Authorities are reporting that two chareidi males seen defacing Khan Theater ads were pursued and apprehended by police. The two are suspected of causing “thousands of NIS in damage” in their campaign, defacing and destroying Khan Theater posters in the area to the entrance to Yerushalayim from Highway One.
Theater officials expressed outrage, adding the campaign was nothing more than a promotion for the 2013-2014 season. Officials feel the man and woman appearing in the billboards are both modestly dressed, seeking to question the motivation by the suspects to deface the billboards. Officials insist the ad in no way challenges modesty standards. Theater officials add they refuse to back down to demands to remove women from their campaigns, confirming this marks the third consecutive year ad campaign posters were defaced.
The suspects arrested on suspicion of the attacks were released on bail with severe restrictions.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
how about all the damage they have done to yiddeshkeit?is there a penalty for that (oh i forgot. authority is never guilty of anything )
Damaging property is reason for arrest.
There is no rationalizing this as מצוה הבאה בעבירה it’s plain wrong to cause damage to other people’s property.
Perhaps if the haredi community and our leaders see it fit to publicly denounce the “few” trouble makers who vandalize, spit, commit acts of violence etc and in effect “disgrace the uniform” by repeatedly attracting negative public and media attention, thereby giving haredim (who are supposed to be the light of the nations) a bad name, and further widening the gap between us and our more secular brothers; driving away the Jews who are confused, on the fence, or otherwise- until they are so far removed from the haredi POV that not only is there a dwindling lack of support, but there is a kindling of animosity, bias and hatred- IF we come out strongly against such behaviour, then at least the world would know the official stance of the supposed chosen people/light unto the nations. There is nothing wrong with using the global platform to make known the true agenda of the orthodox Jewish people which is to seek peace and justice first and foremost.
Adam mu’ad l’olam, I think it is reasonable to make people pay for damaging property, even if it the signs should not have been up there in the first place. I don’t remember if there is any sort of ptur in the halacha for a case like this. Interesting question.
I think that comment #1 also raises an interesting question – how much damage does a sign like this cause? Does it draw people who are otherwise yirei shamayim to do something inappropriate? Maybe the people who will now go see the show, maybe they would have seen something else equally inappropriate? I think this is an interesting question of lifnei iver bchad ivrei dnaharah. Do we ever collected nizakin for lifnei iver? It seems like a very insightful comment that raises much food for thought.
Reply to No. 1
If you have any sechel, you would realize that your comment itself is a chilul hashem. The Kahn Theatre and its director Michael Gurevitch are highly regarded in EY and throughout the world for their creative and improvisational artistic productions. They have always stayed within the boundaries of good taste and have avoided the pritzus that often is associated with cutting edge theatrical works. The two Chareidi thugs who vandalized the ads will hopefully spend some quality time in prison to deter others from this kind of mindless vandalism.
#1, two wrongs don’t make a right.