Habad banned from Ramat Aviv mall
If the Ramat Aviv mall in northern Tel Aviv (which, by the way, is built on the site of a former Arab village called Sheikh Munis) had banned Arabs, we'd see protests and outrage. But it didn't. It only banned Haredi Jews, and more specifically Hassidim from Habad. A man from the hassidic Chabad stream was denied entry to the Ramat Aviv Shopping Mall Friday. The man routinely asks shoppers if they are interested in putting on tefillin, or phylacteries, and saying some prayers, and assists them in doing so if they agree.But they wouldn't ban Arabs. Or people with long hair who don't shower. Or dogs. You get the idea....
The Chabad man was told that he causes business owners to feel "uneasy." The security man who prevented his entrance said that he was acting upon instructions from the mall's management.
The incident was reported by famous singer Yehoram Gaon, on his weekly radio show on Reshet Bet. He was an eyewitness to the incident and was shocked by it, comparing it to the treatment of Jews in Berlin in the 1930s. Hareidi-religious news sources picked up the story and also found it extremely offensive.
The mall management said in response that "Ramat Aviv Mall is open to the entire general public, and welcomes everyone regardless of religion, sex or race. Hundreds of thousands of people from all parts of the populace visit the mall annually. It is important to stress that there is a synagogue in the mall that is open throughout the mall's hours of activity, and that the mall does not operate on Shabbat.
"Following intensive activity by Chabad people throughout the mall, we received many complaints from customers and business owners in the mall, who feel disturbed by this activity. In view of this, we asked the Chabad people who come to the mall to respect [their wishes] and avoid holding their activities within the mall."
Labels: Haredim, Jewish anti-Semitism
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:30 AM
7 Comments:
I wonder if they banned illegal Sudanese and Eritrean muslims too, or if the ban is limited to the type of Jews they dislike, that is those who nicely remind them of their Creator...
Grow up, Carl. They would ban Arabs peddling Islam just as well.
It's the peddling they don't want in the mall, whether for a good cause or otherwise.
Have Habad try this: rent space in the mall and only promote what they're offering therein. It works for Habad in numerous other places.
Hypocrites.
I'm waiting for the management of most malls to ban predatory Arabs from harassing Jewish girls.
Crickets, I'm sure.
BTW - That's a photo of the Ayalon mall in Ramat Gan.
@Shy Guy
You must be misinformed, Sir.
In Ramat Aviv, years back, they actually had a Habad family evicted because they held tefillot in an apartment, they had a Bet Kenesset closed, yet they don't mind so-called "non Orthodox" activities of any sort...
However, I was probably wrong about the Sudanese and Eritrean illegal aliens: the inhabitants of occupied Sheikh Munis defend those clandestines' rights to be in the poorer South of Tel Aviv, where "darkies" o "Schwartzes", as I personally heard certain people call Yemenite and Sefardi Jews, live; but they would not want them in their midst...
That is the reality of the, mostly but not only, left-leaning, secularist, Ashkenazi "èlite" living there, whose delegates, or poodles, hold all the leverages of power in Israel, either when the left occupies the Prime Minister's residence, or when the phony right does, implementing leftist and anti-religious policies so dear to the Ashkenazi enlightened èlites.
BTW: they could not bear to see people with tefillin while at Ben Gurion Airport either... Going to Turkey or Thailand on Kippur, Pesach, etc. it's really unbearable to see those primitive people with leather boxes...
HaDar, you must be misinformed. What does the housing discrimination case in Ramat Aviv several years ago, have to do with anyone walking around a private business mall, hawking their wares or their religion?
AS for BG airport, Chabad have a well placed stand there and indeed do not roam the floorspace in all directions but remain around their location.
As to the aloofness and condescending attitude of the Israelis you refer to, that's not news to me and it is not the main issue in this case of Chabad canvasing a mall full of customers, which is not a public street corner.
Well, I agree with Shy Guy on so many things. I instantly wondered why Chabad wouldn't rent a space in that mall and work with people there. If they are wandering around randomly approaching people, then it would be like the '70s at LAX (Los Angeles airport), where you could not go from your arriving airplane to the baggage claim without multiple Hare Krishna groups making you stop and then try to find a way around them (and their $$buckets). They aren't there anymore.
Chabad spending time with people putting on tefillin is fabulous, as they do all over the place. It leaves guys with a feeling of something less foreign to them. But people need to voluntarily go to do that, not be pressed into it (or having to refuse) out on the mall's thoroughfare.
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