Haredi Modesty Squad Launches Jerusalem Turf War, Residents Say

Mea Shearim-based haredi 'modesty squad' moves to take over neighboring Sefardic neighborhood.

Jerusalem 'chastity squad' branching out

Residents of capital's Beit Israel neighborhood say members of 'modesty guard' recently attacked young divorcee, American yeshiva students suspected of screening porn films

Ari Galahar • Ynet

Jerusalem's "chastity squad" is branching out and has recently begun operating in the capital's Beit Israel neighborhood. According to local residents, several of the neighborhood's inhabitants have been violently attacked by members of the "modesty guard".

 
One of the residents told Ynet that a divorcee living in the neighborhood had been assaulted by squad members, who poured hot water on her and beat her at a local playground.


"The 'chastity squad' members snatched her at the playground, poured hot water on her, and when she began shouting they beat her up," said the resident who witnessed the incident.

 
In a separate incident, squad members allegedly broke into an apartment where several American yeshiva students lived, sprayed them with tear gas and stole a laptop.

 
A neighbor who arrived to help the students could not identify the assailants, who fled the scene quickly.

 
Local residents explained that the squad members had suspected that the young men were screening porn films to local teenagers. Following the incident, the yeshiva students left the apartment.

 
Another incident took place in the house of one of the local residents, where his friends used to visit him every evening until the small hours of the night.

 
About a week ago, unknown people painted the stairs leading to the apartment, and the resident told his friends that he had received several warnings from members of the "chastity squad", accusing his friends of harassing girls passing nearby.

         
The Beit Israel neighborhood has been changing its nature in recent years, from a traditional Sephardic neighborhood to a neighborhood similar to the haredi Mea Shearim.

 
According to one of the residents, the "chastity squads" are trying to change the neighborhood's acceptable standards and give the place a more conservative nature.

Here are screenshots from Google Maps that show the geographic relationship between the two neighborhoods.

The first two maps show the centers of both neighborhoods. The third map show the edges of both, which border directly on each other. The neighborhood centers are approximately 1/2 a kilometer (1/3 of a mile) apart. The edges of both neighborhoods directly abut each other.

Please click to enlarge:

 

 

[Hat Tip: Michelle.]

Comments

[PulpitRabbi]

I lived there for 1-1/2 years, well over ten years ago, and minor clashes with such scoundrels were not unheard of.

[harold]

are trying to change the neighborhood's acceptable standards

I don't buy this. I think this is a gang of thugs that need to be apprehended and thrown in jail.

[R]

harold, why are you so naive? Yes they are thugs, but they aren't working alone. Where are the rabbis condemning these acts? I don't hear them, all i hear or see is these rabbis signing idiotic chumras.

[effie]

I consider the act of kicking down the door of a home and entering a deadly threat. Consequently, I would do everything in my power to seriously hurt or kill the attackers.

[harold]

harold, why are you so naive? Yes they are thugs, but they aren't working alone. Where are the rabbis condemning these acts? I don't hear them, all i hear or see is these rabbis signing idiotic chumras

Sorry, I don't buy the conspiracy theory. Just because "the rabbis" don’t do what you want and condemn all street level crimes doesn't mean that they condone it. Now if ”they” came out and said that what these thugs are doing is right then I would have a BIG problem with ”them”.

[Shmarya]

Sorry, I don't buy the conspiracy theory. Just because "the rabbis" don’t do what you want and condemn all street level crimes doesn't mean that they condone it. Now if ”they” came out and said that what these thugs are doing is right then I would have a BIG problem with ”them”.

1. The modesty squad works under the authority of several haredi rabbis, including the Gerer Rebbe.

2. Halakhicly, one needs to condemn these acts – especially when they are very public.

The silence of haredi rabbis in this regard is deafening.

[:)]

Someone needs to capture one of these pigs, shave their beard and payess and dump them back into their neighbourhood naked as the day they were born. That might serve to deter these thugs.

[A. Nuran]

They will continue until they are stopped.

These guys won't wipe their asses without a heter from their rabbis. Their rabbis know this and have not forbidden the crimes. Thus, the rabbis are complicit. So the simple way of stopping them hasn't worked.

Some day, probably around Yom Kippur or Tisha Bev, they will murder some poor girl. At that point the Nation of Israel will have to come down on them with a positively Biblical level of suppression. The alternative is the Taliban, the Revolutionary Guards or the Mutawas.

Fortunately, they are abject cowards. If the targets fight back they will back off. The sad part is that they're good at choosing victims.

Anyone breaking into a person's home to do violence is committing a crime which shows callous disregard for innocent life. A person in that situation would be in reasonable fear of immediate and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or serious bodily injury. That goes double for a typical unarmed woman without military training whose home is invaded by grown men.

Israel's laws on self defense are not that different from those in the English-speaking world or Dutch-Roman Law. I'm not an attorney, but I'd be willing to bet any amount you'd care to cover that the defender who shot one of these home-invasion wouldn't even stand trial. And the Tallitbanis would think twice next time.

[Shlomo]

Sorry I'm confused
Is this an article about Israel or Iran

[harold]

The modesty squad works under the authority of several haredi rabbis, including the Gerer Rebbe.

Wow, it would be a real story if these thugs get caught and they testify that they were sent by the Gerer Rebbe. Would the Rebbe be arrested as an accessory?

[Ahavah]

I agree with ":)" wholeheartedly. I propose sting operations to catch the "Modesty squad" hoodlums and humiliate them as thoroughly as possible, shave them, strip them, and beat the daylights out of them. Their Rabbis condone violence to achieve their imperialistic ends - it's insane to think the police can or will stop them. Only returning their harassment to them in kind will stop it. I am ordinarily against violence but these are not innocent victims or bystanders - they are criminals and should be treated as such.

[seymour]

harold

they speak up about other stupid thing why not this

[Mr. Apikorus]

If I ever caught any of these bastards I'd cut their balls off. In their case, I'd be performing microsurgery.

[the shinto man]

Haredi Judaism is a mental illness

[Tom]

Why not go after the so-called rabbis who condone them?

How, I'll leave to your own vivid imaginations.

Fight fire with fire for starters.

When the bearded wonders get stripped, beards shaven, dumped in the Arab quarter of the Old City with anti-Muslim epithets painted on their flabby asses worn down from sitting in yeshivos for years, then things will happen.