ABSTRACT

An analysis of haredi rhetoric on crime and delinquency indicates that political and rabbinical leaders alike portray these problems as the logical and natural conclusion of secularism and as completely absent from their own community. This invidious comparison provides the basis for a further argument— that the acceptance of the yoke of the Torah is the only way to ameliorate the situation. Haredi spokesmen use a wide variety of arguments in support of their twin policies of withdrawal and conquest. The most frequently used image in this regard is the Talmudic one of "children who is taken capture among Gentiles." Haredi leaders portray offenders in general, and juvenile delinquents in particular, as having been enticed into a secular lifestyle and, thereby, into a life of crime. The haredi critique of Israeli society focuses on its secular orientation. This line of attack implies that the situation was better before the advent of the Zionist movement.