Two stories from this past week stopped me cold.
In Petah Tikva, a young man named Yemanu Zelka went to work at a pizza shop. He was not a soldier. He was not a politician. He was not making any statement about anything. He was doing what people do: showing up, working hard, keeping things running. He was stabbed to death. Eleven suspects have been arrested, most of them minors.
And then, in Ashkelon, a mob of ultra-Orthodox rioters broke into the home of Brig.-Gen. Yuval Yamin, the IDF’s Military Police commander. His family was inside. He was not there. The rioters trespassed into the yard, acted violently, and terrorized people whose only crime was being related to a man who served his country. Twenty-five people were arrested, among them minors.
I keep asking myself the same question. What has happened to us? How has this come to pass?
How have we become a society that teaches youth that acting violently against someone you disagree with is okay? While Israel is a democracy and honors the right to protest, we are also a family, and these actions are what have brought about our destruction in the past.
The importance of disagreeing peacefully
People who disagree with government policy, including the policy of drafting yeshiva students, have every right to march, to demonstrate, to make their voices heard loudly and clearly. I may not agree with their position, but that is what a democracy is, and I will always defend the right for all citizens to express their opinions peacefully.
Breaking into a family’s home is not protest. Stabbing a man for doing his job is not protest. These are crimes. The perpetrators should and must be punished. Their community leaders must take responsibility and re-educate this new generation of violent youth and teach them that violence is not the answer, especially against one’s own people.
When rioters force their way into a house where a mother and children are alone, the question is not about draft policy anymore. The question is what we are willing to tolerate from each other as a society. The IDF chief of staff called it “a dangerous red line.” He was right. What would have happened if the police had not arrived? Has anyone genuinely thought through what could have unfolded inside that house?
Violence is not a political argument. It is the abandonment of one.
The explosion of street violence
Before anyone concludes that this is a story about one segment of Israeli society, let’s be honest: Street violence is spreading across multiple communities in Israel. Young people from all backgrounds are involved in incidents that would have been unthinkable a generation ago.
A soldier from the Hasmonean Brigade was attacked at his home in Beit Shemesh by members of another Jewish community; his house was threatened with arson while his children were inside. The mayor of Beit Shemesh has faced harassment and property destruction. In Petah Tikva, a blameless young man is dead.
We are a people who have survived because of one thing above all others: our ability to remain a family even when we fiercely disagree.
The Talmud teaches that the Second Temple was destroyed because of senseless hatred between Jews. This should serve as a warning that every generation is obligated to take seriously. We have enemies, real ones, who would destroy us without hesitation. The only answer to that threat, historically, has always been Jewish unity. Not uniformity. Not the absence of debate. Unity. The understanding that even someone I disagree with deeply is still my brother, my sister, part of the same family that has carried this covenant through thousands of years of darkness.
A young man who goes to work at a pizza shop deserves to come home. A general’s family sitting at home deserves to feel safe. A soldier who chose to serve his country deserves to walk into his house without being threatened. These are not complicated positions. They do not require weighing competing political claims or navigating difficult policy questions. They require only the basic recognition that every human being, every Jewish soul, is made in the image of God.
We can disagree about drafts and budgets and the direction that this country should take in the future. But we cannot, we must not, turn on each other with violence. Not against a pizza shop worker just trying to keep the lights on. Not on a family sitting in their home. Not on anyone.
We are supposed to be better than this. We have always been better than this. If we cannot find our way back to that standard, we won’t need Iran, Hamas, or Hezbollah to destroy us. We will have done it ourselves.
The writer is the International CEO of Aish, a global Jewish educational movement. He formerly served as Eastern Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where he oversaw the Museum of Tolerance in New York City.