In recent years, one of the main hubs of religious coercion and violence toward women has been located in the city of Beit Shemesh. These incidents involve harsh acts of violence perpetrated by local radical Hareidim (ultra-Orthodox) who have made the lives of many of the city’s residents so unbearable as to cause them to leave town.
Until a decade and a half ago, most of Beit Shemesh’s residents were either traditionally religious or secular. The city was first populated by Hareidim in 1994, with the establishment of Hakirya HaHareidit, the first Hareidi neighborhood. Initially, this neighborhood was populated primarily by families from the radical Toldot Aharon sect and the Yerushalmi (Jerusalemite) groups that reflect the radical tradition of the old Ashkenazi anti-Zionist yishuv (settlement). These families had been living in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem and were forced to leave the “Hareidi ghetto” because of a housing shortage.
Following in their footsteps, many other Hareidi families began to arrive in Beit Shemesh, where they established and populated two additional Hareidi neighborhoods in the city: Ramat Beit Shemesh A and Ramat Beit Shemesh B (hereafter, Ramah A and Ramah B, respectively). These families included a wide range of Hareidi denominations and groupings, among them Hasidim from the various Hasidic courts, non-Hasidic Litvaks (both Israeli and Anglo-Saxon), ultra-Orthodox Sephardim, ba’alei teshuvah (newly observant), Neturei Karta, and “Yerushalmim.” As things stand today, the Hareidi population of Beit Shemesh is concentrated in these three neighborhoods and constitutes roughly half the city’s population, which numbers approximately 100,000 people.
Despite the fact that the Hareidi community in Beit Shemesh does not constitute one uniform bloc, many people do not distinguish among the various Hareidi groups when complaining that the “Hareidim” have taken over the area and are inciting violence against its inhabitants. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that we are speaking of a few radical groups who terrorize the inhabitants of Beit Shemesh. Moreover, among the local Hareidim, there are some who are trying to battle this minority of radical zealots, because the latter have been intimidating the Hareidi “silent majority,” as they put it, and have been defaming the general Hareidi public.
There are a number of settings in Beit Shemesh where religious coercion and violence are being perpetrated against the backdrop of gender issues, as has emerged from the ethnographic research that I conducted on site.
Vandalism and “Modesty Signs”
Some of the most salient expressions of religious coercion and violence on the part of the radical zealots take the form of vandalism and “modesty signs.” A classic example may be seen in the radical zealots’ destruction of all the permanent benches that were placed along one of the main thoroughfares of Ramah B, to prevent people from sitting on them “indecently.” As a result all the remains are remnants of benches on which it is impossible to sit. Likewise, the public parks in the neighborhood display signs that demand that women avoid sitting on the benches in order to preserve their internal modesty, citing the verse from psalms 45:14, “The daughter of the king is all glorious within.”
In Ramah A at the entrance of the supermarket located in the heart of the commercial center, visitors are greeted by the following sign:
women walking through our neughbordhood are requested to respect the residents’ feelings and to come
DRESSED IN MODEST CLOTHING ONLY
Modest clothing includes: a buttoned up blouse with long sleeves, a long skirt that is not tightly fitted
Neighborhood RabbisTorah and Hesed institutions The residents
When it was first erected the sign was the cause of many disputes that led to violence; however the supermarket management refused to take it down, arguing that Hareidi residents threatened to harm them if they dared remove it. In the not-so-distant past, the supermarket also had a “modesty stand” that was operated by a woman who would present female shoppers with a long piece of cloth and demand that they cover themselves with it. The “modesty stand” was operative for a number of months until it was removed, due to pressure exerted by shoppers who objected.
The radicals have not been satisfied with one sign on top of the entrance to the supermarket; at almost all the shops in the commercial center, those entering are greeted with the following sign:
Honored customers, we respect the feelings of the neighborhood residents. Accordingly, you are requested to enter dressed in modest and appropriate clothing only.
