Haredim, City Illegally Gender Segregate Zoo And Ban "Immodestly" Dressed Israelis From Entry

Israelis trying to visit the Beersheba Zoo today found the gates closed to all non-haredim unless they passed a modest clothing test, and all zoo activities were gender segregated – despite the fact that this violates the law.

"Today the zoo is closed, [entry permitted to] the haredi community only" 4-11-2012, Beersheva Zoo.

Only haredim allowed entry to Beersheba zoo
Public zoo visitors discover it is open only for haredi public. Following complaints, visitors were allowed inside only if 'appropriately dressed'
Ilana Curiel • Ynet

The fourth day of the holiday drew large numbers of travelers out of their homes, but those who chose to visit the Beersheba zoo found closed gates. The zoo was open for the haredi public only, visitors argued, without any prior notice. A small sign on the zoo's gate confirmed the allegations, while the zoo's management insists that entrance to the zoo was not limited.

"We arrived at the zoo at 9:50, 10 minutes before it opens," said Avigail Kanterovich, who arrived at the zoo with her family, friends and their children. "We tried to buy tickets, and the cashier told us they will not allow us to enter, since it is only for haredim today."
 
According to her, there was no prior notice, and nowhere did it say that the zoo would be closed for visitors today according to religious affiliation. "They performed selection at the entrance, and didn't allow even national-religious people to enter. Only the haredim."

Kanterovich said that only after a long argument they were allowed entrance. "We were furious. They let us wait in the sun for 20 minutes, and no one came to talk with us." According to her, only later the management put up a sign stating the entrance was restricted to haredim only. Eventually they were allowed in the zoo.
 
The municipality: Living in harmony

Another visitor, Yael, also saw the sign. "Outside, the public was mixed," she recounts. "Eventually they let us in, but everything inside was separated for boys and girls." Yael too said the visitors had to wait outside for a while before they could enter.
 
The zoo's manager explained that the site was closed due to a special event for the Orthodox public, but everyone who wished to enter could do so if appropriately dressed.

The Beersheba municipality said that as part of the holiday's event, the city held an event for the ultra-Orthodox public at the zoo. However, contrary to the allegations, entrance was allowed to everyone who wanted to participate in the event.

"In Beersheba we're living in harmony, religious and seculars together, and we will continue to do so in the future," the municipality stated.

Comments

[hassid]

I'd like to explain my position. Especially to Yaakov. I think I might come off as a bit of a zealot. But it isn't true. I'm fairly moderate and think the Haredi world needs to change. In fact, if it doesn't, its facing multiple crises especially on the economic front. However, I feel we need to present a united front against attacks from antireligious monochromatic black and white zealots like Shamaryah. Why? Well, Shamaryah is like the Neturei Karta or New Square of the Left. He sees things one way-- his way or the highway. He has only hate and vitriol when it comes to religious Jews. So he needs to be faced with one sided opposition from all frum yidden. Why? Because if we debate the relative merits of gender segregation, daas torah etc, we come close to Shamaryah and begin to be on his wavelength. Its like the story of R Ammnon of Mainz HYD who thought he was stalling for time, but mistakenly gave an inch to the Shamaryahs of his day. This is why I invented the ridiculous and overwrought idea of the zoo. To show my contempt for Shamaryah, Haaretz and other anti religious forces. Not to trash non religious but well meaning Jews who don't yet know about the beauty of Torah. Shamaryah is indeed an animal. Like a dog, he is attracted to filth and excrement and table scraps of gossip. Like a rat he betrays his people with the horrible sin of mesirah. We hope he realizes that he doesn't need to endorse all of Haredism to do teshuvah-- he just needs to stop sniffing at garbage. The medrash says the dogs were silent by yetzias mitzrayim and merited basar neveilah. Its my tefillah that Shamaryah will just be silent and merit whatever blessings he'd find appropriate. Obviously he isn't going to become Dama ben Netinah tomorrow. But by just being a little more cognizant of what he writes and how he trashes the Jewish people and making a change to maybe hold off just a bit, he could get a tremendous amount of schar.

[Yaakov]

hassid:

Thanks for taking the time to write that. I think, though, you are making a fundamental error which nullifies your good intentions.

When you defend the extremists, who share with you only a superficial appearance and a label, you enable them to drag down those things you value. Yes, there are unreasonable people here who stand in opposition to the unreasonable people on the (apparent) other side. And, each end of this putative spectrum (which I believe is actually artificial) paint with the broad brush.

If Torah has value, it is in how it can teach us to value and interact with creation. Whether a person believes in a Creator or not, when they see the "or l'goyim" of a Jew acting in the highest tradition of Torah ethics, not embroiled in the sociological claptrap, and not denying what is plain just to preserve a false purity, they learn from it. The world is made better, not worse, and they feel inclined to tolerate and accommodate even if they are not sympathetic to the religious impulses that cause the orthodox Jew to make certain choices.

You are clearly educated, articulate, and rational. For you to sacrifice yourself on the altar of religious lunacy, in service to a purity cult of am ha'aratzim, is a shanda. The Torah does not demand this of you. The history of religious Jewry has much more than this obscurantist, regressive, puritanical nonsense to offer.

