Hasidic Gangs Battle for Jerusalem

[Scurrilous]

Haredi Underworld Groups Mix Religion and Extortion

<snip>

"In late October, a gang of 15 to 20 thugs armed with metal rods and clubs attacked a man on the street. They beat him, causing serious internal injuries, a head wound and cuts. And then they drove away in the commercial truck in which they came, leaving the man lying in a pool of his own blood.

The attack took place in Jerusalem, and the victim, Avraham Hirschman, is one of the most hated men in Israel. He a leader of a Haredi street gang cum mafia known as the Sicarii. The name is borrowed from the gang of assassins during the first-century C.E. Jewish revolt against Rome that murdered many of those Jews who wanted to sue for peace. The revolt, of course, would end with the destruction of the Second Temple. Today’s Sicarii are best known for extorting businesses in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim and Geulah neighborhoods, for terrorizing Modern Orthodox grade school children in Beit Shemesh and for repeated attacks on police in Mea Shearim — including hurling cement blocks off rooftops at police this past Simchat Torah. The blocks narrowly missed their targets.

Hirschman’s attackers were allegedly Gerrer Hasidim. Known on the Haredi street as “Gerrorists,” they have attacked Sicarii leaders before, and they also have beaten up a messianist Chabad rabbi in Ashdod and trashed his synagogue, assaulted Hebrew Christians and set Hirschman’s occupied apartment on fire after first dousing his infant child with gasoline. Thankfully the baby did not ignite, and Hirschman’s family escaped unharmed.

The Gerrorists and the Sicarii are all Haredim, ultra-Orthodox Jews. Ger — the largest Hasidic group in Israel — is considered to be a pro-Zionist Hasidic sect. The Sicarii are mostly from virulently anti-Zionist Neturei Karta families. The two groups are fighting over possession of a valuable plot of Mea Shearim real estate when the housing shortage in Jerusalem’s Haredi community is at an all-time high. The Sicarii are mostly old-line Jerusalem, with a few being Hasidim, and they consider the property theirs. Ger originated in Poland, and they look at the buildings — known as Batei Warsaw — to be rightfully theirs, because they consider their line of rebbes to be the “kings” of Jewish Poland and its transplanted communities worldwide."

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/146750/#ixzz1ekF2e15q

[tabatha]

1. I thought only anti-Israel countries

had gangs fighting each other.

[northoftheborder]

2. Interesting history I did not know.

[King_David]

3. Ha ha ha

:thumbsup:

[azurnoir]

4. who'd have 'thunk' it fundies get drunk and tear up the place

Passing out vodka as if it were water (something common in some Hasidic groups, like Chabad, to this day), Talne Hasidim would stage a days-long street party that culminated in a public address from their rebbe, after which local Jews were asked to pledge their loyalty to him. Talne Hasidim would then demand that non-Talne rabbis, ritual slaughterers, ritual circumcisers and other community employees be fired and replaced with Talne Hasidim. The local Jews who refused to pledge allegiance to the Talne rebbe, and community leaders who refused to fire non-Talne ritual employees, were then beaten until they submitted, fled, lost consciousness or, in some cases, apparently lost their lives.

While Mitnagdim were sometimes violent, they favored handing over Hasidim to local corrupt police, often on charges the Mitnagdim had manufactured out of whole cloth. And both Hasidim and Mitnagdim used every dirty trick in the book — including violence, when they could get away with it — to destroy Maskillim, the Jews who supported the Enlightenment and the early Reform movement.

This violence was and remains an outgrowth of fundamentalism that promises followers sole possession of truth and of the closed (or nearly closed) communities in which these Haredi fundamentalists live. Unless we provide a nonfundamentalist framework for Haredim to independently learn about the science and history that might cause them to question their absolutist beliefs, the violence will continue.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/146750/#ixzz1elIBzyqg

seems the more things change.........

[Scurrilous]

5. Mea She’arim shop accedes to vandalist demands

<snip>

"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.

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."

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=247516

[King_David]

6. Thanks for your vigilance against these Jewish ultra Orthodox and Probably non-Zionist thugs

:thumbsup:

[Scurrilous]

7. Jerusalem cops make first arrest in ultra-Orthodox wars

The indictment of Yosef Meir Hazan was a victory for police in their ongoing war against the Sikarikim, an extremist ultra-Orthodox faction.

<snip>

"An indictment was filed Thursday against a key member of an extremist ultra-Orthodox faction following a "reign of terror" in Jerusalem's Mea She'arim neighborhood.

The indictment of Yosef Meir Hazan was a victory for police in their ongoing war against the Sikarikim, an extremist ultra-Orthodox faction. Hazan, 21, is thought to be one of three leaders of the group's young guard. He was arrested early last week after a five-month manhunt.

Mea She'arim residents said Hazan's followers have imposed a reign of terror on the neighborhood that has included repeatedly vandalizing the Or Hachaim Center bookstore, partly in protest of the Zionist books on sale there. But their chief targets were the Gur Hasidim living in Beit Warsaw, a section of the neighborhood whose ownership is disputed among various sects.

Though Hazan is suspected of involvement in several violent incidents - some of them well-documented - the indictment filed on Thursday relates to only one: an assault on a family living in Beit Warsaw."

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/jerusalem-cops-make-first-arrest-in-ultra-orthodox-wars-1.399069