Church officials in Yerushalayim met with Eida Chareidis representative Shmuel Popenheim on Tuesday along with Jerusalem City Hall officials, among them Mayor Nir Barkat.
According to BaKehilla correspondent Yaakov Rivlin, Church officials were meeting with the Eida and the mayor and other officials were acting as go-betweens.
The church representatives addressed graffiti and rock-throwing attacks against houses of worship, disturbed by the alarming trend. They speak of cases when trash was dumped in churches and relate to it as offensive acts against their religion.
Rivlin was asked by Kol Chai Radio how does the Church know with absolute certainty that the source of these vandalism attacks stems from the frum community. Rivlin stated that security cameras do indicate that the vandals outwardly appears to be members of the chareidi community, albeit they may be the outcast at-risk youth, but nonetheless in the eyes of the Church, they are from the Eida stream.
Popenheim decried the acts, indicating they are isolated incidents of disturbed individuals not a policy that is supported or in any way endorsed by the chareidi community.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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7 Responses
Did these same people ever speak out against vandalism directed against Jewish houses of worship, especially the desecration found when cleaning up ancient shuls in Iraq or other arab areas, and the unspeakable atrocities in Europe?
Do they consider them alarming offensive acts against the Jewish religion?
When the Church will apologize for their actions to the frum then we will address the problem. Until then I hope that all of Meah Shearims trash is dumped in the Church yard.
The church has a long history of anti jewish abuse, and should even be ashamed to attempt such a meeting.
Of course the meeting happened with the help of the mayor who uses every opportunity to bash the frum community that elected him. If the offenders were chilonim no action would be taken.
“Did these same people ever speak out against vandalism directed against Jewish houses of worship…?”
“When the Church will apologize for their actions to the frum then we will address the problem.”
Regardless of the above, frum Jews have a responsibility to be a “light unto the nations”. A frum person dumping garbage into a churchyard is a chilul Hashem, and could cause increased hatred toward the frum community needlessly. Popenheim was correct to have condemned the acts.
When considering whether an action is right or wrong, shouldn’t we think about what our gedolim would say about it? Let’s see…if R’ Elyashiv had been asked if it is proper to dump garbage into a churchyard, what would he have answered? Hmmm…
Behavior problems are not just a matter of the “outcast at-risk youth” among us. It is a problem with those even from the finest of homes; and it should be addressed and no longer swept under the carpet.
Thank you NY Mom
Now do we need to convene a Sanhedrin to figure out that throwing garbage at any house of worship is improper behavior. NY MOM says it well, are we a light unto the nations? or a 25watt bulb in a dark forest?
BS”D
If the church were a shul, it would be no problem. The municipality zol brennen in der erd would issue a demolition notice and turn it into a garbage dump!