Fire Your Spokesman in One Easy Step

by Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

Did you see the ugly picture in the papers this week of the elderly charedi man in Yerushalayim shaking his fist angrily in the face of a police officer? Well, he is your spokesman and he was kind enough to represent you before millions of readers worldwide last week while you were sitting at the Shabbos Seudah singing Zemiros with your children. And the charedi young men who threw rocks and burned garbage cans regularly over the past few weeks? They were your spokesmen too. Nice.

The writers and editors of the Jerusalem Post never met you nor did their millions of readers. They don't see your Tefillah and Chesed, the respect you show your parents, and the dignified way you raise your children with Torah values. All they see are these hooligans.

If you are as horrified and heartbroken as I am that this is the case, now is the time to do something. It is rather simple. Just fire them. How? By writing a letter to the editors of Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post saying that these hooligans don't speak for you. That might not completely do the job, but it is a great first step.

Will it make a difference? You decide. Our letter made it to today's Jerusalem Post and it was noted that more than 50 people signed the letter; that, despite the fact that I only sent the email request late Sunday evening. And the person who runs the letters to the editor section at the Jerusalem Post emailed me this morning, that she received another 20-25 emails since she ran the letter in yesterday's paper and that more are coming in still. (I will continue working on this, until I reach my goal of 1,000 emails.)

This morning, I was contacted by a writer of the Jerusalem Post who interviewed me for an article they are doing about our campaign to condemn the violence. Hopefully more newspapers will carry the story.

So, to all those who sent emails, thank you, and please pass this along to your email list and ask them to do the same. If you did not yet do so, please do.

Let's finally get these violent hooligans fired as our spokespeople.

Email address of the Jerusalem Post: letters@jpost.com
Email address of Haaretz: feedback@haaretz.co.il