Last night, haredi rabbis and several dozen local residents reportedly protested outside an apartment in the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood of Jerusalem that haredim say is a brothel run by a former haredi woman, a mother of many children. But the haredi protest did not go as planned.
The apartment building in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood of Jerusalem that allegedly contains a brothel run by a former haredi woman
Haredim Reportedly Stoned By Neighbors At Jerusalem “Brothel” Protest
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Last night, haredi rabbis and several dozen local residents reportedly protested outside an apartment in the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood of Jerusalem that haredim say is a brothel run by a former haredi woman, a mother of many children. The woman allegedly sells sexual services and stages orgies, luring the “weaker” haredi youth of the neighborhood into sin.
By late last week the neighborhood been plastered with pashkvils, wall posters, condemning the “abominations” haredim allege are being committed in the apartment and local haredi rabbis wrote and distributed a widely circulated letter warning residents to stay away from the apartment house and the woman’s “abominations.”
Even so, stones, eggs and bags of water resembling water baloons were thrown from adjoining buildings at the haredi protesters. One person was reported to be lightly injured.
Riot Police eventually arrived and secured the area outside the building to prevent violence.
Police made no arrests inside the apartment.
Despite an inflammatory report in the Israeli daily Ma’ariv last week which reported haredi allegations against the woman as if they were documented facts, many people who are close observers of the haredi community believe there is no active prostitution going on in the apartment and that the woman is not a madam.
Instead, they point to previous haredi attempts to discredit and tar women who have left the haredi community for a secular life with unproven and often completely false allegations of sexual improprieties.
These observers note that in the haredi mindset, people leave haredism primarily to slake their deviant sexual appetites and to participate in the “hedonism” of secular society, which many haredim believe to be libertine and filled with sexual deviance.
The woman may be doing nothing more than providing a safe gathering place for disaffected haredi youth to gather and discuss their questions about and problems with haredi society.
They point to the fact that police have made no prostitution arrests related to this woman as support for their belief that woman is innocent of the allegations against her and that haredi rabbis and community activists are torturing the woman to try to force her to stop counseling haredim who are thinking about leaving the haredi lifestyle.
Related Post: Brothel Reportedly Thrives In Haredi Neighborhood.
[Hat Tip: HeathenHassid.]