Reply To: New book – “HaChareidim V’Haaretz”

AAQ – I agree here. But even if you think that Sephardim were in urgent need of charedization, does not mean that it was natural for them and only tricksters lead them astray.

Again, you mix up the logical steps. The Sephardim IN THEIR ANCESTRAL HOMES were NOT in need of “Chareidization”, because their Mesorah and culture remained mostly intact. So they would be comparable to the pre-Haskalah Ashkenazim who could be Frum without learning in Yeshivah etc. The Zionists created circumstances that forced the Sephardim to flee their lands, and they proceeded to take advantage of their naivety to secularize them. There were existing Sephardi Chareidim in Israel, as well as Ashkenazi Chareidim willing to help. The Sephardic Jews fleeing their homes most definitely did want their children to be Shomrei Mitzvos, which was “natural” for them.

You are following exactly the strategy of Holocaust deniers:

1. It didn’t really happen.

(But there are living survivors, external evidence, etc.)

2. Well then, maybe it did happen to some extent, but fewer people were affected and not as badly as you say it was.

(The before/after numbers of religious versus secular belie the claims about quantity. WRT to exactly how bad it really was, there are plenty of elderly Sephardim who would love to talk to you about it if you can speak Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, or French.)

3. Well OK, but it would have happened anyway at some point.

(The Rishonim who discuss the culpability of Pharaoh don’t accept that line of reasoning.)