Haredi Rabbi Forces ‘Immodest’ Haredi All-Female Gym To Close

Because it poses “Spiritual Danger” to the haredi community.. Who needs ‘sharia law’ when we have judaic law?

FAILED MESSIAH

The haredi city of Bnei Brak, Israel is a company town, and haredi rabbis are that ‘company’s’ directors.

A new female-only haredi gym recently opened in Bnei Brak, and the neighbors, many of them male haredi yeshiva students, aren’t happy about it, Ynet reported.

Since the gym opened, its owners, Sara and Yehuda Ganot, have had their cars repeatedly vandalized. Gym equipment has been stolen, as well, and the gym’s locks were vandalized. On top of that, pashkvils (wall posters) railing against the gym have been posted in the neighborhood, and women trying to use the gym have been harassed by locals to dissuade them from working out. Security camera footage shows local haredi yeshiva students vandalizing the gym.

Opposition to the gym appears to be based on the belief that the gym is “immodest,” in part because it’s presence increases the number of women who leave their homes and walk on the streets neighboring the gym.

“The neighbors began this violent saga against women in the [haredi] sector,” Sara Ganot told Ynet. “Children throw stones, they print posters and distribute them to every woman who comes to register and train. The posters say that it is forbidden to work out at our gym. A rabbi who lives on the street says he is not prepared to accept a gym on the street because it will bring more women outside.”

That rabbi? Avrohom Yeshayahu Karelitz of the powerful Karelitz rabbinic dynasty.

“The residents are opposed [to the gym] because it disturbs them,” Karelitz told Ynet.

“It’s not because you don’t want more women to be in the street?” Ynet asked.

“That [the claim my opposition is based on my modesty concerns] is incorrect. [The gym] disturbs the whole neighborhood. It does harm and we don’t want it,” Karelitz claimed.

But Karelitz appears to have been parsing his words a bit too finely. Two months ago Karelitz sent a letter to the Ganots that specifically warned them their gym project was spiritually harmful.

“I’ve heard that you are renovating the apartment on Bilu Street for a goal that is arousing great concern of spiritual harm to the families living in the area and their descendants. I’ve come to beg and plead for you not to do so,” Karelitz wrote.

When the Ganots didn’t listen to the prominent haredi rabbi, neighbors – many of them Karelitz’s students – got the Bnei Brak municipality to block the gym from opening based on the claim that the gym constituted commercial activity in a building that is zoned residential and that it lacked the proper permits.

The Ganots got a stop work order from the city, which tends to do what the powerful Karelitz rabbinic family wants done. Then they got an eviction notice.

The Ganots fought back, going to the city’s engineering department and arguing the apartment the gym is in is located on the building’s ground floor and has its own separate entrance, which makes it legal for commercial use under city code. But the mayor himself interceded and told the Ganots he would never approve any compromise or ruling that would allow them to keep the gym open at that location. In other words, Karelitz was getting what he wanted, no matter what the city’s professional engineering and code staff had to say.

The Ganots cried foul.

“Our neighbors have carried out various [building] renovations without all the necessary permits, but the municipality is using selective enforcement against us,” Sara Ganot told Ynet, noting some of those un-permitted renovations involved converting apartments into places of business.

The haredi city’s government doesn’t see it that way.

“An indictment was issued against Mr. Ganot by the local court due to his carrying out building works outside what is permitted, including turning a residential apartment into a gym which, by the way, has music playing and noise from the exercise machines during its hours of operation,” a city spokesman reportedly said.

“Rezoning a residential apartment requires a permit from the local planning and construction committee,” the city spokesman continued. “In this case the plan is completely opposed by all the neighbors. The gym also doesn’t have a business license as required by law. By way of comparison, all the [other] shops in the area have the requisite license.”