Focus on an extreme minority or shout at all Charedim?

Our attention this past year has been so grabbed by issues of global significance, that it is sometimes easy to ignore societal trends unless they explode into an act that outrages us. The riots in areas of London and other places in England were such a case in point. They did not occur in a vacuum, it was just that our attention was elsewhere, detuned to kindling that waited for a spark to ignite it.

Such has also been the case with our attention on Israeli society and in particular segregation of women in ultra-orthodox circles and extreme responses to Palestinian and left-leaning NGOs. We have seen the horrific work of the ‘price-tag’ hooligans who committed arson against mosques and terrorised leftish politicians and their supporters. We have lived with the concept of ‘mehadrin,’ gender-segregated buses since 2006 when Miriam Shear was assaulted for refusing to give up her seat to a male passenger and move to the back of the bus.

Maybe it was the lack of other news but the focus on abuse by men from the Sicarii - an extreme charedi, ultra-orthodoxy sect - in Beit Shemesh, of girls as young as 8 attending a state-funded national-religious school – calling them ‘prostitutes’ and being spat on – has awakened Israeli society from its slumber and demands our attention...

...Pappenheim and other charedi reformists, who risk personal attack and ostracisation to speak up, provide an interesting train of thought. They believe that the Sicarii should be clamped down on but that the charedi majority who seek to be engaged in the army, academia and the professions need support from the government and general public. What is called for is a nuanced response not a polarized reaction that demonises all charedim.