Move over Talibans!
The Associated Press: Jewish ‘modesty patrols’ sow fear in Israel
JERUSALEM (AP) — In Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where
the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God,
zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider
unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such “sins” as wearing a red
blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the
Internet.
In recent weeks, self-styled “modesty patrols” have been accused of
breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for
allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells
MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download
pornography.
“These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community,” said
38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed
zealots. “If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it.”
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews are dismayed by the violence, but the
enforcers often enjoy quiet approval from rabbis eager to protect
their own reputations as guardians of the faith, community members
say. And while some welcome anything that keeps secular culture out
of their cloistered world, others feel terrorized, knowing that the
mere perception of impropriety could ruin their lives.
“There are eyes and ears all over the place, very similar to what you
hear about in countries like Iran,” says Israeli-American novelist
Naomi Ragen, an observant Jew who has chronicled the troubles that
confront some women living in the ultra-Orthodox world.
The violence has already deepened the antagonism between the 600,000
haredim, or God-fearing, and the secular majority, which resents
having religious rules dictated to them.
Religious vigilantes operate in a society that has granted their
community influence well beyond its numbers — partly out of a
commitment to revive the great centers of Jewish scholarship
destroyed in the Holocaust, but also because the Orthodox are
perennial king-makers in Israeli coalition politics.
Thus public transport is grounded for the Jewish Sabbath each
Saturday, and the rabbis control all Jewish marriage and divorce in
Israel.
In recent years, however, the haredim have eased up on their long
campaign to impose their rules on secular areas, and nowadays many
restaurants and suburban shopping centers are open on the Sabbath.
These days, most vigilante attacks take place in the zealots’ own
neighborhoods.
Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the modesty police are
not an organized phenomenon, just rogue enforcers carrying out
isolated attacks. But Israel’s Justice Ministry used the
term “modesty patrols” in an indictment against a man accused of
assaulting the Jerusalem woman.
The unidentified, 31-year-old woman had left the ultra-Orthodox fold
after getting divorced, according to the indictment filed by the
Jerusalem district attorney’s office. The indictment said her
assailant tried to get her to leave her apartment in a haredi
neighborhood in Jerusalem by gagging, beating and threatening to kill
her. He was paid $2,000 for the attack, it said.
A 17-year-old who moved to Israel from New York five years ago said
she was hospitalized after being attacked with pepper spray by a
crowd of men outraged that she was walking down a Jerusalem street
with boys.
“They can burn in hell,” said the girl, who would identify herself
only as Rivka.
She lives in Beit Shemesh, a town outside Jerusalem where the
vigilantism has been particularly violent. Zealots there have thrown
rocks and spat at women, and set fire to trash bins to protest
impiety. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting
women to dress modestly — spelled out as closed-necked, long-sleeved
blouses and long skirts.
The state, catering to religious sensitivities, subsidizes gender-
segregated bus routes that service religious neighborhoods. Ragen and
several other women challenged the practice in Israel’s Supreme Court
after an Orthodox Canadian woman in her 50s told police she was
kicked, slapped, pushed to the floor and spat upon by men for
refusing to move to the back of the bus.
Another Beit Shemesh girl, who asked to be identified only as Esther,
said zealots threw rocks, cursed and spat at a friend for wearing a
red blouse — taboo because the color attracts attention.
Yitzhak Polack, a 50-year-old Jerusalem teacher, is one of those who
deplore such behavior.
“They are stupid troublemakers who are bringing shame and disgrace on
this holy community,” he said.
But the rabbis are afraid to condemn them, says Yehuda Meshi-Zahav,
another community member.
“They can’t come out against zealots who champion modesty. Here and
there they write against violence, but the militants ultimately set
the tone,” he said.
Stores are targeted too.
In August, a Jerusalem man was placed under house arrest on suspicion
he set fire to a store in a haredi district of the city that sold MP4
players.
“It started about six months ago. They would come into the store,
about 15 of them at a time, screaming, ‘This store burns souls!’ and
they would throw merchandise on the floor and threaten customers,”
said 31-year-old Aaron Gold, a haredi worker at the Space electronic
store.
One Friday night, just before the Sabbath was about to begin, “they
smashed a window, doused the place with gasoline and lit a match,”
Gold said.
Now, a big sign behind the counter says, “All products sold in this
store are under rabbinical supervision. By order of the rabbis, no
MP4s are sold here.”
Clothing stores that sell clothes regarded as provocative have been
vandalized, and bleach thrown at merchandise.
Suspicion is all that’s needed to spark an attack.
Girls have been expelled from school after being seen talking to
boys, a punishment that ruins their marriage prospects.
“It could be very innocent; she could be talking to her brother,”
Ragen said. But once thrown out of school, “no one — NO ONE — will
take you in,” she added.
In one case, the violence reached the highest levels of haredi
society.
Three years ago, a son of Israel’s Sephardi chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar,
was accused of kidnapping a 17-year-old boy, beating him at
knifepoint and terrorizing him with snarling dogs because he had
sought the attentions of the accused’s unchaperoned sister.
The son was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail.
His sister married a different suitor the following year.
Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report.