Many of the business proprietors displayed these signs after radical Hareidim threatened them with a buyers’ boycott, with smashing their shop windows, and even with physically harming them and their family members. Moreover, residents have reported that in the commercial center, self appointed “modesty inspectors” – make Hareidim – have approached women whom they regard as immodestly clad and warned them to dress more appropriately. There is a sense, say the residents, that these radials are “lying in wait” in the commercial center, ready to pounce on their prey.
Physical Violence
The zealous preservation of women’s modesty is one of the most prominent characteristics of the radical groups in Beit Shemesh. It manifests itself in both verbal and physical violence: from destroying street posters showing women’s faces to cursing female pedestrians in the street, and even to spitting, throwing stones, had to endure stones, spittle, and curses hurled at her over the course of her morning run. Michal, a young local resident, boarded a Mehadrin bus (on which the men sit in front and the women are required to sit at the back) without realizing the travel rules. She sat down in the front in the area designated for men, and, consequently, was beaten aggressively. Daniela and two of her friends, young girls from the National Religious community, were viciously attacked by a group of Hareidim while taking a stroll through the Hareidi neighborhood on Friday night. Members of the group threw eggs at them and kicked them so hard that they were left rolling on the ground. A religious youth who was in the area ran to help them, but the Hareidim attacked him as well.
These stories are among the many that illustrate the physical violence these radicals in Beit Shemesh have perpetrated against women whose outward appearance was not sufficiently modest from their perspective. Even Hareidi men whom the radicals consider to be contributing to inappropriate behavior cannot escape this violence. Thus, a group of radicals made accusations against a Hareidi pizzeria owner in Ramah B and poured fuel and tar on the seats and the floor of his establishment because the attire of some of the customers did not meet their standards.
Yoel, a Hareidi ba’al teshuva, reported that a group of radicals dragged him and his son to a nearby forest, where they beat their heads with a hammer. The reason, explained Yoel, was “because those radicals claimed that they saw my son, who is now seventeen years old, walking around with girls in the street. My son does not walk around with girls; he walks with his sister, who is sixteen years old, but even that has now become forbidden.” These radicals did not stop at beating, but brought a bulldozer to destroy part of the walls of Yoel’s family’s private home. This was the last straw for the family, who felt compelled to leave the city.
“The Complete Opposite of Modesty”
Many moderate Hareidi residents of Beit Shemesh have recoiled from this extremism in the sphere of modesty, and emphasize that the consequent zealotry and violence are alien to the spirit of Hareidi Judaism. Yosef, a local Hareidi, argues that the exaggerated preoccupation with modesty is, in fact, the “complete opposite of modesty.” He argues, “If you do not wish men to think bad thoughts [about women and about sex], why are you dealing with this all the time?”
It appears that the overly stringent supervision of sexuality as it has taken shape in Beit Shemesh demonstrates an intensive, if not obsessive, occupation with sex. Michel Foucault2 thinks that the discourse on sexuality becomes a means of control over society, as the ramifications of this discourse are a knowledge monopoly that defines what may and what may not be said. Consequently, one may view the discourse on sexuality that has erupted in the Hareidi neighborhoods of Beit Shemesh as part of the supervision and control mechanisms imposed by the radical zealots on all the residents.
Who Are These Radical Groups and What Characterizes Them?
A large portion of the radical activists in Ramah B are part of the radical Hareidim who originate from the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem. The majority are affiliated with the Eidah Hareidit, a framework that unites the groups that refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.3 Although many of the groups that identify with the Eidah have branches in Beit Shemesh, most are not among the violent elements. The instigators of violence come primarily from some of the Yerushalmim (Jerusalemite groups) and from Neturei Karta, as well as a few first- and second-generation ba’alei teshuvah. They operate within a framework of a few groups led by local rabbis. According to the residents, the hard core of these groups consists of approximately two hundred men who are occasionally joined by up to an additional four hundred.
In Ramah A, one may find radical zealots who hail primarily from the Litvak denomination. The radical zealots from all the groups are mainly young, idle, uneducated kollel students, who, lacking any profession or occupation, are looking for excitement.
