From today's Haaretz newspaper:
Haredi youths attack Palestinian taxi driver in Jerusalem
Here is my question. Why is orthodoxy defined by what you wear and where you live? Why do we not refer to these people and their leaders as terrorists or gangbangers or organized crime families? Because they speak yiddish?
1 comment:
A thug is a thug regardless if they speak arabic or yiddish.
This brings up an interesting demographic phenomena:
1. At a certain demographic point all or most of a group will typically be integreated out of existance, such as Jews in Kaifeng China and Chinese in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
2. As demographic density increases, a group will remain a cohesive social entity, but the majority of its members will have to positively integrate into the surrounding society. An example would be (let's say) secular and even modern orthodox Jews in the United States.
3. And as the demographic density of that group further increases, it is able to build institutions that allows them not to socially or economically integrate. An example may be Moslems in some neighborhoods in England or France.
4. But, once we reach a certain demographic tipping point, not only will a group not integrate, but they will aggressively seek to alter the social, economic and political life of surrounding communities to conform to their desires. An example being the Ultra Orthodox in Israel who are pushing to shut down buses and planes on Shabbat for ALL Israelis. I believe that there are some moderate parallels in the US, but this is a topic for another discussion
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