It’s easy to get lost in this city of 80,000, with its labyrinthine
network of roads spread over several hillsides, and most buildings clad
in identical white stone. Even most of the people dress pretty much
alike – hard to tell one branch of the Haredim (the ultra-Orthodox) who
live here from another.
It’s a city where most men avert their eyes at the sight of a woman
not cloaked in black, or walk a zig-zag pattern down a sidewalk to avoid
coming close to a female Western photographer and interpreter.
But
beneath the monochrome scene and apparent shyness lie some of the
fiercest religious tensions in Israel, tensions that pit one branch of
Judaism against another and that often turn violent.
As Israelis
prepare to vote in the Jan. 22 national election, these are some of the
issues foremost in the minds of the Haredim and other Orthodox Jews in
mixed religious communities such as Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem and Bnai
Brak. How the religious communities vote will play a crucial role in
coalition building after the election.
Two decades ago, there were
almost no Haredim in Beit Shemesh, a city built mostly for Moroccan
Jews who arrived in Israel in the 1950s. These days, the friction
between the ultra-Orthodox and less strict Jews has grown increasingly
heated.
Just last week, a group dubbed “the Mod Squad” – for
“modesty” – appeared at Tzviya Rosenberg’s apartment door. The
intimidating all-male Haredi committee had come to insist she give up
her computer and telephone, and consent only to use what is known as a
“kosher” cell phone, or one that prevents access to so-called
“inappropriate content” such as text messaging, the Internet and sex
lines.
Ms. Rosenberg, 48, a teacher and Orthodox Jew, flatly
refused, knowing she risked retribution from thugs who often act as
vigilantes.
“They told me I had to comply if we wanted to live in
this community,” she said. The Rosenbergs, whose practices are similar
to most Orthodox Israelis, moved here 15 years ago, well before most of
the men who came to her door. This was not her first run-in with the
squad.
A few years ago, Ms. Rosenberg said she put a small Israeli
flag in the window to mark Independence Day, only to have a gang pelt
the apartment’s windows with eggs when she refused to remove it.
Last
week, the squad told Ms. Rosenberg she was on their list of “Israelis,”
a term the leader spat out, she said. In this part of Beit Shemesh, the
most extreme anti-Zionist Haredim rule the roost.
“Most of our friends have packed up and left,” she said.
Next
year, her son’s moderate Orthodox school may close for lack of
students. “If that happens, we’re out of here too,” she said, explaining
that she would never send him to a Haredi school where only religious
subjects are taught.
Many of the Haredim say they won’t vote next week as they don’t support the state of Israel.
But
the state certainly supports them. With almost all Haredi men studying
for much of their lives in yeshivas, it is largely up to the women,
mothers of 8.9 children, on average, to earn a living.
“We bring
in very little,” says Mali, 25, a mother of two, who, like most of the
Haredim interviewed, declined to give her full name. “We need support.”
The
support mostly comes from the intervention of religious parties in the
Knesset whose leaders often find a way to administer housing, health and
welfare portfolios as part of a deal to join a coalition.
“Our
taxes go to supporting these people,” says an outraged Moran Pahima, 31,
a secular mother of three young children who has lived in Beit Shemesh
for 28 years. “It isn’t fair.”
On the other side, Haim Louk, a
Sephardi Orthodox rabbi and renowned singer, sees nothing wrong with
this arrangement. “The government should pay families to have lots of
children, said Mr. Louk, a father of 11. “For Israel’s security we have
to ensure that Jews continue to outnumber Arabs” in Israel and
Palestine.
The suave rabbi also objects to the idea of Haredi
religious students serving in the military as many political parties now
advocate. The army doesn’t need the extra men, he argues.
Dov
Lipman, a U.S.-born rabbi from the Haredi community, has led a fight
against extremism in the city. He says that army service is “a matter of
sharing the burden. … It also leads to men working outside the yeshivas, which is good for the economy.”
He is worried that extremists have come to dominate his city and its municipal authorities.
Just
a block from his home sits a massive concrete and marble building that
was constructed to be a shopping mall serving large parts of the city.
It was never finished, however, after repeated attacks on the building
drove the contractor away.
“The extremist elements objected to
such a facility being built here,” he explains. Since it would have
contained government services as well as stores, they argued it would
have brought “undesirable elements” such as secular and less religious
people into “their neighbourhood.”
The deserted structure, its
every window smashed, is “a sad reminder of the failure of our municipal
leadership and our national government,” Mr. Lipman says. “It’s time to
take back our city.”
Mr. Lipman is running for election as the 17th placed
candidate on the list of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/in-israel-tensions-grow-between-ultra-orthodox-and-less-strict-jews/article7508965/
Sunday 20 January 2013
In Israel, tensions grow between ultra-Orthodox and less strict Jews
Posted @ 19:57
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