There's a new group of ultra-orthodox extremists in Israel: the Sikrikim. They are named after a group that opposed Roman rulers two millennia ago; today the Sikrikim have assumed the authority to determine what is and is not legitimate or appropriately "modest" behavior among their fellow Jews.
No one asked them or elected them, but they are determined to do it anyway. Curiously, some wear masks to conceal who they really are. Aren't they proud of their actions? Aren't they proud to be Jewish terrorists and bullies?
Businesses in Mea Shearim, including a book store and dress shops, have been damaged in night-time attacks by Sikrikim, a group of some 100 ultra-religious men who want one of the holy city's most tradition-bound quarters to become even more conservative.
"Promiscuity" reads graffiti scrawled in black at the entrance of a clothing shop selling dresses whose lengthy hemline and drab colors have been deemed too racy by the group.
Other stores in the neighborhood, where men wear traditional black garb and women bare little but their face, have had their windows broken, locks glued and foul-smelling liquid smeared on walls.
"They also threw once a bag of excrement inside and smashed our windows three times," said Marlene Samuels, manager of the Or Hachaim bookshop, whose bright lights and large storefront sign stand out among smaller and more dimly lit businesses.
The shop has been attacked more than 10 times since it opened a year and a half ago, Samuels said. The latest assault was last week when one of the store's branches had its locks glued overnight.
Samuels said the shop's owner met with the Sikrikim several times. The store stocks only religious books, but they include volumes published by Orthodox institutions that are Zionist -- anathema to the Sikrikim, who believe a Jewish state can be established only with the coming of the Messiah. ...
"They use aggressive tactics and they also ask for protection money which involves paying (a religious inspector) coming in and removing the books he deems unfit," Samuels said.
Source: Reuters
This is not the first such group and it won't be the last. It's a clear part of a much larger trend -- a trend of Israeli society tearing itself apart from the inside. What's more, all of the blame can really be laid at the feet of religion -- Judaism, specifically. Secular Israelis haven't been doing anything to provoke religious Israelis, aside of course from living their lives in ways that more religious Jews may not approve of. But that's their problem.
Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem councilman from the secular Israeli Meretz party, voiced concern that the existence of the Sikrikim, although a tiny minority, signified a growing divide among Jews in Israel.
"Society is becoming increasingly extremist. With the Sikrikim particularly, who are religiously motivated and rule out any position but their own, one cannot reckon, only fight them," Margalit said.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up about 8 percent of Israel's 7.7 million population. With an average of eight children per family, they are a fast-growing population. Many live below the poverty line and keep to dozens of their own towns and neighborhoods. ...
Some business owners in Mea Shearim said police has been slow to act, reluctant to get involved in what they see as internal disputes among different religious sects of a closed community. ...
The Sikrikim "do not like anything that changes the character of the shtetl and the way it was a hundred years ago," a worker in the music store said, using a Yiddish term for the small towns where Eastern European Jews lived before the Holocaust.
The lack of decisive action by the police is very telling -- and possibly more disturbing than some of the actions of the Sikrikim. There will always be bullies and extremists in society, but the police are there to protect the rest of us from those who would tear down society as we know it. When the police don't "protect and serve" us in the way they are supposed to, the bullies are only emboldened and their attacks become worse.
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