The New York Times licked its chops on Wednesday, gleefully relating how five individuals who run companies that “primarily serve the Orthodox Jewish community” were indicted for daycare fraud. But instead of just reporting the allegations, the self-congratulatory tone of the article reflected the Times’ apparent conviction that the indictments vindicate the paper’s recent onslaught of vilifications of the Orthodox Jewish community.
What the article’s references to those earlier pieces in fact indicate is something else entirely: the Times’ desire to, at every turn, portray the Orthodox community as unsavory or worse.
Agudath Israel knows nothing about the indicted individuals. It goes without saying that if the allegations are true, fraud is always and unequivocally wrong.
The larger problem here is that the Times chooses to weaponize the indictments of these individuals to justify its many allegations made about the larger Orthodox Jewish community.
Extrapolating the act of an individual to smear his entire ethnic or religious group would be greeted – and properly so – with howls of protest in any other context. It is equally howl-worthy when applied to Orthodox Jews. Indeed, the Times correctly decries racial profiling in other contexts, but glibly purveys it when it comes to Orthodox Jews.
In another article that same day, a New York Times headline read, Was Yeshiva University Entitled to $230 Million in Public Funds? The obviously negative implication of the headline, and the inclusion of the tallying of funds therein, were clearly meant to inflame rather than report.
The message from the Times is consistent. Orthodox Jewish students – Hasidic or Modern Orthodox – don’t deserve public funds or assistance like everyone else, either because they are all corrupt, or because they have the audacity to practice their religion. They should be treated as pariahs.
Agudath Israel views the publication of such sentiments by one of the most powerful newspapers in the world as deeply dangerous. With each passing day, each passing article, and each passing assault on an Orthodox Jew, our KnowUs initiative is, unfortunately, needed more than ever.
You’ve got to commend the NY Slimes at least for being consistent! They’ve never reported anything positive about Jews no matter how much there is to tell: ie. Hatzalah, Tomchei Shabbos among the massive other charities. That Jews were the largest segment of donors to Haiti, Chernobyl and Italy in years gone by the Slimes had nary a word to say! They were non stories. The Slimes has been belittling Jews since its poor reporting during WWII. Why Jews still buy the rag eats me.
The pushback on the NYT is important and must continue.
However.
We live amongst the gentiles. Chazal tell us that, no matter what, עשו שונא ליעקב. No matter how much we can push back and complain, that is the reality and any Jew who does something improper WILL be used by the gentiles to vilify the entire community.
Therefore, any Jew who chooses to engage in illegal practices, especially embezzlement and fraud, should be aware that if he is caught he will be bringing scorn and shame not only on himself but on EVERYONE ELSE IN THE COMMUNITY. Doing so is causing plain and simple Chilul HaShem, and anyone who is engaged in such activity must be willing to accept the consequences of being the cause of public Chilul Hashem.
The fact that the Frum news agencies choose to hide this story shows in itself how shameful it is to all of us. It’s time we start clearly speaking out against these kind of actions, and publicly shunning those who we know are actively engaging in such actions – no matter how much they donate for Tzedakah. No amount of Tzedakah can atone for blatant Chilul Hashem!