Hundreds of Beit Shemesh residents gathered earlier this week to demonstrate against the recent wave of ultra-Orthodox violence, calling on police and municipal officials to take stronger action against Haredi "thugs" in this growing and increasingly fragmented city.
The protestors, many of them Anglo residents of the city's modern Orthodox neighborhoods, said they are tired of religious coercion, graffiti, verbal assaults and violence, as well as what they described as an atmosphere of capitulation to Haredi demands.
Watershed moment
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Tensions have been brewing in city for years, but for many of the protestors, the attack two weeks ago - when a woman and an male Israeli soldier were assaulted by ultra-Orthodox youth for sitting next to each other on a Beit Shemesh-bound Egged bus - was a watershed moment.
"The violence and vandalism has been escalating in the past couple of years, but when a woman is beaten up for sitting on the wrong end of the bus, we began to see the writing on the wall and realize that we have to do something," long-time resident Eliyahu Shiffman said at the protest.
"[The Haredim] talk about 'our neighborhood,' but that's chutzpa. It doesn't belong to them. It belongs to all of us."
The demonstration this week was organized by a number of Anglo activists, including Deputy Mayor Shalom Lerner, who is reportedly planning to run for mayor next year.
Among the speakers were leading rabbis and other members of the city council, which included religious music and concluded with the singing of "Hatikvah," the Israeli national anthem - a seemingly innocuous gesture that only highlighted the tensions.
Once a struggling development town, Beit Shemesh has grown dramatically in recent years. Located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, it is particularly popular with Anglo olim, who now comprise more than 20 percent of the population.
Less economically established Russian and Ethiopian immigrants have also settled in the city in waves, alongside many Haredi families who left Jerusalem neighborhoods like Mea She'arim in search of affordable housing.
Haredim - including members of anti-Zionist Hasidic sects such as Satmar - now account for about one third of the city's population.
Although neighborhoods are mostly separate, issues such as modest dress and driving on Shabbat in major thoroughfares remain explosive, with each community vying to determine the city's future.
No jogging
"Beit Shemesh is an open place and we don't want to change its character," Lerner (National Union-National Religious Party) told AngloFile this week.
"The police don't take the violence seriously enough and time has come to deal with this seriously. There are too many cases of violence and we don't want it to be routine."
Only the more violent incidents even make the daily news, but residents say that the fear of hostilities is ongoing.
Women say they can no longer jog along Herzog Boulevard, the street separating the affluent, largely Anglo neighborhood of Sheinfeld from the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet.
Signs in supermarkets, as well as posters hanging from apartment buildings in the city, warn women to dress modestly. Cars that drive down the street on Shabbat are often pelted with stones, as Haredi youth yell "Shabbos" at ongoing traffic.
Ultra-Orthodox protestors sometimes overturn garbage bins on the street so that cars cannot get through on Shabbat. And residents say they don't even bother to clean up once Shabbat ends.
"It's a small group of people but it's terrifying," said one woman who asked to remain anonymous because she works with the Haredi community.
"My son was attacked, I was attacked twice and if you put [an Israeli] flag on your car for Yom Ha'atzma'ut [Israeli Independence Dau], they'll tear it right off. It's just getting worse and worse."
What's in a name
Even the name of the street in question - which was the site of the demonstration - is a matter of tension. Rabbi Herzog Boulevard had been called Hadekel [palm] Boulevard, but it was renamed recently in a capitulation to the new apartments for Haredim on the street, residents say.
"Apparently Haredim can only live on streets named after rabbis," the woman who asked not to be named said.
One particular sticking point is the construction of a new national-religious boys' school on the Haredi side of Herzog. The word "thieves" was recently sprayed on the site's sign in what is believed to be the handiwork of local Haredim.
A leaflet dropped into mailboxes throughout the neighborhood this week urged residents to reconsider the location of the school. Although signed "residents of the Sheinfeld neighborhood," many suspect it was written by ultra-Orthodox agitators from across the street. It contained no other indication of authorship.
Leaflet campaign
"Let's not be stupid," the Hebrew pamphlet said. "The school doesn't have to be built intentionally under the noses of the Haredim, which will just spur unnecessary riots."
The anonymous pamphlet, which urged residents to put the school on "our side," caused a stir in the neighborhood. But at the rally this week, objection to the idea of changing the location of the institution was fierce. Rabbi Oren Duvdevani, the spiritual leader of Netzach Menashe Congregation in Sheinfeld proclaimed to a supportive crowd, "The school will not be moved."
In the meantime, some residents worry that the violence and their proximity to the Haredi neighborhoods may affect area real estate prices.
"I live a relaxed, modern religious life and I want to be able to maintain that lifestyle," said Tamar Silverman, who says kids have thrown rocks and taunted her for the way she dresses. "The past few months have been getting worse and I've started to think about making my community elsewhere," she said.
But friends and neighbors have asked her to stay and get involved in changing the situation. Now she is organizing a petition against the latest spate of violence.
A spokesperson for the municipality said the city and Mayor Daniel Vaknin condemned all forms of violence, both physical and verbal, "called on all of the groups to act with tolerance and mutual respect."
A police spokesperson rejected charges that the police were not doing enough to rein in Haredi violence in the area and said that in the latest attack on the bus officers were attacked and injured by Haredim when they reached the scene.
In addition, a police vehicle was vandalized and four of its tires were slashed. "You cannot say we haven't been there," the spokesperson said.
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