Subject:	Haredim vs. Scientologists
Author:	keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net>
Date:	1999/07/15
Forum:	alt.religion.scientology
Msg-ID:	<7mjjbn$2eqs@enews2.newsguy.com>

A friend sent me a copy of the Jerusalem Post as part of our continuing discussion of the status of Palestinians in Israel and other Middle Eastern states. An article unrelated to our discussion caught my eye and made me think about the difference between the "good works" and "social betterment" activities of the Haredim in Israel and the Church of Scientology.

Haredim are ultra-orthodox, fundamentalist Jews. They are best known as the folks who stone less-than-orthodox Jews praying at the Western Wall, as well as women with no head coverings, buses and taxis running on the Sabbath, and other affronts to God. They are also granted exemptions from military service on religious grounds: they do not recognize the authority of the State of Israel, believing that only God can establish the true state in the messianic age.

They are almost universally despised in Israel.

The following are excerpts from an article addressing the lack of good press that the Haredim receive. It describes their unpublicized charitable works, which are startlingly different than those of our favorite despised cult, Scientology. Here, then, is my comparison-and-contrast of the two groups' philosophies:

           

Jerusalem Post of 25 June 1999, the "Not Page One" column by Sam Orbaum

Some good words about… haredim

Every time a journalist writes a negative piece about haredim, we hear the same refrain: "Sure, bash the haredim. Why don't you ever write anything nice about them?"

Contrast: Scientology doesn't whine, it threatens, harasses, and sues journalists.

OK. Here goes.

Their charity, social consciousness, good deeds, communal welfare and human kindness may be unparalleled among the communities of this country.

Contrast: Scientology "charity" consists of highly publicized events for the primary purpose of generating good press. They do "help" people at these events, in the Scientological definition of the word, i.e., "recruit new members".

From birth through to death, you can be helped by one do-gooding haredi concern or another. There's a wealth of well-established, nationwide organizations like Yad Sarah, providing free medical equipment for all who ask. Children with Down's go to Shalva, with cancer to Zichron Menachem.

Compare: There is a wealth of national and international Scientology organizations like the World Literacy Crusade, CCHR, Narconon, Criminon, etc., providing free PR literature for all who ask.

Note: free: no monetary cost but with strings attached.

My sister was once laid up with a broken leg, and haredim came to her home with cooked meals. Free, of course — though they gratefully accepted a donation to keep the service going for others.

Contrast: Except where glossy PR publications or "religious bigot" flyers are concerned, Scientology does nothing for free. "Scientologists … believe in the principle that exchange is necessary." [What is Scientology?]

The kindly folks at Ezer Mitzion run a fleet of more than 30 ambulances — free, of course — to transport children suffering from cancer, from anywhere in the country to the Children's Hospital in Petah Tikva. While undergoing treatment, the patient and his family can stay at the nearby Ezer Mitzion Convalescent Home.

Contrast: Scientology does nothing for free and does not wish to be associated with down-stat, unable people like those with serious medical conditions. Scientology is in the business of making the able more able.

The list of gemahim — free loan organizations — is endless.

Compare: The list of Scientology front groups seems endless.

And there are the little people.

Yeshurun, a Habad-affiliated restaurant in Tel Aviv, feeds any beggar who walks in.

Compare/Contrast?: Can a street person walk into Scientology's Renaissance restaurant in LA for a free meal?

I've had occasion in the last few years to be in a hospital, and that is where the haredim are most outstanding. Making no noise about it, they simply go about helping people.

Contrast: Self-aggrandizing publicity about their staged "charity" events is the Scientology way.

They didn't ask first who I vote for, what shul I go to, or whether I write negative articles about their community.

Note: shul = synagogue

Contrast: Since enemies of Scientology "may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist [and] may be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed" [HCOPL 18 Oct 67], I think the "Church" is a bit more selective about the recipients of its favors.

Every day, a happy haredi lady from Ezer Mitzion — she's fulfilling a major mitzva, which is why she looks so happy — goes room to room offering cooked meals to families attending patients.

