Mea Shearim, an ultra-religious Jewish neighborhood over a hundred years old,
is a popular tourist stop and shopping center.
When you turn the corner
from Strauss Street,
you enter another world,
where Pashkavillim, not the internet provide the latest news.
On Mea Shearim Street discounted books can cause an instant crowd to gather.
For over a year the Or Chaim Bookstore on Mea Shearim Street
has been the target of repeated and increasing terror attacks.
This English modesty sign now hangs outside as a result of those assaults.
Metal doors, security, and police did not protect the owners from the thugs,
who vandalized the store and threatened the owners for over a year.
A group called Sikrikim, extremists who want to control women’s dress and
to decide which books are appropriate to sell and to read.
However, in store
after store,
after store,
after store,
after renovated store on Mea Shearim Street,
no such modesty signs were posted today.
Feldheim bookstore had the sign in Hebrew only.
Despite unending major building and renovation,
and unwelcoming signs
posted at the entrance to the neighborhood, the tourists still keep coming.
A few violent people caused The Or Chaim Bookstore’s shades to be closed,
so from the street no one can see they sell English books.
The damage caused by the Sikrikim was NIS 250.000 (over $65,000) ,
forcing them to give in.
Now they have the signs up.
They will not sell books the Sikrikim disapprove of.
Terror has triumphed in Mea Shearim…
I so appreciate your photography and commentary. I stumbled on your blog not so long ago and now I eagerly anticipate each new posting. Kol Hakavod!
Thank you, there is so much to do, wish there was more time
Thank you for documenting this. Years ago, I stopped visiting Mea Shearim when I heard a woman ask whether her long skirt and 3/4 length sleeves were modest enough…I was wearing a long skirt and shorter sleeves. If I can’t be safe, amongst Jews, I thought, I’m not going in. What has happened to the bookstore is, indeed, a ‘shanda’. Hannah Brown
it was horrible what those pple did to the bookstore. but it would have been nice to see pics of the other ones. the pple that mind their own buisness and live there for years. the regular chassidim and mothers walking with their children.
There is one of the men looking at books, the pashkivil notice and women crossing the street,this “mafia” type activity is most upsetting.
I would have liked to report that the terror tactics failed.
Your heading was deceiving. I thought that I would see photos of Arab terror triumphs, but saw instead our own people’s “terror triumphs”. How upsetting to see these tactics by Jews against Jews. Today, I have no words, which is strange for me, as I usually have too much to say.
Just a sad, heavy feeling that words cannot describe?
It is indeed sad when we have to pay thugs to leave us alone. They want to be like the mob where if you don’t pay for protexia, you get your store damaged.
Sharon, Kol Hakovod for exposing this shameful bullying behavior to the wider audience of your blog. Keep up the good work. Jerusalem has both great beauty and tremendous daily acts of kindness and chesed… and unfortunately a small but active minority of thugs who use religion as an excuse for their warped behavior. So terribly sad.
“where Pashkavillim provide the latest news, not the internet.”
might have been better written as:
“where Pashkavillim, not the internet, provide the latest news.”
Not knowing what pashkavilim are, one would think they have something to do with the Internet and be confused with the sentence written as is.
Thank you for taking the time to comment, I will change it at once!