Please tell me he is a Sex Offender or at least an Embezzler

Last week a former member of Shas, Haim Amsalem became a persona non grata in the Haredi world.

 

Amsalem stated that “Israeli society agreed back in [David] Ben-Gurion’s time to the ‘Torah is his faith’ exemption from IDF service for 400 Torah scholars. They [secular Israelis] never thought or dreamed the numbers would reach today’s enormous quantity that’s gone beyond all proportions. They say we have become a burden on them? The truth is we have become a burden on ourselves. We’ve abandoned the field and let them disparage us, and call our students ignoramuses. We’ve made them hate the Torah.”

He furthered his point by emphasising that “study in a kollel is not a goal, but merely a means of training the next generation of rabbis and scholars. Whoever isn’t built for this, it’s a waste of his time. Earning a living for himself and his family is more important than anything else.”

Since making these remarks the Haredi world has not only disassociated themselves with Amsalem but labelled him as a ‘ben Amalek’, ‘roshoh’  and  destroyed his children’s chances of marrying within the Haredi community.

When I heard that Haim Amsalem had been admonished by his community who also happen to be Jews, I thought that he had committed severe sex offences, embezzlement or fraud. It breaks my heart to see a man’s communal life destroyed by speaking the truth. It is beyond me how Jerry Yechiel Brauner and other Haredi sex offenders have not been castigated by the community, yet a man who speaks his mind is destroyed. Why do the Haredim commemorate Tisha b’Av if this is the way they behave? Weren’t the Betai Mikdash destroyed because of sinat chinam?

(Haim Amsalem, if you have any daughters please put them in touch with me. I am 22, Modern Orthodox, obviously my life is more complex but I will explain in our future correspondence)

A satirical piece about the Haredi world or is it based solely on fact?