Note: mitzva = good deed

Compare: We've seen happy Scientologists applying their high-pressure sales tactics; screaming "what are your crimes?!"; and picketing private homes in an attempt to foment hatred among neighbors with their libelous "religious bigot" flyers.

These ladies do not make a point of reminding their benefactors that the food is provided by those nasty haredim; they wish you "bon appetit" and "be healthy," and they're outta there.

Compare: Front groups frequently do not mention their Scientology connection.

Fridays are a favorite day for people scoring mitzva points. A bent old man distributes little hallot with a mumbled "Gut Shabbos"; someone brings around Shabbat candles for the women; performing the mitzva of visiting the sick, some haredim just make the rounds and offer a word of encouragement.

Note: hallot = Sabbath bread loaves

Compare: Scientology comforted the Littleton, Colorado bereaved by distributing The Way to Happiness booklets.

A couple of times I asked what group or sect they represent, and all I got was a shrug or a smile. Decency for the sake of decency alone.

Compare: Front groups frequently do not mention their Scientology connection. Subterfuge and deception for the sake of the third dynamic.

Note: dynamic = urge, drive or impulse; 3rd dynamic = group survival

The highest form of mitzva is giving of yourself anonymously. With not even a thank you as payment, the reward is knowing you've helped your fellow man.

Compare: The highest form of Scientology "charity" is recruiting a person into the Church. With $360,000 as payment, the reward is knowing they've helped their fellow man up the Bridge.

In my case, I was a fellow man who has been critical of these very people. No matter: They had what I needed.

Contrast: Critics are at best ignored, usually harassed, and at worst sued or attacked.

Preceeding [sic] my bone-marrow transplant, the hospital requested several dozen donations of platelets (thrombocites). It's quite an imposition, to find that many people to go all the way to the hospital, get tested, and then return to be jabbed in each arm and thus kill an hour or so.

As we struggled to fill the quota of donors, word got around, somehow, to haredi circles. Two carloads of yeshiva students went to the hospital and rolled up their sleeves for me.

Note: yeshiva = religious academy

Compare: "Scientologists regularly hold blood drives to get donations of blood for hospitals, the Red Cross and other similar organizations" [What is Scientology?]. In WogSpeak: one or two members strolled down the street to a Red Cross affair to donate blood on their own and this became the source of yet another inflated claim by Scientology.

Note: Wog = non-Scientologist; WogSpeak = non-Scientology terms

I managed to contact one of them, and asked why.

"Oh, we like doing it," he answered cheerily. "We do it all the time."

Absolutely unbelievable.

The other day, I went to Kupat Holim Meuhedet in Ramot for a blood test.

I was too late; Asher, a haredi man behind the counter, said I should return the next day, and told me until what time. But he erred, and the following day, I was again too late, by a few minutes.

It turned out, though, that he was more haredi than mindless "pakid":

"Oy," he said, crestfallen, "it's my fault."

Note: I'm told a reasonable translation might be "pencil-necked bean counter" or "civil servant". :-)

Contrast: Whether it is a conspiracy of evil psychs or renegade members misapplying tech allowing Lisa McPherson to die, it's never Scientology's fault.

He asked the nurse to draw my blood, and — get ready for this — he took the vials, hurried to his car and drove into town to get my blood to the laboratory in time.

To a religious man, this was the right thing to do.

It was mind-blowing.

There's a common thread that runs through these tales of the unexpected, and it gives me an idea:

Draft every single haredi, man and woman, old and young. Put them not in the army, where they're of little use, but in the hospitals.

In that altruistic way, even the most anti-Zionist among them could justify serving the nation; the boiling resentment toward them would be stifled; the savings to the health-care system would be enormous; the sick would benefit from the world's most overstaffed, caring, devoted hospitals.

Who, then, could say a bad word about the haredim?

Compare: If Scientology actually performed genuine charitable works on the same mountainous scale that they distribute PR, who, then, could say a bad word about the Scientologists?

