nickname for the Worldwide Sephardic Association of Shomrei Torah, which was founded in 1984 and is under the spiritual direction of former Chief Rabbi Ovadya Yosef, today one of the leaders of the Torah world.

A real trend within secular, Zionist Israel has been discrimination against Sephardic Jews.  The country since its inception has been governed by a secular, Ashkenazi elite class.  It still is, to a great extent.  There are many reasons for this.  One may the fact that, while the Return to Zion was as much of an ideal for Sephardim as it was for Ashkenazim, the Eastern European, secular, and hard-nosed Israeli culture that was created by the State’s founders was rather antithetical to that ideal as they saw it.  There never was a haskalah in the Sephardic world; Sephardic Jewry did not have a large segment of its population that left religion or the traditions of its ancestors.  If there are secular Sephardim in Israel, it is due to the pressure their parents and grandparents faced from the ruling class here to assimilate into its new world order.  For reasons of outlook, the Sephardim have always been a type of fifth column in Israeli society.  But let’s not disregard the fact that prejudice against Sephardim was and is essentially a racist phenomenon--of white Europeans who look down on their swarthy, Middle Eastern brethren, and Sephardim have suffered and continue to suffer the adverse effects of prejudice.

View the Shinui Party’s campaign ad, and get a glimpse of the Sephardic Jew through their rather distorted lens:

Note the image of the Israeli ubermensch being clutched by haredi, Sephardic leeches.  Also, note that their campaign slogan was “With Shinui (Change), there is no Shas in the Government.” If you think that this is an old attitude, be advised that the campaign was in 2006.  Since then, the Shinui Party has completely--and mysteriously--evaporated, much like the objects of their hatred portrayed in the ad.

I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that Beit HaKerem was probably a stronghold for the Shinui Party, which represented the interests of the secular, wealthy Ashkenazi elite in Israel (precisely the composition of Beit HaKerem, which may be the 90210 of Jerusalem; it is a gorgeous neighborhood).  And the fact is, despite the party’s leader’s racist and misogynist attitudes, his previous campaign strategy of tapping into the national hatred of haredim--another fifth column--was what gained Shinui so many seats in the previous Knesset.  It was thought that the revolution had arrived, and Israel would be freed from the religious coercion and draft-dodging of the despised haredi.  But that party bit off more than it could chew, mishandled itself in Sharon’s government and was booted from the coalition.  Then it was forced to sit amongst the opposition parties like Agudat Yisrael, Degel HaTorah and Shas.

Shinui has disappeared.  Now Shas, which many regard as the flagship of Sephardic success, sits guarding the entrance to Beit HaKerem.  I think this marks the beginning of the end of Beit HaKerem as we knew it.  But I also think that there is a lesson to be learned: you can’t make a career--or a heritage--out of disparaging the Torah and hurting your fellow Jew without self-destructing.