Haredi incitement answer: pita, Pesach and an elderly Orthodox man

The general media dealt this week in exaggerating the picture which shows a small group of yeshiva students having a barbeque on the eve of Holocaust Day at Sacher Park in Jerusalem. Usually, as in many cases as these where the media attacks, the Israeli public incites and the storm passes, but this time the Haredi public has what to say.

Initiative born today shows the counter answer to the incitement against haredim:

The social network distributed a photo taken on Hillel Street in Jerusalem during Pesach 2009. The picture shows Rabbi Uri Blau, the son of Rabbi Amram Blau zt"l, a resident of Meah Shearim, who came to the city center with dozens of haredim to protest against restaurants and places of entertainment offering for chametz sale on Pesach.

Behind Blau are grinning two girls holding pita bread in their hands and eat to their delight on the height of the Jewish holiday.

The title written on the image itself is: 'a lesson in respect for others'.
The following was written: "April 13, 2009, in the midst of the Pesach holiday. An Orthodox Jew shocked from the public sale of chametz on Hillel Street in Jerusalem, passes the place and expresses his pain. In response, some of the diners go out with filled pita bread in their hands and eat before him with defiance and ridicule."

The ones behind the initiative, is the journalist Asher Medina, who explains that during the preparation of the political column in the Hamevaser newspaper, he looked for a picture to manifest the reality of the secular who do not respect the feelings of the Haredi community.

"I found this picture, and I was horrified how the disdain of those girls, is screaming to the sky. Individuals go out and eat chametz in defiance against the older man's face. There is no contempt and defiance as bad as that," says Medina. "This is one image that expresses it all."
• Should we not be silent against the incitement against us?

"We know we live in a country like this where there are secular, we have made no incitement against them. We want them to let us go on living. It could be that people think that such things will not help, so they do not have a lot of motivation."

The important message, according to Medina, is the secular public: "Take what is happening before your own eyes. Look at the face of the generation you educate."

Reflects reality

Yossi Zamir, photo agency, photographer Flash 90 is the one who documented this situation, "rabbis would come every year," he recalls in a conversation with B'Chadrei Charedim, "to protest against those restaurants that sell chametz on Pesach. This picture was taken when the elderly man passed by there and it illustrates the protest against these girls who eat chametz on Pesach. "

Zamir recalled his feelings when taking the picture, "this situation bothered him. He also said it was very painful for him and the reality in Israel should be completely different."

Were you surprised that the picture was taken in response to a picture of the barbeque?

"This is our job and we do our best that the pictures should reflect a certain reality. The fact that this picture was chosen, means I fulfilled my mission at some point." Zamir said, "There are those who eat chametz on Pesach and those who have a barbeque on the Holocaust Day. Both groups occasionally clashed with each other. It is not my way; I would blind my eye to both of them and not make a deal of it."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!