Religion
Related: About this forumReligious hardliners fight back
January 2, 2012
AFP
Backlash
protesters donned death camp uniforms. Photo: Reuters
JERUSALEM: Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews, some wearing yellow stars or the uniforms of Holocaust death camp inmates, have demonstrated against what they called media attacks against them over their efforts to segregate the sexes.
The bearded men and young boys in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood were ostensibly gathered to protest about the jailing of a member of their community for leading vigilante attacks against a local religious bookshop, considered not religious enough by hardliners.
But the ultra-Orthodox news website Kikar Hashabbat said the main purpose of the rally had become that of fighting back against ''incitement against the ultra-Orthodox public''.
During World War II, Jews in Germany and countries occupied by the Nazis were forced to wear yellow stars to identify themselves in public. Kikar Hashabbat said the wearing of them at Saturday's rally was ''an exceptional protest measure''.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/religious-hardliners-fight-back-20120101-1ph5c.html
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Christian fundies, Islamic fundies, Ultra-orthodox Jews...
It's all the same mental disorder to me.
LeftishBrit
(41,212 posts)rules on others is equivalent to the Nazis.
And it's particularly nasty to act in this way in Israel, given that a sizable proportion of the population are Holocaust survivors or descendants of Holocaust survivors.
One good thing about it, is that it will rally public opinion against the religious extremists.
Mosby
(16,360 posts)Really really disgusting, and it's only going to hurt their "cause".
Jim__
(14,083 posts)An excerpt from the Jerusalem Post:
As a national-religious family, we are Torah-observant. As part of our Jewish values, we have worked hard to make our home a place of respect for haredi Jews, non-Jews, non-observant Jews and all others. We have included haredi scholars and public figures among the role models for our children, and the message to our children has always been sharp and unmistakable: We do not have a monopoly on morality.
But how to deal with the fact that today, my children associate the word haredi (ultra-Orthodox) with the word evil? My daughter asked me if she would be killed for walking next to a haredi building on the way to her friends house. Who would have believed that I would ever hear such a question, or that I could even blink at giving an answer? The honest answer made me even more fearful than the question: I dont know. I certainly hope not, but I can no longer say for sure.
As the haredi world claims incitement, I am reminded of an incident that occurred several months ago.
more ... ( http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=251802 )