There's no hope for Hope

Last week I noticed a series of lingerie posters along the main thoroughfares of Ra'anana and most of them looked like they had been the victims of a religious fanatic graffiti artist. At first I couldn't figure out why someone would do that, but when I mentioned it to my husband and then showed him the ads as we drove along the main street, he noticed that the graffiti was very uniform.

He is much more observant than I am -- and I don't mean from a religious perspective. However, after he mentioned it, I started looking more carefully. Lo and behold, I had to agree. This was definitely not the work of an overzealous religious person.

Of course, at the time, I couldn't figure out exactly what the goal of the marketing plan was, and over the next few days I forgot all about it. Only later did it become known that it was a marketing ploy by the lingerie company.

One of my favorite things about Ra'anana is that I find the religious community -- at least in my neighbourhood -- to be very tolerant and the collective approach to observance is "live and let live". I surely did not experience that in Toronto and I am not sure if it exists in other parts of Israel, but religious tolerance (by religious people) seems to be alive and well on the east side of Ra'anana. And that is why I was originally baffled by the graffiti.

Fortunately I have friends who are also detail observant And one of them took it upon herself to call the corporate offices of the company and ask about the posters. Here's what one of the two co-owners of the company, Yafit, told her:

"We had to do this because we knew the posters would be ruined anyway by the religious community in Ra'anana." And if that wasn't presumptuous and insulting enough, she added that if, in turn, secular people thought that religious Ra'anana-ites did this, and it bothered us, then we (religious people) obviously felt guilty.

What the heck is she talking about?

What exactly was I supposed to feel guilty about?

I can't even follow her warped logic. If I didn't damage the posters then I wouldn't feel one iota of guilt.

And more important, why would someone willingly start a smear campaign in Ra'anana -- a city where secular and religious citizens seem to co-exist peacefully most of the time. If I was going to incite a smear campaign against a group of people in the community, then I would probably be more careful to cover my steps. And if perchance I was confronted about my tactics, I would probably think twice before verbally attacking the inquirer.

Co-owner Yafit also showed her complete lack of understanding of most religious people living in Ra'anana. This isn't Mea Shearim or Betar Illit. Apparently she hasn't been to one of the city pools on a Friday afternoon and heaven knows she hasn't actually spoken to any of us or she would have know exactly how ill-informed her campaign logic was.

Speaking on behalf of many of the religious people in Ra'anana: We are modern orthodox Jews. And what that means, in the most general of terms, is that while we observe Shabbat and keep the mitzvot to the best of our ability, we are educated and worldly. We travel. We work. We read.

My synagogue alone is populated with lawyers, doctors, PhD's, professors, business people, and ivy-league college graduates. My friends are ex-partners in big city law firms, math professors, architects, high-tech wizards, bankers and the likes. We are as comfortable in meetings in New York and London as we are in our synagogue. No one that I know is going to go out and buy a can of spray paint to cover up some babe in her underwear on a poster.

And as immigrants from Western countries, we are proponents of free speech. Just because we don't walk around in our bathing suits and underwear doesn't mean that we can't hack it when other people do. If we wanted to live in a closed society, we never would have chosen Ra'anana to begin with.

And finally, any Jew who thinks that inciting anger and hatred between Jews is a good thing is, in my mind, the lowest of low. Well, maybe not the lowest. I put child abusers on that level, but I am willing to allow Jews who encourage hate between Jews to have the next rung up on my decency ladder.

I am not the first to say this and I won't be the last. The worst enemy of the Jews is other Jews. And Yafit, my friend, you have just proved the point better than I ever could. Willfully concocting a plan that could be misconstrued by secular Jews to make them dislike religious Jews more than some of them already do, is truly pathetic. I wish your new lingerie store everything that it deserves.

(late addition note: someone contacted me this morning to say that while we are mostly modern orthodox, some of us have children who have surpassed their parents' observance and as a result, are uncomfortable with such ads. I don't think that means that they would go out and spray paint them but these people deserve acknowledgment as well. Ra'anana is a diverse community that should celebrate its diversity rather than working to harm it.)