A rally was held Monday night at the synagogue and leaders of various streams in Judaism appeared. Missing were the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox sector and representatives of the official Israeli Orthodox rabbinate. On Tuesday, the Knesset held a special discussion on it, as indeed it should have. Somehow the feeling remains that the general reaction was much more subdued than it has been when synagogues were attacked in California, Russia or Germany. The outcry here should echo round the world.
Young people take their cues from their elders, from what they hear from their rabbis and teachers.
They may go beyond them in taking specific actions, but it is the derogatory remarks and the attitude in their communities that inspires them to believe that a Masorti synagogue is fair game for destruction. And we are by no means certain that it was youngsters who did it. This is the second time the same synagogue was attacked. The first time, little damage was done and the culprits were not caught. Yelling and screaming, they have proclaimed that we were worse than the Holocaust and equally responsible for destroying the Jewish people.