Penelope
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Meet the Israeli Women Fighting For the Right to Wear What They Want
· Inna Lazareva / Beit Shemesh @innalaz
July 10, 2015
When Atara Beck moved halfway across the world from Canada to begin a new life in Israel, the last thing this orthodox Jewish woman expected was to be called a ‘shiksa’ (a derogatory term for a non-Jew) and for her car to be pelted with trash by Jewish youths.
When Beck entered the synagogue and complained about the youths’ behaviour, the men inside refused to speak to her. “They just ignored me,” she says.
In recent years, similar attacks have become more frequent.
Beit Shemesh — which means ‘house of sun’ — is today in midst of an intra-religious battle watched by the rest of the country with trepidation. The town, 13 miles from Jerusalem, has a population of 80,000; roughly half are ultra-orthodox Jews (also known as haredi or haredim), known for their strict dress code, whilst the rest are Jewish orthodox and secular.
In the haredi parts of town, signs hang on large billboards: “Long skirt, no trousers, no tight fitting clothes.” Another sign near a synagogue advises women not to walk or even wait on the nearby public sidewalk. A nearby bus shelter has ‘Women Indoors’ spray-painted on the walls.
In recent years, local activists say that such signs have incited verbal and physical violence against women who, whilst being orthodox or secular Jews, are still deemed not pious enough by a small but violent extremist minority of haredi Jews.
“Their effect is far greater than their number,” due to the tightly interwoven community politics, explains Daniel Goldman, a local resident and head of Gesher, a group which aims to bridge social gaps in Israeli society.
Several years ago, Nili Philipp was cycling through the town wearing a t-shirt, long pair of shorts and, fortuitously, a helmet, when she was struck by a rock hurled directly at her head. In 2014, Vered Daniel was holding a baby in her arms and about to enter a local department store when she was insulted by a group of men for wearing what they deemed inappropriate clothes. They then threw rocks, forcing her to retreat to her car where one of the rocks smashed a window.
During the recent national elections in March 2015, female orthodox politicians were attacked with water balloons, as passers-by hissed “Whores!” at them in the street. Even local school girls — some as young as eight — have been spat on, called “whore” and “slut”, and left traumatised to the point of wetting their beds at night.
The perpetrators sometimes await their victims outside school gates near the ultra-orthodox part of town, clad in black, wearing wide-rimmed black hats and clenching their fists. God, they say, is on their side.
Meet the Israeli Women Fighting For the Right to Wear What They Want
· Inna Lazareva / Beit Shemesh @innalaz
July 10, 2015
When Atara Beck moved halfway across the world from Canada to begin a new life in Israel, the last thing this orthodox Jewish woman expected was to be called a ‘shiksa’ (a derogatory term for a non-Jew) and for her car to be pelted with trash by Jewish youths.
When Beck entered the synagogue and complained about the youths’ behaviour, the men inside refused to speak to her. “They just ignored me,” she says.
In recent years, similar attacks have become more frequent.
Beit Shemesh — which means ‘house of sun’ — is today in midst of an intra-religious battle watched by the rest of the country with trepidation. The town, 13 miles from Jerusalem, has a population of 80,000; roughly half are ultra-orthodox Jews (also known as haredi or haredim), known for their strict dress code, whilst the rest are Jewish orthodox and secular.
In the haredi parts of town, signs hang on large billboards: “Long skirt, no trousers, no tight fitting clothes.” Another sign near a synagogue advises women not to walk or even wait on the nearby public sidewalk. A nearby bus shelter has ‘Women Indoors’ spray-painted on the walls.
In recent years, local activists say that such signs have incited verbal and physical violence against women who, whilst being orthodox or secular Jews, are still deemed not pious enough by a small but violent extremist minority of haredi Jews.
“Their effect is far greater than their number,” due to the tightly interwoven community politics, explains Daniel Goldman, a local resident and head of Gesher, a group which aims to bridge social gaps in Israeli society.
Several years ago, Nili Philipp was cycling through the town wearing a t-shirt, long pair of shorts and, fortuitously, a helmet, when she was struck by a rock hurled directly at her head. In 2014, Vered Daniel was holding a baby in her arms and about to enter a local department store when she was insulted by a group of men for wearing what they deemed inappropriate clothes. They then threw rocks, forcing her to retreat to her car where one of the rocks smashed a window.
During the recent national elections in March 2015, female orthodox politicians were attacked with water balloons, as passers-by hissed “Whores!” at them in the street. Even local school girls — some as young as eight — have been spat on, called “whore” and “slut”, and left traumatised to the point of wetting their beds at night.
The perpetrators sometimes await their victims outside school gates near the ultra-orthodox part of town, clad in black, wearing wide-rimmed black hats and clenching their fists. God, they say, is on their side.
Meet the Israeli Women Fighting For the Right to Wear What They Want