       

Well, that was an interesting exercise. The Scientologists fared better than I anticipated, coming out pretty balanced: 9 comparables, 8 contrasts, and 1 undecided. :-)

Keshet

--
email * http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/ [email, link updated]
Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts. Mark Twain

Mr. Lipshitz makes explicit the important points my unsuccessful sarcasm clouded in the post above. Thanks, Marc.

Subject:	Re: Haredim vs. Scientologists
Author:	Marc Lipshitz <mlipshitz@imperialbank.co.za>
Date:	1999/07/15
Forum:	alt.religion.scientology
Msg-ID:	<7mkte4$5v8$1 @hermes.is.co.za>

keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net> wrote in message news:7mjjbn$2eqs @enews2.newsguy.com…

<snip>

From birth through to death, you can be helped by one do-gooding haredi concern or another. There's a wealth of well-established, nationwide organizations like Yad Sarah, providing free medical equipment for all who ask. Children with Down's go to Shalva, with cancer to Zichron Menachem.

Compare: There is a wealth of national and international Scientology organizations like the World Literacy Crusade, CCHR, Narconon, Criminon, etc., providing free PR literature for all who ask.

Note: free: no monetary cost but with strings attached.

I would say that this is actually a contrast. These organisations generally do this work with little or no publicity of their actions, whixh is why the journalist had to mention them, SCientology front groups provide PR literature, lots of publicity and no help. CCHR does nothing worth while, Narconon it is doubtful if they provide any help, world literacy crusade — lots of publicity but very little verifiable results.

<snip>

The list of gemahim — free loan organizations — is endless.

Compare: The list of Scientology front groups seems endless.

You say it is comparable to compare organisations that provide money to those need at 0% interest rate to front groups which procide no useful service? The reason the haredim use front groups is that within judaism the second highest level of charity is when the giver does not know who the recipient is and the recipient does not know who the giver is. For those who are interested the highest level of charity is providing somebody with a a means of earning a livelihood so that they no longer require charity.

To my mind this is a massive contrast to the CO$ that does not give out charity and its front groups are also generally in the business of making money.

<snip>

Every day, a happy haredi lady from Ezer Mitzion — she's fulfilling a major mitzva, which is why she looks so happy — goes room to room offering cooked meals to families attending patients.

Note: mitzva = good deed

Compare: We've seen happy Scientologists applying their high-pressure sales tactics; screaming "what are your crimes?!"; and picketing private homes in an attempt to foment hatred among neighbors with their libelous "religious bigot" flyers.

Umm, how is this a compare? Just because both might be happy does not mean that their behaviour is comparable. In the case of the haredi woman her actions are to try and help others be happy and to comfort people, the actions of the scientologists are confrontational and to create dissension and hatred, a massive contrast to me.

<snip>

Fridays are a favorite day for people scoring mitzva points. A bent old man distributes little hallot with a mumbled "Gut Shabbos"; someone brings around Shabbat candles for the women; performing the mitzva of visiting the sick, some haredim just make the rounds and offer a word of encouragement.

Note: hallot = Sabbath bread loaves

Compare: Scientology comforted the Littleton, Colorado bereaved by distributing The Way to Happiness booklets.

How are these two actions comparable? The haredi are distributing the paraphanalia necessary for observing the sabath to those in hospital so that they may perform mitzvot. There is no recipricocity expected, no agenda being fulfilled, just the desire to allow other people to do as they would. The scientologists actions are in the hope of getting people into their missions, their is a definite hope of reciprococity.

If anyone thinks that the haredim are out to get people into their community they are very much mistaken I am a member of the orthodox jewish community, and we find the haredim to be fanatical :-) The haredim are very realistic in their approach, they know that most jews see them as fanatics and would never move into their way of thinking, however they see it as an opportunity to perform a good deed and maybe the person receiving it will use the opportunity to perform a mitzvah, if not hopefully it will make them feel better anyway that somebody has been to visit them.

<snip>

The highest form of mitzva is giving of yourself anonymously. With not even a thank you as payment, the reward is knowing you've helped your fellow man.

Compare: The highest form of Scientology "charity" is recruiting a person into the Church. With $360,000 as payment, the reward is knowing they've helped their fellow man up the Bridge.

