Mea She’arim – Bookstore Accedes to Charedi Vandalist Demands

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    A security surveillance shows a man trying to break into the BookstoreMea She’arim – After 20 months of attacks and a quarter million shekels in damage, a religious bookstore in the ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood of Jerusalem decided on Monday to accede to the demands of extremists responsible for the violence.

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    Under the terms of the compromise, Ohr Hachaim/Manny’s put up a large sign requesting that all customers dress modestly. A mashgiach, who checks the store’s inventory to make sure there are no controversial books, will go over the books in the coming week and require that some books be removed from the shelves, though they will not be permitted to remove any English books, said Marlene Samuels, one of the store’s managers.

    A haredi group called Sikrikim deemed the store as “promoting immodesty,” and since Manny’s opened in March 2010, the group has smashed its windows more than a dozen times, glued its locks shut, thrown tar and fish oil at the store and dumped bags of human excrement inside. The owners were also personally threatened multiple times.

    At the end of September, police arrested one of the central figures responsible for the attacks. Since the arrest, and with the construction of steel shutters to protect the store at night, violence against the store has decreased. However, a large demonstration outside the store on Sunday night convinced the owners of the bookstore to meet with the Sikrikim to come to a compromise.

    “Even though it looks like things have quieted down there were still problems looming,” said Samuels. “The truth is it’s very hard to get the better of these people… you can never beat them.”

    Samuels said the damage caused by the attacks, including hiring security guards to watch the store, has cost more than NIS 250,000 over the past year-and-a-half.

    The store is popular with Anglo residents and tourists and carries many English-language holy books and Judaica items in addition to Hebrew books. The harassment stems from the bookstore’s past refusal to accept demands made by the neighborhood extremist group, which would require all businesses to observe specific “modesty standards.”

    The Sikrikim, a small, violent group that numbers less than 100 families, had previously demanded that all English books be removed because the store attracted many tourists who were not properly dressed. They also condemned the store for carrying Zionist books and demanded the store shut down its website to avoid attracting foreigners.

    Other store owners in the area have called the Sikrikim the “Mea She’arim mafia,” and said it was pointless to try to beat them. Almost all of the stores in the area have the same sign requiring customers to wear modest dress, and other bookstores said they allow Sikrikim mashgiachs to check their inventory to remove “non-kosher” books.

    Manny’s provoked the ire of the Sikrikim by refusing to acquiesce until this week.

    “In the beginning, the owners thought it would stop, that it was temporary, but it didn’t stop, it got worse and worse,” said Samuels. In September, after multiple complaints to the police, the bookstore appealed to the media, including The Jerusalem Post. Samuels said pressure from the media spurred the police to arrest one of the central figures responsible, which frightened the extremist group.

    “[When] the police started to make arrests and became more active, it quieted them down, but it didn’t stop them, and it’s never going to end 100 percent,” said Samuels.

    However, the arrest and police pressure gave them “bargaining power,” said Samuels, frightening the group into accepting a compromise rather than the extremists dictating the terms.

    “It’s such a losing battle… So much money was lost in the damages, they realized they needed to come to a compromise,” she said of the owners. “It’s not going to be that terrible,” she added.

    “They might continue demonstrations, but the demonstrations will be mild.”

    The name “Sikrikim” comes from the Latin “Sicarii,” a term applied – in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE – to an extremist splinter group of the Zealots who tried to expel the Romans and their partisans from Judea using concealed daggers.

    Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post


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    63 Comments
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    Velvetyarmulka
    Velvetyarmulka
    12 years ago

    Such a shame that this is what our “zealots” are focused on. And we ask for the Bais Ha’Mikdash to be rebuilt? Why? So that some group of misled individuals can protest against that, and have it brought down again with Sinas Chinum?? There is nothing that all Jews will ever agree on. Seriously, with friends like these…

    YJay1
    YJay1
    12 years ago

    Oy, this is a terrible Chillul Hashem. We must put an end to all this violence!
    This is not, and never was the Jewish way. These sikrikim might or might not have some valid points, that is up for debate, but violence should never an option. Once you start with violence you are automatically wrong.

    It’s so sad that you have just a handful of people who besmirch a whole nation’s name.

