Thursday, December 29, 2011

A cult of veils and a riot in Beit Shemesh



Tel-Chai Nation

In a followup to this earlier topic, A Mother in Israel presented these 2 pictures of women/girls who are part of a cult in Beit Shemesh that actually takes up the same approach as Muslim women with creepy looking veils that look as though there's no eyeholes. Scary, right? Maybe I'm righter than I think about Islam having a terrible influence on some alleged practicers of Judaism. More on that here, and some more here too on how some rabbis are making an effort to stop it. In more news on the current crisis, the so-called Hasidics rioted after signs calling for segregation were taken down (via Failed Messiah):

Police forces accompanied by Beit Shemesh municipal inspectors removed public signs calling for segregation between men and women in the city on Sunday. This prompted dozens of haredim to crowd around the officers. They hurled stones and cursed the officers. Some haredim called police "Nazis." There were no reports of injury.

Earlier on Sunday, Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul held a meeting on the matter in his chambers. His order to remove the signs was carried out at 5 pm when the streets were meant to be empty of people due to the lighting of Hanukkah candles. Nevertheless, several haredim rioted and hurled stones in protest.

Some of the signs were put up again later in the day by local haredim.

Abutbul strongly condemned "the radical fringes of the haredi sector who tarnish the reputation of all Beit Shemesh residents."

It's clear that we're facing a grave "religion-war", and soon.

It's fortunate that the chief rabbis have condemned this behavior, starting with the bus segregation (also via Failed Messiah):

Chief rabbis against 'kosher' buses: Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger on Sunday responded harshly to the ultra-Orthodox demand to operate "kosher" bus lines in haredi neighborhoods, saying that the haredi public had not right to impose its opinion on the rest of the population.

"We can't be the world's landlords. This isn't the haredi public's country," the chief rabbi said in an interview to Kol Barama Radio. "We have no authority to impose our opinion on others. This is a public place."

I won't be surprised if in the coming week or so, this is still going to be a major issue. Here's one more item from the Jerusalem Post.

No comments: