Following a recent letter from various Rabbis making an appeal against letting apartments to Arabs, 27 wives of Chief Rabbis signed a letter distributed by the Lehava organization warning Jewish girls against dating Arabs or working with them, either in the office or as part of National Service. The idea is to prevent intermarriage between Jewish women and Arab men.
The strongly written letter warned against the way that Arab men take on Israeli names and appear so charming and attentive at first. “But,” it cautioned. “The moment you are in their hands, in their village, under their control, everything changes … Your life will never return to how it was, and the attention that you craved so much turns into curses, blows, and humiliation.”
Since then, various news sites have reported that a group of women from Kiryat Motzkin held a demonstration against Rebbitzen Sterna Druckman, wife of Chief Rabbi Dovid Meir Druckman, in response to the letter.
Below is a translation of Rabbi Druckman’s response to such reports, which interprets events rather differently:
“My wife, in the manner of most kosher Jewish women, was busy making cholent for Shabbos, and apart from bursting out laughing she didn’t show any interest in the issue. I, on the other hand, was curious to see the substance of the reports and I went to the balcony to see if some of the things that were written were true. And I saw that, ‘there were no demonstrators and no shoes” and there wasn’t even a dog to be seen in the street … (Simply, I was disappointed. … Why? Read on.)
“On one of the sites, it was reported that my wife the Rebbitzen was the ‘instigator of the Rebbitzens’ letter.’ Although we see this as a compliment, it is not actually true. While my wife did indeed wisely sign the Rebbitzens’ letter, she was not the ‘instigator.’ We don’t want to give ourselves medals and accolades that indeed go to others.
“I have already said, and I’m not saying anything new here, that the media have not, for some time, always reported the news, and quite often they have even invented it …
“By the way, it is really a shame that they didn’t demonstrate opposite our house, because then we would have invited the demonstrators to Kiddush in our home on Friday night. Then we would hear our brothers and sisters of Israel speaking about Parshas Hashuva and inspiring ideas from the Alter Rebbe, whose yahrzeit fell on 24th Teves, and all of this would have been in the pleasant atmosphere of Shabbos Mevorchim Chodesh Shevat.
“At the same time, we would make a friendly suggestion to our guests – not to make a similar demonstration opposite the home of any Arab khadi who is paid by the state (read: the Ministry of Religious Affairs) and uses his position to incite against the Jews in the spirit of ‘Itabakh al Yahud.”
“In such a case, they would have come away dripping blood, and that’s in a good situation, or Heaven forbid, in a coffin …
“In any case, it is clear to me that on Motzoei Shabbos, these demonstrators, ‘tinokos shenishbu’ as they would be, would surely have signed the letters of the Rabbis and Rebbitzens …”
(SOURCE: COL.ORG.IL)
