{"id":517,"date":"2011-03-08T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T19:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/haredi-rabbis-make-play-for-young-secular-souls.html"},"modified":"2011-03-08T19:01:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T19:01:00","slug":"haredi-rabbis-make-play-for-young-secular-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/haredi-rabbis-make-play-for-young-secular-souls.html","title":{"rendered":"Haredi Rabbis Make Play For Young Secular Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If you thought the American Orthodox kiruv (outreach) merchants were bad, wait until you hear what they\u2019re doing in Israel.\u00a0 According to a report on Ynet<\/a> (Hebrew only), adolescent boys from secular backgrounds are being recruited into Torah study groups right off the soccer field and basketball court.\u00a0 Parents who have made the decision to raise their children with secular values are being undermined.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe children are changing right before our eyes.\u00a0 They\u2019re filling their heads with nonsense,\u201d one of the parents said this week.\u00a0 In the schools they are warning, \u201cThey repeat extreme statements like a mantra.\u00a0 [These rabbis] are exploiting their naivete.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The parents were kept completely in the dark by the rabbis who have arranged these gatherings.<\/p>\n

School officials are reporting that they come to school late, claiming that they\u2019ve been praying and threatening teachers who \u201cdare\u201d to interfere with their new religious agendas.\u00a0 Worse yet, they are displaying some very disturbing new ideas:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The situation is the worst in classes on democracy, history and citizenship.\u00a0 When the instructors attempt to give a lesson to the students, every statement relating to equal rights becomes an opportunity for the entire class to hear extremist statements like, \u2018A gentile is an animal and has no place in the World to Come.\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They\u2019re also harassing classmates from mixed backgrounds whose mothers are not Jewish, which is the case for many from the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s doing wonders for their patriotism, too.\u00a0 On Herzl\u2019s birthday one youngster turned over Herzl\u2019s official picture and declared that it is forbidden to celebrate him since he was \u201ca heretic,\u201d a familiar trope among Haredi Jews.<\/p>\n

One father put it this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rabbis and all their Torah lessons don\u2019t teach them to be better people; the opposite is the case.\u00a0 They sow fear and make them believe that if they don\u2019t [take on these beliefs] their future will be bad\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Even more traditional families are finding that their children are becoming tyrants about observance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, the rabbis are playing innocent (though they do admit to the racism which they justify as a Torah principle).\u00a0 They are obviously filling some kind of need for these kids and the schools and parents had better respond with some common sense alternatives before their kids turn into full grown Haredim and become strangers to both their families and any kind of enlightened value system.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you thought the American Orthodox kiruv (outreach) merchants were bad, wait until you hear what they\u2019re doing in Israel.\u00a0 According to a report on Ynet (Hebrew only), adolescent boys from secular backgrounds are being recruited into Torah study groups right off the soccer field and basketball court.\u00a0 Parents who have made the decision to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,20],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-haredim","tag-israel"],"yoast_head":"\nHaredi Rabbis Make Play For Young Secular Souls<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you thought the American Orthodox kiruv (outreach) merchants were bad, wait until you hear what they\u2019re doing in Israel.\u00a0 According to a report on Ynet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/haredi-rabbis-make-play-for-young-secular-souls.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Haredi Rabbis Make Play For Young Secular Souls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you thought the American Orthodox kiruv (outreach) merchants were bad, wait until you hear what they\u2019re doing in Israel.\u00a0 According to a report on Ynet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/haredi-rabbis-make-play-for-young-secular-souls.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-08T19:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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