I was contacted by someone who is writing an article for a well known UK publication. The writer wanted to get my thoughts on how the Chareidi community has been affected by social media, and particularly, writers who publicize societal ills within Chareidi society.
The questions gave me pause, because while I have discussed problematic issues within Chareidi culture, it’s usually because of the larger concern over how those issues spill over into my own community.
Since most, if not all, of my lengthy response will not get published, I thought I would share the full text of my answers, as this isn’t the first time I’ve been asked my opinion about Chareidi society. The questions posed to me are in bold italics and my answers are in plain text. I will link the actual article at the end of this post if and when it comes out.
I am writing an article for [UK Publication] and would like to ask you how you see your blog effect problems in the Chareidi community.
I don’t think that my blog affects problems in the Chareidi community. It does sometimes address certain problems in the Chareidi community, but I’m not naive or self-centered enough to think that anyone from Chareidi leadership will read my blog and be inspired to make a change because of my words. People who are driven to make positive changes in the Chareidi community are already working to make those changes through personal motivation. Those who don’t see any problems within their community will not only refuse to make changes, but become hostile toward anyone suggesting that changes are in order.
I don’t write my blog to try and change the Chareidi world. They are happy with their way of life and have every right to live out their beliefs. I started writing my blog because of the growing feeling that the same sentiment isn’t true in reverse. Although I belong to a Modern Orthodox community, over the last twenty years or so, I have seen changes creeping into Modern Orthodoxy that were once only within the realm of Chareidi society. For example, gender segregation at public functions outside of synagogue services, stricter modesty requirements for women’s clothing, choosing not to have female speakers address mixed gender audiences, and the growing tendency to eliminate pictures of women and girls in community wide publications.
My blog was a way for me to make sense of this growing fundamentalism slowly creeping into my own community, and it found an audience of other likeminded people who were concerned about the same things. Along the way, I have gained some readers from a Chareidi background. For the most part, the ones who contact me attempt to help me to understand their viewpoint, others are living in the Chareidi world with growing disenchantment, while still others have gone off the derech altogether. However, I wouldn’t say that my main readership are Chareidim or former Chareidim.
Brian Culpepper of the National Socialist Movement has told me how he and similar parties use Orth. Jewish sources such as OTD memoirs, muckraker sites, blogs critical of Hareidism to substantiate their anti-Jewish ideology.
I don’t doubt that such groups use the internet and any other research tools at their disposal to find information that substantiates their own foregone conclusions. There will always be people looking to find dirt on Jews in order to further their own anti-Jewish agenda.
My concern is that such anti-Semites become an excuse among some Chareidim for why communal problems should be kept quiet and swept under the rug – because we don’t want people outside our community who already hate us, to hate us even more. There are no social issues within larger society that don’t also exist within Chareidi society. As long as you have people living together in a community, there will always be at least of few of those people who behave badly.
However, a large reason why some problems have continued to exist, is precisely because of such silence. Possible reasons for keeping problems quiet might be to avoid panic or discord within the community, but also to avoid outside hatred from a larger society who also grapple with the same issues, yet might judge the Jewish community more harshly due to anti-Semitism.
Do you think that your blog reverses some of the problems in Chareidi lifestyle? And if so, in which way?
I don’t think that there is a problem with the Chareidi lifestyle. My problem is that the Chareidi lifestyle is not my lifestyle, yet there is a growing idealization of the Chareidi lifestyle that is leading to its adoption in other more Modern Orthodox segments. While overall, there is great beauty and tradition in the Chareidi lifestyle, similarly, there is great beauty and tradition in other Orthodox lifestyles. It is sad to think that those traditions might vanish over the next few generations in favor of a mode of conduct that’s seen as superior because of its strictures.
In terms of my blog reversing any of the societal ills that take place within Chareidi society, again, I’m not pompous enough to think that a blog is the ultimate elixir for worldly injustice. However, I know that I have been personally inspired by the words of other writers. It starts with words, words form ideas, ideas can inspire actions, and actions can change the world. If my words have ultimately inspired anyone to positive action, I am truly grateful.
