The Shoe Shop Demonstration

B"H

Besides reading all the latest Fakshivilim, I also witnessed a small demonstration in Ge'ulah (right next to Kikar Shabbat) last night. While crossing the street I saw right ahead a small group of people gathering in front of a certain store.

A young Litvak was standing in front of a ladies' shoe store holding up a self - constructed sign. Different rabbis advise the haredi population not to buy in this particular shoe store.
Someone asked for the reason and the Litvak mumbled something about the store opens its doors to male and female customers. If a husband decides to accompany his wife buying a pair of shoes, he is allowed to walk even into a ladies' store.

For quite some time already, more and more stores in the Mea Shearim and Ge'ulah neighborhood hung up signs only to accept customers dressed modestly. Moreover there are plenty of clothes shops accepting either male or female customers only. It would totally be out of place when a strange man is walking through a womens' clothes shop and causes the female customer to be embarrassed.

Unfortunately, it didn't say any Rabbi's names on the Litvak's poster. However, the whole scene was anything but surprising. And whoever was planning to make a movie about Haredim and didn't film the scene, missed a great opportunity.

It already started some years ago that the owners of clothes shops in those two haredi neighbourhoods received orders to hang out modesty signs. Those shop owners who didn't follow those "modesty recommendations" had to face the consequences.

Who is behind all that and why were some shops in Ge'ulah burnt down two years ago ?

As already at Temple times, a tiny but very extreme group is demostrating its "power". The "Sikarikim" seem to be back and it is them forcing the inhabitants of the neighbourhoods to extreme modesty. Shops who didn't agree to the ways of the Sikarikim were burnt down. As a warning for everyone else.

Jerusalem's police have been trying to find out the identity of the Sikarikim for quite a while but without any success. And how should they find out at all ? No one in Mea Shearim is running to the Zionist police in order to tell them any local secrets. And as long as the police don't understand all the connections and dealings within the Mea Shearim society, they simply won't arrest anyone.

The whole demonstration scene, however, reminded me of the Nazi boycott of Jewish shops on April 1, 1933.



Main road in Mea Shearim