Monday, August 14, 2006

Brothers coming together

Secular Israeli millionaires joining with the Ultra-Orthodox to provide services for displaced Israelis.

From FailedMessiah:

"The evacuation was done on a first come, first served basis," says Zilbershlag. "Everything was done by private organizations. Nochi Dankner [secular] gave 1,000 hotel accommodations, Gaydamak [secular] set up the tent city [at a cost of more than $500,000 per day], Rabbi Yitzhak David Grossman of Migdal Ha'emek evacuated thousands of people. None of the government ministries wanted to go near the matter. The matter of the refugees in the center of the country hasn't been dealt with at all and it is a huge subject. People have remained without money, without work. There are hair-raising stories."

Of course, the Rabbi isn't without his talking points:

Zilbershlag saw the deterioration coming, before the war, but the picture he is seeing now is even worse than he expected. Israel has turned into a society based on charity, he said, and it is no small irony for an ultra-Orthodox person like himself. "The Zionists deserve it. They had only contempt for the old ultra-Orthodox community that lived off charity, but now they are finding themselves in the same situation. Dankner and Gaydamak have invested more than the ministry of welfare to help the victims of the attacks in the north. Let us not forget - even now, there is no minister of welfare."

Interesting. Seculars and Zionists deserving what they get. There seems to be a lot of that going around. Also, Rav, the issue may be less contempt for the inter-haredi charity system than the govt. subsidies Haredim get for avoiding the army and work force. What do the haredim get for that? Oh, right, Heaven. My bad.

Then again, giving the Rabbi the benefit of the doubt, he may have just been talking about the govt. Zionists. Hard to tell from context.

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