A dirty rumor
After years of neglect, haredi society is finally undergoing revolution in caring for the environment
For years this system continued peacefully, with empty bagel bags on the sidewalk alongside snack wrappers. In addition to a miniscule number of bottles, the bottle recycling cages that someone optimistically placed in the street also collected plastic bags and anything else that seemed appropriate for the new environmental exhibit. The yards continued to be inundated with tissues thrown by the children from the second floor that no one picked up.
A street in Meah Shearim (Archive photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
Despite their image, haredim do not suffer from a large number of dirty people, but the classic haredi policy was that cleanliness is something you do inside your home. Anything beyond your doorstep was not included, as in, “it’s not our responsibility,” “it isn’t under our authority.” That’s why a visit to haredi strongholds in Jerusalem or Bnei Brak that doesn’t include a peak at the inside of the homes leaves the spectator with the impression that everything there is very dirty.
‘We don’t deal with externals’
The idea that environmentalists are left-wing pacifists (you know, tree huggers) has also contributed a great deal to the lack of popularity of this issue in the haredi community. “Recycling?” someone once said to me. “That’s something popular among the secular, no?” “Environmental aesthetics, you say? That’s not for us – we deal with the content, not the externals.”Until one day, several years ago, it isn’t clear exactly when, several anonymous people began to raise the banner of revolution. Suddenly there were stairwells, many stairwells even, where you wouldn’t know immediately how many children live in the building or their ages. You wouldn't find dirt in the hallway, and even though there are about 20 families with children, the floor could compete honorably with a pharmacy floor.
Quietly, under the radar, a huge revolution has been taking place in recent years. The haredi living environment has gone from narrow, filthy sidewalks like those of Calcutta to clean and green, and woe to the person caught littering in public. The younger generation mostly goes to live in housing projects where there is a great deal of emphasis on green environmental planning and real quality of life.
Haredim for the Environment, which won the Green Globe Award only two weeks ago, has done a great deal to promote environmental issues. Rabbi Yehuda Ganot, who heads the organization, has managed to contribute quite a bit to making the haredi environment cleaner and better cared for.
To suddenly want a park next to your house isn’t “Western hedonism,” and to be the taskmaster from your building’s housing committee who enforces cleanliness is not something bad. On the contrary, there are many helpers in this task.
The Rambam said so
I personally believe that the moment we decide to take true responsibility for the environment in which we breathe, without leaving the elderly street cleaners with the work of cleaning up after the children, things will change for the better.We must remember that the building where we live, the neighborhood where our children play, and the sidewalk where they ride is also ours, and the same goes for dirt and cleanliness. Years ago the Rambam wrote his suggestions about an ideal home (feng shui is as Jewish as can be), but today I have no idea who even knows what they are or behaves in accordance with them. I will forgo his recommendation for “good smoke” (incense for those of you who are wondering), but not his demand for a suitable living environment.
The bottom line is that we deserve to live in a place that is clean and well kept. And if serial cigarette-butt litterers ask who said so, tell them it was the Rambam, or tell them that it’s just a dirty rumor.
