Following the tragedy in a Jerusalem daycare on Monday, in which two innocent babies died, there were shocking reactions to their deaths on online platforms, with some surfers going so far as to almost rejoice in the deaths—”two less Chareidim.”

The reactions were so shocking that even Yair Lapid, himself a master of incitement against Chareidim, condemned them, writing, “I share in the sorrow of the families of the two babies who lost their lives in the tragedy at the daycare in Jerusalem. I’m shocked by the harsh reactions online about two-month-old and four-month-old babies. The death of children is terrible and heartbreaking; it must not be brought into any political debate.”

Immediately after reports of the tragedy, a Channel 13 reporter wrote on X: “The goal that the State of Israel should strive for: that in 50 years there will be no Chareidi society. At all. Only in museums.”

He later deleted the post, but not before it was seen by many people who responded with fury, with one writing, “Is this in German?” Some people asked what the reaction would be if the word “Chareidi” was replaced with “leftist” or “Arab.”

The reporter published a “clarification,” stating, “I deleted the tweet about Chareidi society. It was unsuccessful and misunderstood. I was making a completely sociological and not theological distinction, and here’s what I think: In the 21st century there is no place for a closed society in the name of religious piety. It doesn’t exist anywhere in the world, and it’s a real existential threat,” he claimed.

“If you are already looking for culprits in the situation apropos the Attorney General, you can go to Ben-Gurion, who allowed this arrangement and perpetuated a closed and unproductive society,” he continued. “Every person has the right to choose how to live, certainly in terms of his religious faith, but it cannot be at the expense of society in general. This is also an opportunity to apologize from the bottom of my heart if anyone was hurt by the previous tweet.”

It should be noted that in recent years, there were a number of cases in which severe abuse was uncovered by babysitters at Israeli secular daycares. Interestingly, no outcry was heard against secular society.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)