    12 years ago

    NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Giving in to them only makes it more likely that they will continue to instil the Taliban on more stores and in more neighborhoods!
    I personally have seen in Meah Shearim an obviously non-Frum, English speaking, couple walking into a store there and they bought the husband’s first pair of tzizis and a yalmulka. It was a happy occasion for them. As they were leaving, the woman (in pants) asked the store owner “I am not going to be bleached, am I?”
    They had made a major milestone in their life. But looking at this couple I could tell that if she was bleached, they would go home and burn the tzizis vowing never to try to be more frum ever again. Look where it got them! They might have then walked over to Manny’s to get their first siddur and chumash— what’s the problem with that? Why stop them?
    This was one of the few stores in the area that you could find lots of sefarim, from different drachim, not just “approved by fanatics” ones.
    Does this mean that sephardic ones will be banned? they don’t follow the same derech so it must be “controversial”.

    eigner
    eigner
    12 years ago

    Say no to terror!!!!

    DRE53
    DRE53
    12 years ago

    What a pity they weren’t able to come to a compromise a year and a half ago.
    Both sides are wrong; the store owner for going against the will of the neighborhood’s residents and the sikrikim for using violence.
    Don’t tell me that it’s a free country and everyone has the right to act how they want. Even if one has a “right” to freedom of expression etc. it still might be “wrong” to engage in activity that hurt others’ feelings.

    Hlaivy
    Hlaivy
    12 years ago

    What a Kidush Hashem following in the footsteps of Pinchus ben Elozor Hacohen who killed zimri to show an example of Kedusha

    normaljew
    normaljew
    12 years ago

    Israel is free country and the government should arrest these telbanic Jews

    hmmmm
    hmmmm
    12 years ago

    Same as on LEE ave in willy. I’m not fanatic , but my opinion is, if you come to the neighborhood where the standards are such, modesty etc. Just do as THEY do , don’t instigate , don’t light a fire. Of course the sikrikim are not right in making all the damage. BUT, the owners of the store knew very well that this is what the sirikim do , but they thought they’ll our smart them , call the police , take them to court. Smart allicks eventually get out smarted.

    cremebrule5
    cremebrule5
    12 years ago

    i was just in eretz yisrael ,and myself witness these ignorant nuterkarta. They are primitive,they behave in a maner that make you want to vomit,how do you want mashiach to come when jews dispise each other. This honest book store is tring to make a parnasa ,he has the right to sell any jewish books he wants,Like the previouse person wrote chasidish mafia.Thats what it is if they dont believe in the medinah they can move to Iran ,Syria or the Gaza ,The neturekarta woman dont look tzniut they look like moslem woman .

    cremebrule5
    cremebrule5
    12 years ago

    i feel manny has a right to sell what he pleases .

    cremebrule5
    cremebrule5
    12 years ago

    There is nothing more to say then mashiach is not comming with such hate ,

    BaalMussar
    BaalMussar
    12 years ago

    If there would be only 100 families in the demonstrators group the owners would never have giVen in, the truth is they have a huge amount of supporters, and were told by police chief Mickey, it’s a losing battle.

    Innocent-Abroad
    Innocent-Abroad
    12 years ago

    You know, this combination of sinas chinom and religious coercion (and I am frum) is one of the main reasons I wouldn’t consider moving to Eretz Yisroel.

    Greener
    Greener
    12 years ago

    I guess the slogan WE WANT MASHGIACH NOW has won out.

    Member
    12 years ago

    Israel is clearly not America. America stands for trust and benevolence. Israel today begins a chapter of rage and acidic hatred. True that Israel is homeland to the nation of Jacob whose own blessing is the guidepost to human relations today, the fact is that Jacob never envisioned his own children eating out of the troughs of neglect and disorder. What has Israel come to that we no longer activate the powers of the voice and instead blow through town like the very same Nazis who destroyed all of our peoples lives in the holocaust?

    Curses upon curses can not do justice to the inhumanity that walked the streets of Nazi Germany and today, and today the same indignified hatred and indoctrination of evil suffuses even Eretz Yisrael consuming a culture around its very core of existence.

    Yonason_Herschlag
    Yonason_Herschlag
    12 years ago

    The derech haTorah would have been for anyone who is bothered by the store to make a claim against them via the bes din. Manny is shomer torah and mitzvohs and would have come to the bes din and obliged to the demands of bes din. Would some other store not obey the bes din, then the bes din could put out a letter of siruv. Without any heter bes din, these people who did the damages are mazikin. Who appointed them to be the mashgichim?! They were not chosen by the community, but rather self-appointed. It is a disgrace to the community that they are not weeded out.

    12 years ago

    I’m sickened by the hate, the violence AND the owners giving in to these threats. However, I see why they did, especially when the police are useless. What should have happened is that normal neighbors should have set up 24-hour watch. Roshei Yeshivas should have told their Talmidim to go in & browse & hopefully buy, to show support for a community business.

