Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews Take Up Arms, Form Civil Defense Groups

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-17 14:50:55 | Updated at 2024-11-24 23:04:43 1 week ago

Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews Take Up Arms, Form Civil Defense Groups
jewishpress.com ^ | November 8, 2023 | By David Isaac

Posted on 11/17/2024 6:23:13 AM PST by dennisw

(TPS) The Oct. 7 Hamas massacre has led to a societal shift in thinking when it comes to personal defense in Israel. Previously content to let the official security forces handle such matters, Israelis now want to protect themselves.

Perhaps nowhere is this switch more dramatic than in the Orthodox, or “Haredi,” community.

Most Haredi Jews have shunned not only self-defense but sharing in the nation’s defense, avoiding army service in favor of religious study, which has led to an undercurrent of hostility from some of the secular public.

“Up until now, haredi people didn’t take part in such things. They didn’t look at it as their job,” said Roni Ayalon Hirsch, a former special forces operator in the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matkal (General Staff Reconnaissance) unit, who heads a new group, Mishmar Ha’am (“The People’s Guard”). Mishmar Ha’am is the group to train haredim in firearms and community defense.

To their credit, though haredim had the furthest to go in terms of a change in mindset, they seem to have turned on a dime, Hirsch said.

“We actually thought there’d be more opposition,” Hirsch told the Tazpit Press Service, rattling off a list of prominent rabbis who have given their blessing to the training.

Judaism has no qualms about taking up arms. There are mitzvot, or religious injunctions, to prepare for defense, said Hirsch. What changed is a shift in focus as reality set in.

“They saw what happened in the south. There was no army and no police. And it could take hours until they come. So everybody understands that there is a very high possibility that they will have to handle themselves in such an attack on their homes. It’s not so far-fetched,” Hirsch explained.

“There’s a common, basic feeling of a lack of security after the attack,” he said.

Since the Hamas assault, as of Oct. 30, the Israeli National Security Ministry has received 180,500 new applications for personal firearms permits. An average of 10,000 new requests are received every day (vs. 850 requests per week prior to the outbreak of hostilities).

Hirsch is a ba’al teshuvah, meaning one coming to religion from a secular background. Because of his military background, Hirsch was asked by Mishmar’s umbrella organization, Achim L’Oref (“Brothers to the Homefront) to run the People’s Guard group.

Unity and Societal ‘Resilience’ Brothers to the Homefront is a haredi initiative, a new organization comprising a number of haredi groups that came together following the Hamas attack.

Its goal is to help meet the nation’s needs, to promote unity and to strengthen what it calls societal “resilience.”

“With most secular people going to the war and in miluim [military reserves], we also want to show that we’re not going on with our lives as if nothing has happened,” said Hirsch.

The Brothers group is engaged in many activities, from helping the wounded to providing economic assistance to families that have suffered loss in the horrific Hamas attack.

The Mishmar group is the defense pillar of the Brothers group. It has set up training in 20 locations across the country with about 100 volunteers in each one. Hirsch said he hopes to expand Mishmar to 40 locations.

Haredi communities are, if anything, more in need of defense training than other populations, as many are in areas suffering from constant tension with Arab neighbors, including neighborhoods in Jerusalem and in cities like Beit Shemesh, Elad and Beitar Illit.

Haredim are also prime targets for Arab terrorists as it’s well known that they are overwhelmingly unarmed—at least until now.

Mishmar offers a first-tier training for unarmed guards. The day-long course teaches volunteers how to patrol their neighborhoods, how to spot something suspicious, and what to do in case of an incident.

Armed guards go through a more rigorous course—four days between five and six hours each day.

Hirsch said the main difference between teaching haredim and other Israelis when it comes to handling firearms is that the former have had no prior training. So many are now arming themselves that it’s dangerous in its own right if they don’t learn how to properly handle their firearms, he said.

Training is conducted with the help of another organization with which Mishmar partnered, called Hashomer Hachadash, (“The New Guard”). Hashomer, founded in 2007, generally protects farms in the Galilee and Negev, mainly from Arab pillaging.

“Now they also started guarding different villages and even urban areas,” Hirsch said. “So we contacted Hashomer to help us, first of all, to build this volunteer movement and also to train the volunteers.”

The plan is to prepare haredim to guard their own neighborhoods and then in the future also to go out to agricultural areas to help protect farms, which remain under constant threat from thieves.

TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: banglist

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1 posted on 11/17/2024 6:23:13 AM PST by dennisw

To: dennisw

Haredim train to defend their communities as part of "The People's Guard" (Mishmar haAm)

2 posted on 11/17/2024 6:24:25 AM PST by dennisw

To: dennisw

But in the wake of October 7, thousands of Haredi men have signed up for military service, and many more Haredim have undergone their own mobilization — setting up aid operations to help soldiers and embattled communities alike. That mass eagerness to contribute, Haredim say, comes from a culture of mutual aid in Haredi society as well as a historical identification with the enormity of Jewish tragedy.

Ultra-Orthodox men arrive at the IDF recruiting offices in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, October 23, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

“The Haredi community is understanding that as a nation it is important to learn Torah, but also that there is another nation that wants to destroy all of us because we are Jews, like in the Holocaust,” said Chemi Trachtenberg, 21, a Haredi man who enlisted in the IDF at age 18 like his secular and religious Zionist peers. Referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said, “It doesn’t matter if you like Bibi or not, if you like the Haredim or not. At the end of the day they want to kill us and we need prayers and weapons.”

Debate over whether or not Haredi men should be drafted into the IDF has riven Israeli politics and society for decades and has contributed to the rise and fall of multiple governments. As of now, the vast majority do not join the military. Last year, fewer than 10 percent of eligible Haredi men were drafted into the IDF, as opposed to more than 80% of non-Haredi Jewish men. (Arab Israelis also receive a blanket exemption from the draft.)

But since October 7, more than 3,000 Haredi men have volunteered to serve in non-combat roles such as the army’s medical units or the Home Front Command, which addresses national emergencies and operates services such as sirens warning of incoming rocket fire. One of the new recruits is Yaki Adamker, 33, a media personality who recently made waves after announcing on television that he would enlist after the October 7 massacre.

3 posted on 11/17/2024 6:28:02 AM PST by dennisw

To: dennisw

As article states.....”Israelis now want to protect themselves”....

We've well learned “Time” itself is a deciding factor. By the time officials get there it can and often is too late. Seconds count.

4 posted on 11/17/2024 6:36:57 AM PST by caww (O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me......)

To: dennisw

Lots of folks, even some FReepers, had the idea that Israel was likely a gun owner friendly society. It was not. Not sure what the current policies are. Hopefully lessons were learned because of 10/7. At least for a little while until liberals once again put folks lives at risk with strict firearm rules, regs, laws. 🙏

5 posted on 11/17/2024 6:37:32 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)

To: dennisw

They did that effectively in LA. Actually ended up protecting with their patrols some celebrities that ordinarily despised them.

6 posted on 11/17/2024 6:45:30 AM PST by allendale

To: dennisw

I'm all for people protecting themselves rather than of coercing others to fight for them.

7 posted on 11/17/2024 6:45:32 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)

To: rktman

Israel restricted citizens to own one gun (a pistol) and 50 bullets.
They had to prove they had a need to own a gun such as being a security guard.
The people who fought back on Oct 7 faced terrorists with full auto rifles using pistols
Stupidity

8 posted on 11/17/2024 6:47:08 AM PST by TStro (Come and take it!)

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