Fighting The Light

By: emil1369

Nov 15 2009

Tags: Demonstration, Haredi, Intel, Sabbath, ultra orthodox

Category: Photojournalism, Religion, Society

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This town is exhausting.
Everybody is fighting over something, all the time. And now the Haredim found a new battle(play)ground.
Now they’re taking on Intel.
Whenever i’m attending a mass Haredi protest, i can’t help but wonder if they really all care so deeply, or if it’s a mob thing, and their minds are clouded by the fact that the rabbi ordered them to take to the streets, and the enormous satisfaction and strength they must feel showing up in such numbers.
I mean, they seem so agitated and motivated, and entranced at times, that they almost make you believe. But…I don’t know…it looks a little fake. The fact that they are such a tight group where everybody knows everybody and what everybody else does, i guess there must be times when they find themselves pretending to care.
Yesterday, for example, the photographers all stayed back at a (what turned out to be not enough) safe distance from the demo, because they were just too scary. At some point there was some commotion, and a rumor spread that the deputy mayor (Haredi) arrived and was being beaten up by the mob. A few minutes later a Haredi man approached us, and asked if there were non-Jews among us, that could call the police, to come save the deputy mayor. And another Haredi man who happened to be nearby, heard part of the conversation and started yelling at the first man that he is desecrating the Sabbath and soliciting other Jews to use the phone, and that he will tell everybody. And he started running toward the mob yelling to them about what he saw…

I thought it was amazing.