    I’m sure they didn’t sell anything “wrong”, unless you say that anything that doesn’t follow your twisted mesorah is “wrong.” What a sad story & how terrible it is that these “frum” people in this “frum” neighborhood are so wicked & their neighbors are so weak. Who needs Arab terrorism, Meah Shearim has their own who are doing a great job.

    benstein
    benstein
    12 years ago

    I think we should let the gerer’s do the job and take care of the problem for once and for all

    menachemwh
    menachemwh
    12 years ago

    I dont care if they are not neturei karta or theyre not satmar or whatever other extreme sect they are. THEY ARE A RESULT OF THE RIGHT WING FANATISM OF THE CHAREIDI WORLD. This is the result of certain Jews who always feel they have the only answer. Someone wrote I understand their complaints….. what are you talking about? What are their complaints? They dont approve of Zionism? who cares what they think. I have a right to exist and believe in my own rabanim. People are not dressed properly. Well to be honest the way your women dress is neged halacha. It makes them appear disgusting to your own husbands, stockings upon stocking sheitel beneath a hat.

    Yawvous
    Yawvous
    12 years ago

    These same people throw stones at the #1 bus to the Kotel and due to it the bus no longer goes through Meah SHarim. Just great! Someone from the religious neighborhood has to walk 20 minutes to a bus stop in order to go to the Kotel because these knuckleheads are “looking for some action.” I don’t agree that stores should market books of questionable quality but there’s a right way to go about it. Smashing windows just eternalizes the success of those marketing these wares to relocate it successfully somewhere else. Is that the victory we seek?

    Weeee
    Weeee
    12 years ago

    I think it’s a kiddush they are doing to protect our neshama’s from immodesty. But we still dont know the whole story. There are two sides to every story no?

    janda3
    janda3
    12 years ago

    I think the owners of Manny’s should take this group to Beis Din & sue them for all the money they lost because of this. If the group refused the decision of Beis Din then Manny’s will be able to put a Seruv on them & then they will be in very big trouble!!!

    SandmanNY
    SandmanNY
    12 years ago

    Ken shmo ken hu: “Sikrikim” – sick and reyk. Time for chapsem on these batlanim.

    TorahTruth
    TorahTruth
    12 years ago

    Here is the simple solution… Everyone should stop supporting stores in Mea Shearim, or the Hashgocha of the Eida Chreidus. Manny’s should relocate and we should help the economy of a normal community. Let Meah Shearim go back to the squalor and backwards community that it prides itself to be.

    AriGold
    AriGold
    12 years ago

    Klal Yisrael is an Am Keshei Oref – A stiff necked people. This is a trait that we are supposed to use positively to be a “Light unto Nations”. Many times as in this case it is misguided selfishness. There’s never an excuse for violence ever.

    This will have no bearing on Mashiachs arrival though. The Almighty looks at our camp – We who love one another and devote ourselves to His service.
    “וְאֶל־זֶ֣ה אַבִּ֔יט אֶל־עָנִי֙ וּנְכֵה־ר֔וּחַ וְחָרֵ֖ד עַל־דְּבָרִֽי”

    Truth
    Truth
    12 years ago

    Mannys is a fool. I would have put up metal bars at the beginning -so no damage can occur at night. (a couple thousand bucks) During the day I’d buy a shotgun with rubber pellets, so I wouldn’t have to pay security guards! Then I’d put a sign outside in a few languages -No loitering and also on the sign I’d write what one of my goyishe neighbors has on his sign -If you can read this sign -you are within range. And he means it. If the rubber bullets don’t work -I’d switch to buckshot and more lethal ammo. Never give into Terror! Even if they are well meaning Zealots, one must never give in. They aren’t on the level of being able to be Kanoyim Poigim Bo! This is a very high level of Yiddishkeit -noone in our generation can reach this level. So what are they? A bunch of terrorists!

    Weeee
    Weeee
    12 years ago

    All I am saying is there is something not right. Why would they just attack this store if there wasnt a valid reason? I think it maybe just a case journalistic sensationalism to make the chareidim look bad

    Lodzker
    Lodzker
    12 years ago

    this guy doesnt look yerushalmi or neturei karta. looks like a brisker mirrer bochur.

    newtransplant
    newtransplant
    12 years ago

    If I were in Manny’s place I’d have let these nutcases tell me what I can sell and what I can’t, said yes, yes and then put them back on the shelf once he’d left. As for the sign to dress modestly? I’d make sure it was in a not so noticeable a position…..

    12 years ago

    Open a new branch somewhere normal like near the shuk or תחנה מרכזית – it’ll probably take off.