Extreme pressure

Beit Shemesh residents are viewing a haredi campaign against a national religious girls’ school as an attempt by the ultra-Orthodox to assert their control over the city.

By ATARA BECK
Beit Shemesh Bnot Orot protests 52I (photo credit: Atara Beck)
Beit Shemesh Bnot Orot protests 52I
(photo credit: Atara Beck)
‘What we’re doing here right now is the first organized effort in Beit Shemesh to say no to any kind of coercion,” community activist Rabbi Dov Lipman told In Jerusalem regarding the ongoing abuse in the name of religion upon city residents by a small but powerful group of religious extremists, culminating in the terrorizing of little girls. Lipman and his followers are determined to “take the city back.”
In recent years, the haredi population in Beit Shemesh, including the Ramat Beit Shemesh suburbs, has reached 40 percent, thus changing the face of the city. Although most of the haredim have settled in peacefully, several extremists have resorted to violence in their determination to keep their community segregated while growing and expanding.
Apparently this small group is affiliated with the minority in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim that has been dictating dress code and other lifestyle choices through intimidation and brutality.
Lipman, whose fight to save the city from these extremists and bring unity among all Jews has made national headlines, stresses that the extremists comprise merely 50 to 100 families out of a haredi population of at least 30,000.
The most recent scare tactics in Beit Shemesh were aimed at Bnot Orot, a girls’ elementary school under the national-religious Sha’alei Torah educational system.
It opened on September 1 at a new location in Givat Sharett, bordering Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet, a haredi development where the extremists live.
Givat Sharett and its surrounding areas comprise mainly religious-Zionist and secular residents. Like Ramat Beit Shemesh, it has a large Anglo population.
The old Bnot Orot school building was decrepit and deemed unsafe, and the plot of land on which the new edifice stands had been designated for Bnot Orot by the Education Ministry and the municipality.
The extremists who live nearby claim that the school’s dress code doesn’t meet their modesty standards.
A few days before the beginning of the school year, they broke into the building, issued threats of violence and harassed staff, parents and pupils. It wasn’t until the last minute that the school’s opening was certain – the result of protests by hundreds of residents.
Ever since, the girls and their families have been subjected to daily taunts, egg-throwing and other forms of harassment. Perhaps the vilest was a bag of excrement left in the school yard.
“The trouble started about two years ago, as soon as construction of the school building began,” Lipman explains. “I actually went to meet the extremist leaders, and they told me there was no way they would allow a school with an Israeli flag in their neighborhood. This is not so much about the girls. What they really want is to take over our neighborhood.”
“It’s all about who’s going to be in control of this city,” says Sha’alei Torah parent Shmuel Katz, adding that the extremists are a “violent and aggressive minority.”
Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul, who is haredi, had originally agreed that the new building would be designated for Bnot Orot. A few days before the school year was to begin, after staff and parents had worked hard to prepare the new building for Bnot Orot, the municipality issued a statement that “Sha’alei Torah is not showing the flexibility necessary and is stubbornly insisting on putting the girls’ school there…. The mayor is working tirelessly to bring both sides to the negotiating table and to find a reasonable solution.”
Abutbul demanded that the girls return to the old premises for their own safety, claiming in a public statement that police had passed on information about potential violence against the pupils – a claim that was repudiated categorically by police, who have been guarding the school daily.
Nevertheless, the ministry ordered that the new building house Bnot Orot, and the mayor was forced to concede.
“This is a fight not only for us but for all of Beit Shemesh, religious and secular, not to give in to extremists,” asserts Bnot Orot parent Miriam Weil.
“There is no modesty issue,” says Yehudis Schamroth, one of the main organizers of a visit to Bnot Orot for some 40 Anglo haredi women from Ramat Beit Shemesh last Friday in a show of solidarity. More were expected to attend, but they and their families were threatened by the extremists.
“This is not a protest,” she told the group of women before their departure. “It’s a gesture of love and kindness.”
“Groups of men that are very, very evil, very, very violent and very hostile beat people up,” Schamroth said. “They don’t represent the rabbanim [rabbis], but the rabbanim won’t speak up against them.
They [extremists] are a mafia. Nobody has control over them.”
She explained that although some had been arrested and put in jail in the past, the infractions, such as taunting, are so minor that the perpetrators are released within a short time. When people are actually beaten up, the victims are often reluctant to report the incident to the authorities.
“It reminds me of spousal abuse,” Schamroth says. “And since the rabbanim don’t assist them [the victims], they give up. The police are helpful to a point, but if you don’t report it, they can’t do much.”
The Bnot Orot girls, who dress according to Halacha, albeit not to haredi standards (they don’t wear stockings), were thrilled by their visitors, who brought them flowers and notes proclaiming sisterhood among all the girls and women of the diverse communities of Beit Shemesh. City Council member Richard Peres, who holds the education portfolio, praised police and school staff and assured the pupils, “We are with you. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
Two days later, women from Modi’in sent packages of goodies and a bracelet for each pupil. “The girls and teachers are so excited.
We feel we are not alone,” exclaims a grateful parent.