The other issue is the Jewish supremacy problem. It is absurd on its face. To say, "we Jews have a great deal to offer the world, our tradition has in it a great deal of good, and we have special communal characteristics which benefit everyone" is completely acceptable. To change that into a divine mandate to be rulers of the world, to use it as an excuse to lie, cheat, and steal; to act like scoundrels; to hurt others without concern—that is a genuine chilul hashem.

hassid, I perceive you are better than this. I believe you see the same beauty in Torah that I have enjoyed. But, if you hang your proverbial hat on perfection, on unalloyed purity, and in infallibility in anything in this physical world you are already lost. I don't say any of this to be condescending. What right do I have to condescend? Instead, it is an appeal. An appeal to a Yid who has the spark of the greatness of Torah in him.

What you have shown here is not the greatness of Torah, it is the dark side of human failing. It is social, not divine. If God created this world, he created all of it, all the creatures of it are his concern, and should be ours. What good is Torah if it produces ugliness? If the only beauty is latent and theoretical Yes, there are many examples of chesed in the name of Torah from religious Jews, but, what good are these when the terrible and factual things that are reported here happen every day?

The merit of those gemilut chasadim belongs to the people who do them. The Rabbis who don't lead, who do wrong, who teach falsehood—they are not justified by these things which happen in spite of them. People want to be good, and scoundrels take advantage of that as often as they do of bad impulses.

So, take the Torah and expose its beauty in a way that everyone can understand it. Don't think of yourself as superior, concern yourself with your improvement by helping everyone. Be dan l'kaf zechut with everyone, sincerely, even people like Shmarya. This doesn't mean don't argue, it doesn't mean don't defend yourself and others. It does mean that you must show that in Torah things can be right, good, and kind all at once. Be kind, be respectful of everyone. Recognize your own limitations and forgive others. Instruct and demonstrate what Torah can do.

You are an example of a person with the capacity to bring orthodoxy back from the brink. If you entrench yourself with the am ha'aratzim and scoundrels, even with excellent motivation, you will lose, and so will Torah. Torah is going away, it is becoming irrelevant and looking more and more evil to the ordinary person. The answer is to look to the heart of Torah and expose it in the way it should be manifest in the current world.

The Torah may be eternal, at its core but the appearance and specific behavior of Jews has never been so. Don't hold on to things that aren't Torah at the cost of the Torah itself. Learn from history. Adapt. Keep the good, and the relevant. Don't fall into the regressive pit that has been created by the lunatic idea that each generation is a degeneration. This cannot be. We humans progress. We learn. It is our nature. It is time to say no to the purity obsession and reclaim our humanity.

Please consider this, it doesn't mean abandoning Torah, or the halahcah. It only means regaining our senses as a people and truly valuing our tradition by revitalizing it, and making it live again.

[hassid]

Yaakov

Yours is a thoughtful response which doesn't belong on this site. I agree with this line:

The history of religious Jewry has much more than this obscurantist, regressive, puritanical nonsense to offer.

I think its absolutely true and we need to change frumkeit. I even think Shamaryah might've played a positive role. But there's something called being constructive. Let's think about constructive ways to know how to change stuff. First, the history of religious Jewry or even Jewry tout court, contains lots of lessons. Have people like Shamarya devoted serious time to these lessons any more than R Elyashiv? No. Shamarya has a weird distorted idea of Jewish history where figures like Hayyim Vital and Arizal are aberrations and unaccountable for. Elyashiv can probably get you Arizal, but how can he explain someone like Efodi or Benamozegh? Neither side sees the full sweep of Jewish history in a sufficiently nuanced way to declare one superior to the other or to draw normative conclusions from either. Its just Fox News vs. John Stewart-- comedy and polemic instead of the rich varied tapestry of Jewish history.

You are an example of a person with the capacity to bring orthodoxy back from the brink. If you entrench yourself with the am ha'aratzim and scoundrels, even with excellent motivation, you will lose, and so will Torah. Torah is going away, it is becoming irrelevant and looking more and more evil to the ordinary person. The answer is to look to the heart of Torah and expose it in the way it should be manifest in the current world.

This is really nice and I think you should flesh it out. lets here positive suggestions of how to have both more Torah and more relevant Torah. Its about to be Y"T but lets leave off on this positive note.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: hassid | April 12, 2012 at 06:35 PM

Please.

You're a troll, a liar and a fool.

I report on the crimes of the men you cover for. I report of their lies, and their misrepresentation of history, and their misuses of that faked history to hurt women, converts and others.

And you can't stand that because you can honestly answer none of it.

So you troll and you lie.

But the day will come when the men you shill for are prosecuted and some are jailed.

And that will happen no matter how often you lie.

[ruthie]

ou could have it dipped in palestinian baby blood for $1 more.

Posted by: Korbendallas72 | April 11, 2012 at 08:19 PM

you are disgusting.
and very very stupid

[hassid]

I report on the crimes of the men you cover for.

Who do you think I am covering or shilling for? I have said many times that I work for noone, I'm an independent minded guy. I've been more than willing to castigate the Torah community on this site. But I just don't agree with YOU either. It doesn't mean I'm shilling or I think haredim are always right. It means I think you are wrong Shamaryah!