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September 3, 2003 |

This morning on my way to work I saw a billboard on a bus that drew my attention. There was a picture on the right side of the bus of HaRav Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual and political leader of the Shas party. On the right side there was the logo of the Shas party. The text of the ad said in Hebrew, “There are no Chareidim, there are no Chilonim. We are all Jews.” When I saw this ad a number of thoughts crossed my mind but the first thing that struck me was the simplest of all things. I thought, “What a nice sentiment.” Now, of course, anyone living in Israel can tell you that nothing here is simple and as a result I was forced to confront the other thoughts that entered into my mind.

It made me wonder if the Chareidi leadership really meant it. Are they taking a whole new tactic in their approach to the tremendously damaging topic of Chareidi/Chiloni relations?

I thought about how months ago, during the time of the Jerusalem mayoral elections there was another ad campaign that was run by the Shinui party. Those ads said, “The Chareidim are coming.” At first I didn’t understand it until I remembered that there was a Chareidi candidate for mayor who ended up winning the election. The ad campaign was obviously intended to strike terror into the hearts of non-Chareidim in Jerusalem who should be petrified that if the new mayor of Jerusalem was Chareidi, everyone in Jerusalem would soon be wearing a black hat and a long black coat. I thought of the difference between the two campaigns and I thought how even if the intention was the same, to simply generate publicity, then the direction of the two campaigns were so different that it made me very happy to see the Shas party adopting a more positive direction in their campaign.

I decided to ask around my office and see what people thought of the ad. Most of the people in my office are adamant Chilonim who are mostly from the Tel Aviv area. To those of you that don’t live in Israel that means that these are very secular Israelis who don’t particularly like Chareidim and at times can be downright nasty in their expression of this dislike. However, since I am not Chareidi, though I am considered a “Dos” by most of them, I am able to talk to them quite openly about their feelings on the subject. So I asked around. I would be lying to say I was surprised to hear that they didn’t have quite the same feelings about the ad that I did. Most of them laughed when I told them about the ad and the general reaction ranged from mild amusement to open hostility. Even the mildly amused ones felt the need to point out to me that the Chareidim have a strong contempt for the Chilonim and that most Chilonim do not share this animosity towards Chareidim. Of course, in my personal encounters with the Chilonim in my office, I would have to say that that does not seem to be entirely accurate, but I think it conveys the general impression that one ad expressing solidarity could not alleviate the feelings of bad blood between the two sides.

I don’t claim to know what the solution to this problem is. But I have to say I was proud that the Shas leadership or whoever is responsible for this ad chose to speak about unity rather than to highlight divisiveness.

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