“In walking from the Orot school back to the train station and talking to a number of people along the way, I think that there is definitely a fighting spirit in Beit Shemesh to make it an inclusive and open city,” comments Danny Hershtal, coordinator of the Anglophone division of the Israel Beiteinu party and a candidate in the last national elections. “I look forward to visiting again in the near future, when all people can feel free to be in any public street without fear of insult or injury.”
THE MODERN city of Beit Shemesh was founded in 1950 and settled mostly by Jews from North Africa. It exemplified an Israeli development town. In the 1990s, large numbers of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia moved in, as well as a large influx of Orthodox Anglos.
During that decade the population increased dramatically, and the haredi neighborhood of Nahala Umenuha – known as Hakirya Haharedit – and the Ramat Beit Shemesh suburbs were built.
“Sha’alei Torah actually brought frumkeit [religious observance] to Beit Shemesh,” says Yael Slutski, one of the Ramat Beit Shemesh women who visited the school. “My brother was among the first people to come here with the Garin Torani from Yeshivat Hesder Sha’alvim.”
(Garin Torani refers to religious Zionists who strive to effect social and religious growth in underdeveloped communities. Students in hesder yeshivot combine Torah study with military service.) Abutbul, who became mayor two years ago, is under intense criticism from his constituents across the board. Municipal elections are slated for 2013, and by all accounts these past two weeks may have put the nail in his political coffin.
According to Lipman, who is part of a campaign to oust the mayor, “The secular and national religious see that he left the school and the girls hanging…. The Ashkenazi haredim are upset that he closed the school building. They feel he should have stood up to the extremists because now the general population is all awake and on fire and planning for the elections, and they know we can beat them if we work together. And the extremists think he caved in, since the school is now open. He is on a little island by himself right now.”
The events of recent weeks have gained national and worldwide attention, and many longtime residents lament that the extremists have tarnished the image of haredim and of religious Jews in general. Although the extremists are few in number, “the tragedy is that this situation has caused innocent Jewish children to become prejudiced against haredim,” Lipman says.
“We’re all very careful not to call these people [extremists] haredim, but the girls refer to them as haredim,” says Bnot Orot English teacher Paula Burg. “They’re young children, and their image of very religious Jews is just worrisome.”
“If you look at the original plans for the city, you can see that it was clearly designed as a neighborhood for the general population,” says Lipman. “The way you know that is that there are gymnasiums, community centers in the plans. In [Ramat Beit Shemesh] Alef they still exist, but in Bet the gymnasium became a study hall. It still has scoreboards on the wall,” he points out.
“A large number of secular and dati leumi [modern Orthodox] people used to live in Alef, but they left because they started to feel like a minority and were uncomfortable,” he continues. For instance, rabbis discouraged people from opening cafes or adding chairs to restaurants.
Also, a mega-mall had been planned for Alef, but “construction was halted by the current mayor. The government had allotted the land. It was stopped because of pressure from extremists who feared that secular people from nearby areas might come and shop.”
Natalie Shemesh, who hails from the UK, moved to Alef 11 years ago from Givat Sharett. “Prices were affordable at the time, and we just wanted a place to live. It’s a beautiful town, and it was just beginning to develop. Bet was haredi; Alef was mixed.
There were non-religious as well and many native-born Israelis, but they moved away,” she says.
“Now the children are older, and there isn’t much for them to do, and that’s one of the bigger problems. It’s a difficult issue.
They [the extremists] don’t compromise. Since the new mayor has taken over, they have had more say,” she notes.
“In the next two years, we will fight against further damage until the next [municipal] election,” says Lipman. “We want a leader with vision of what Beit Shemesh can be. We’re not planning to disrespect anyone; we wouldn’t put up movie theaters in neighborhoods where the average person wouldn’t go. Beit Shemesh could become a hot spot,” he asserts. “The [central] location is perfect; the scenery is breathtaking. It has so much potential. It’s not too late to save the city. In a few years we can see a different Beit Shemesh, a city for all Jews.”
Saturday night saw a “unity demonstration” of close to 400 Beit Shemesh residents of diverse backgrounds, including haredim, marching with Israeli flags and chanting “Beit Shemesh is for all of us.” The march began beside the land designated for a cultural center; construction had been delayed due to threats of violence by the extremists.
Meir Malka, director of the Beit Shemesh Development Fund, has been living in Beit Shemesh for 57 years. “I’m very concerned about what’s happening,” he says. “In the past few years things have been changing. It’s a dangerous change that affects the character of the city. I have four grown children, and none of them want to live here now. Neither do my 38 nephews and nieces.
They think there’s no future here. Beit Shemesh has nine twin cities around the world, but we’re losing them.”
Nevertheless, the protesters are optimistic that change will come.
On Saturday night spokesperson Ra’anan Amsalem told the crowd, to enthusiastic applause, “There is no separation between old Beit Shemesh and Ramat Beit Shemesh…. We won’t tolerate division.”
“After a hard week, the march tonight gave me some hope,” commented Beit Shemesh resident Sara Eisen. “There are no Russians, Moroccans and Americans now. There are only Jews.” •