I’m Not Hareidi, Have Never Voted Hareidi, and This Time I Will: Here’s Why
Dear Anglo Israeli Voters
My experience since October 7th, which for us began with the savage murder of one of our son’s best friends at Nova, is that all our initial b’yachad n’natzeach hopes for the Hareidi community were not only dashed, the chasm has grown deeper and wider.
The tensions between the Hareidi community, representing roughly 18% of the country, and the other 82% of us—regardless of where we are on and social, political, or religious spectrum, have become dramatically, and dangerously worse.
In the days, weeks, and months following that nightmare Shabbat-Simchat Torah, many of our konseptziot, our long-held assumptions and rock-solid perspectives, lay smoldering on the ground like so many torched and bleeding homes in Beeri, Nachal Oz, and elsewhere. One of those konseptziot was that somehow we had reached a point in Jewish history where mutual contempt, hatred, and even being at the precipice of civil war, was no longer a threat to Am Yisrael. By the morning of the 8th, there was already a collective, wrenching gut sense that not only had our prolonged infighting thrilled and emboldened our enemies, but that seething Jew-vs-Jew enmity had again been exposed as our Achilles Heel.
And Now It’s Worse
We’re long past weighing and measuring the righteousness of anyone’s complaints about “the other side,” or trying to be fair and see both perspectives, because it no longer makes a difference how much truth is or isn’t fueling people’s rage. Because that’s where we’re at, widespread volatile rage has now become embedded in our collective psyche.
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t know that we’re sitting on a rumbling volcano that can blow at any minute, and that when it does, Jewish blood, spilled by both the 82% and the 18% will flow in our streets? Personally, even at the height of the ugly judicial reform battles, I never thought we were at risk of civil war. Today however, I’m both shocked that it hasn’t already happened, and wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if that horror of horrors explodes.
I Gave Up Hope
My precious and always supportive wife often finds me to be annoyingly optimistic. A legitimate claim.
For a long time, I harbored the hope that somehow the established Hareidi leadership, rabbinic and political, would rise to the challenge of the moment and become leading agents and ambassadors of peace. I truly believed that somehow “Torah scholars nurture and increase peace,” would become manifest in bold new words and actions that would inspire us all.
While I can’t pinpoint the moment, at a certain point my optimism and idealism crashed on the reality of impending disaster that no one, not from the 18%, and not from the 82%, had any idea how to rescue us from.
And Then A Ray of Light
Last May, an old friend situated well within the Hareidi world, told me that he was involved in efforts to create a genuinely revolutionary kind of Hareidi party that would address the issues over which I became so agitated every time we spoke. My response was, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” and then I became a pest. Every couple weeks I’d shoot him a WhatsApp, “Nu, where’s your party?” “It’s coming, it’s coming, trust me.” “I’m done with trust,” I said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
And one day I saw it, read everything I could, embraced it, and asked how I could help.
Hatzibur HaHareidi – The Hareidi Public party is nothing less than revolutionary, and the revolution begins with its core values:
Responsibility for the collective well-being of the entire society and country.
Partnership and Arvut. The nurturing of a consciousness that sees Hareidim as full, equal, and engaged partners in building a shared and continually remarkable future.
Giving. A once tiny, post Holocaust, fighting-for-survival-and-revival community that related to the State and its coffers as something to take from, is now a vibrant, strong, and highly capable community that must think first and foremost in terms of giving, not taking.
Before you make up your mind about who to cast your vote for, I urge you to visit the Hatzibur HaHareidi website. https://hatzibur-haharedi.org/
What you will find is values-anchored policies in the critical areas of army service, education, and integration into Israel’s dynamic economy that are a true 360-degree turn from what Hareidi political leadership has championed until now.
Why I’m Voting Hatzibur HaHareidi and You Should Seriously Consider It Too
No question. We’re headed for a bloody, explosive disaster that any match, at any given intersection in the country, could spark at any moment. It’s clear to me that the one and only party with a realistic chance of shifting that trajectory is Hatzibur Ha’Hareidi. Here’s why—
All of the other parties have positions and plans on how to deal with the Hareidi conundrum, and while many have merit, they all crash on the same built-in flaw. All of them are policies that will be imposed from outside the Hareidi community. The only thing that will accomplish is guaranteeing frantic pushback, a circling of the ideological wagons, and therefore a dramatic exacerbation of an already explosive reality.
Post October 7th, in the wake of our smoldering konseptziot, we were all desperate for bold new thinking, and fresh, visionary new leaders. Well, here it is. This is a party that has truly internalized the urgent post October 7th need, specifically focused on what is arguably our greatest existential threat. When it comes to this ready to explode volcano, every other party is tinkering, while only Hatzibur Ha’Hareidi is offering true, fundamental tikkun.
Oh, and About That Potentially Wasted Vote?
I get it. Unfortunately I’ve experienced that in an earlier election, and it left a very bad taste in my mouth. However—
Whatever party I may have voted for before the emergence of Hatzibur Ha’Hareidi, will do just fine without my vote. I couldn’t care less who gets one less seat, what I care about is that the only party hyper focused on a grave threat staring us in the eye gets enough votes to cross that sacrosanct threshold and is able to begin the hard work of building a new paradigm for ensuring the brilliant, shared future that we all know is possible. Because that work needs to begin: Yesterday.
So from now until election day, I’m reverting to my annoyingly optimistic self and doing whatever I can to get out the vote, because to avoid the warnings, like the warnings of those tazpaniot-outlook girls were ignored, just isn’t an option.
PS. Dear Anglo Israeli Voters
My next blog piece will include a set of ways you can help this effort, though if you want to jump in asap, feel free to shoot me an email at sjdorf@gmail.com. I look forward to speaking.