Shas Demeans Russian Jews

For those who say that I have spent too much time here on Haredim, I say, “How can you blame me when they give me such good material?”

Just as a bit of background, Israelis are not subject to endless election ads on radio and television because the government allocates chunks of time and what you get is all you get. The ads are also subject to review for racism, incitement and so forth.

It’s a wonder, then, that this piece of crap from the Shas Party (Sephardi Haredim) got through:

In short, the bride with the grotesquely ridiculous Russian accent, is informing her groom that the fax machine under the chuppah is a present from Yisrael Beiteinu, the right wing party most identified with the Russian émigré community. She’s waiting for a confirmation from “*CONVERT” that she’s now Jewish. The groom’s surprised that she’s not Jewish, but then the fax comes in. The end title is: “Preserving Jewish tradition: Shas.”

There are around 300,000 Israelis who are considered non-Jews under Jewish law. Their path to conversion has been inexcusably slow and riddled with obstacles. They speak Hebrew (and certainly not with such a clownish accent) and serve in the military (unlike many in Shas).

Moderate Orthodox Rabbi Dov Lipman, running on the centrist Yair Lapid-headed Yesh Atid list, wrote this in The Times of Israel:

I am embarrassed with my country. I am ashamed that a racist attack against our brothers and sisters from the former Soviet Union was even allowed to be aired last night on national television and the time has come for serious soul searching.

The ad was subsequently banned, though it was only intended to air once anyway. There were also some objections about it by Shas supporters. Not to the message of the ad. They objected to the length of the woman’s skirt on the left.

Really now… how CAN I be blamed when they give me so much material?!