Hareidim from other groups in Beit Shemesh view some of these groups as a “cult” for all intents and purposes. “They are a cult,” explains Shlomo, a local Hareidi resident, “with all the characteristics of a cult, including heavy brainwashing, a strong social managerial regime that negates the other and all who do not follow their ways.”
Their harassment of others demonstrates an inability to tolerate people whose lifestyle and weltanschauung are different from their own and a desire to force all the residents to adopt their ways. As Shlomo observes, they “wish to show the residents who is the real boss.”
Despite the terror they have sown throughout the city, it is important to remember that we are dealing with a very small minority—marginal groups who do not represent the general Hareidi community.
Summary: Why Beit Shemesh?
How did so many parts of Beit Shemesh, a town that until a decade and a half ago had a masorati (traditional) and secular majority, turn into a major hub for the activities of radical zealots? It appears that a number of cumulative factors led to this revolution.
First, most of the Beit Shemesh radicals originate from the Mea Shearim neighborhood. For this community, it was important to demonstrate that leaving the inner sanctum of Hareidi Jerusalem would not cause a decline in their degree of separatism, religious punctiliousness, and zealotry. The best way to express this from their perspective was through demonstrating behavior more severe than the “original.”
Second, in the past few decades, Hareidi society in Israel, in all its diversity, has shown greater openness to Israeli society, to modernity, and to Zionism than ever before.4 These changes are not in keeping with the spirit of the radical zealots, who aspire to “rectify” the situation in Beit Shemesh by building a community with all possible strictures.
Third, the existence of young married kollel students, with no education or profession, who are restless and seeking adventure, constitutes fertile grounds for the growth of violent zealous activity committed under the guise of religiosity. This is a well-known phenomenon that characterizes fundamentalist groups among various religions.5
Fourth, the presence of many ba’alei teshuvah in the city also constitutes a ripe platform for the development of religious zealotry. Given their desire to cope with internal gnawing doubts and to be accepted as equal members of the group, and given their lack of deep-rooted family traditions that could check their behavior, these individuals are likely to adopt especially stringent norms that could lead them to religious zealotry.
Fifth, because Beit Shemesh does not have welldefined physical boundaries between the Hareidi areas and the non-Hareidi areas, the radical zealots have been unable to create a Hareidi area of concentration that is completely separate from general society.6 Consequently, unavoidable contact between radical figures from the Hareidi community and the general population takes place, and the former have tried to compel the general population to adopt their lifestyles and their stringent norms. Thus the battle surrounding the various modesty signs, as well as the conflict regarding use of the public square, is an expression of the struggle for power and control taking place between the radical Hareidi community and general society, and of attempts by the former to determine the rules for the latter.
Furthermore, Hareidi communities (like all religious communities) operate today in a competitive free market in which individuals choose their religious communities.7 As a result, their rabbis tend to issue halakhic rulings in accordance with the inclinations of their members, so as not to lose them. In a community where most of the members tend to be overscrupulous in their observance, the halakhic decisor will likely decide for stringent halakhic norms (and vice versa). This phenomenon is well attested to in Beit Shemesh, where a number of rabbis have radicalized their positions in response to pressure exerted on them by radicals in their communities. Moreover, there is undeclared competition among certain groups as to the degree of stringency to be adopted.
Yehiel, one of the leading activists in the fight against violence in the city, explains: “There are rabbis who are forced to submit to the dictates of the members of the radical group, because they know that if they don’t, the members of their community will rebel against them. We speak with not a few Hareidi rabbis who are considered relatively moderate, and they denounce this phenomenon to us, but are not ready or able to act publicly to defeat the problem.”
Additionally, Benjamin states, “The minute one group does a radical action, the extremists from another group imitate them, so they will not be considered less radical than the first group.”
Because the outward appearance of women is something immediately noticeable, and because stringency in modesty is perceived as highly significant in Hareidi society,8 women are seen as a convenient object to be ruled over and their outward appearance a most appropriate arena for demonstrating stringency.