Once again I have to disagree with this as a compare. I see this one also as a contrast. The haredi are giving of themselves, they spend their money to purchase challot, candles etc that they distibute. They spend their time to do these deeds, to their loss as no one will compensate them for lost income etc.

Contrast this to $cientology, the only time spent is on trying to get people into the church via recruiting. If you are on staff it is your job, if you are not then you receive a kickback in the form of commission on those people that buy courses through you. Also, the haredim are not doing this with the expectation of reward or any other kickback, unlike the $360,000 for the bridge in CO$.

<snip>

Preceeding [sic] my bone-marrow transplant, the hospital requested several dozen donations of platelets (thrombocites). It's quite an imposition, to find that many people to go all the way to the hospital, get tested, and then return to be jabbed in each arm and thus kill an hour or so.

As we struggled to fill the quota of donors, word got around, somehow, to haredi circles. Two carloads of yeshiva students went to the hospital and rolled up their sleeves for me.

Note: yeshiva = religious academy

Compare: "Scientologists regularly hold blood drives to get donations of blood for hospitals, the Red Cross and other similar organizations" [What is Scientology?]. In WogSpeak: one or two members strolled down the street to a Red Cross affair to donate blood on their own and this became the source of yet another inflated claim by Scientology.

Note: Wog = non-Scientologist; WogSpeak = non-Scientology terms

Comparable, but only just. A couple of people donating blood and then publicising the fact is very different to what happened with these haredi. When I was studying in yeshivah (in South Africa,not Israel) we were approached to donate platelets in a similar situation. The yeshivah basically closed down as everyone left to go get tested at the hospital. Many people studying at yeshivah are hoping to become rabbis and this is the equivalent of closing an university down.

<snip>

He asked the nurse to draw my blood, and — get ready for this — he took the vials, hurried to his car and drove into town to get my blood to the laboratory in time.

To a religious man, this was the right thing to do.

It was mind-blowing.

There's a common thread that runs through these tales of the unexpected, and it gives me an idea:

Draft every single haredi, man and woman, old and young. Put them not in the army, where they're of little use, but in the hospitals.

In that altruistic way, even the most anti-Zionist among them could justify serving the nation; the boiling resentment toward them would be stifled; the savings to the health-care system would be enormous; the sick would benefit from the world's most overstaffed, caring, devoted hospitals.

Who, then, could say a bad word about the haredim?

Compare: If Scientology actually performed genuine charitable works on the same mountainous scale that they distribute PR, who, then, could say a bad word about the Scientologists?

Comparable but only just — the haredi are doing charitable work, the suggestion is just for a way for them to be viewed more positively by all. The suggestion for the CO$ would only just get them to the point the haredi are at.

Well, that was an interesting exercise. The Scientologists fared better than I anticipated, coming out pretty balanced: 9 comparables, 8 contrasts, and 1 undecided. :-)

Keshet

Keshet it was an interesting exercise comparing two controversial groups, but on my calculations the CO$ performed far worse. Also on the compares, most of the compares are very tenuous and only compares by being very lenient.

Cheers
Marc Lipshitz

Subject:	Re: Haredim vs. Scientologists
Author:	keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net>
Date:	1999/07/16
Forum:	alt.religion.scientology
Msg-ID:	<7mmena$18pl @enews4.newsguy.com>

<snip>

Despite utterly failing to impress you with my subtle humor (I will listen to my editor next time—it didn't work for him either), you did get every single point I was trying to make. Thanks for making it clear for others.

Keshet

--
email * http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/ [email, link updated]
Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts. Mark Twain

An email comment from my editor.

From:	Ted.Mayett@worldnet.att.net (Ted Mayett)
To:	keshet <keshet@cyberpass.net>
Subj:	Re: Haredim vs. Scientologists
Date:	Fri, 16 Jul 1999 09:51:00 GMT

Despite utterly failing to impress you with my subtle humor (I will listen to my editor next time—it didn't work for him either),

ha ha    ha ha ha :-)

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