Monday, April 20, 2009

Kids in Bnei Brak: Serves Bnei Brak right?

Vos Iz Neias has a report here about some local kids who vandalized a Shul and burnt some Sforim on Shabbos. And here is a follow up piece, blaming the extremism of Kannoim who populate Bnei Brak in overabundance (not that they're needed anywhere else they may be). Before seeing the latter piece, the same thing came to mind. Most kids who go off the "straight and narrow" aren't antagonistic enough to burn a Shul. There is a certain amount of reverence that any normal person has, and even kids who find themselves as outcasts within the community, don't go this far.

Unless, they're from Bnei Brak it seems. Possibly the craziest town in Israel (and that's saying something) seems to produce such bitter feelings amongst its Uisvorfs, that they only match the level of craziness in which they grew up. So I guess it serves the Kannoim right, to get a bit of their own medicine.

Nevertheless, a certain portion of youth, no matter where they grow up, go sour. I don't mean to exonerate the Charedi community of its educational shortcomings. To the contrary, the system seems to be crumbling more and more with each passing day under the weight of its own absurdity, and in a place like Bnei Brak, it seems to bring out the worst in people. That being said, no community can ensure that all its children mature into model citizens, and some kids may be just no good. After all, I don't think the Charedi community is much better at educating than society at large, and these things do happen.

2 comments:

Joshua said...

Am I a bad person if my first response on reading this was "dumb kids. Should have burned down the Kannoim's houses"?

Acher said...

No one is a "bad person" for thinking straight. Although I do think burning a Shul is extreme even for kids who are way there. So yeah, if they would've burned the Kannoim's houses, maybe they would've gotten the message: Stop being so ridiculously Meshugah.