The dean of haredi elementary school Tiferet Yaakov was arrested at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday upon his return from a fundraising trip abroad, reported Kikar News.
The suspect, Rabbi Eliyahu Tumbak of Beit Shemesh, is close to Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach of Bnei Brak and is suspected of money laundering.[...]
"They're chasing after our community, there's no other way to explain it," said a source close to Tumbak. "If they continue acting this way, Israel will burn as they have never seen it burn. We will work like ancient Egypt did; we will say, 'Let us outsmart him.'
"We will slander their leaders, we will make sure they have thick files with the police. Everyone who knows Rabbi Tumbak knows how straight and honest he is. It's obvious this allegation is simply slander for the sake of harming us."
The haredi community has suggested Tumbak's arrest is connected to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's "threat" to "deal with those who resist drafting into the IDF."
Well, let's examine this. The Jews living in Eretz Yisrael are deeply split. (I like to use the term Eretz Yisrael, rather than State of Israel, to include people who reject the formation of the political entity.) I don't have proof, but my feeling is that some of the taxes that are raised from businesses and people that do not accept and live by the old fashioned Torah-true concept of Torah Mi'Sinai are used to support Torah communities to a great extent. Furthermore, these taxpayers realize that the future of the country is in the hands of those Jews who have a strong allegiance to the Torah; who have large families, and thus have demography on their side. So some taxpayers may resent that they are supporting the rise of their own political demise.
ReplyDeleteSome of those taxpayers are using the framework of the state as a cover to attack communities they feel represent a danger to them. The danger being that if and when Torah Jews take over the reins of power, they may use the power of the state to enforce observance of the Torah. This would be anathema to many marginally observant Jews.
Thus, the guilt or innocence of the man who is under investigation becomes irrelevant. The charges are simply the manifestation of a larger battle brewing.
Or, maybe the man laundered money and is not being unfairly targeted.