We’ve covered the serious problem of anti-semitism and hatred of Jews on this website, and will continue to do so. But I find it just as offensive when radical Jewish activists try to prevent other Jews from interacting with their non-Jewish neighbors. In Israel a group of 50 rabbis recently issued a letter declaring that any Jew who rents an apartment to a non-Jew is committing a serious sin. If the differences in the Middle East are ever going to be overcome, commerce is going to play a central role. This letter is bad enough. Now comes a report from Israel, that an activist group is taking this anti-assimilation effort a step further. They are encouraging people to turn in their neighbors and friends who ignore this declaration! An excerpt:
“The Lehava organization issued a notice Sunday evening, inviting the public to call a voicemail service and record the names of Jewish Israelis renting apartments to Arabs. Lehava, identified with supporters of Meir Kahane, thus adds its weight to the recent call by 50 prominent rabbis to avoid renting to Arabs which, the organization says, amounts to no less than assimilation.
According to the notice, the information given anonymously will be verified, after which the names will be published as a mark of disgrace ‘so the public can decide what to do with them.'”
This effort is the bad news. The good news? This is a fringe movement in Israel. It’s been denounced far and wide inside the country. And it needs to be condemned and denounced.