Haredi extremists in Tzfat cause anger by demanding local mall remove bikini ads

In the nothern city of Tzfat, another outrage was caused when the wife of a local Haredi rabbi did exactly what her ultra-Orthodox overlords would want, promoting anti-sex hysteria in the post-October 7, 2023 era:

Haredi leaders in Tiberias are calling for a boycott of the city’s mall over large ads that show women wearing immodest clothing such as bikinis, the latest such controversy to erupt in a city with a growing ultra-Orthodox population.

That demand has led to backlash from the northern city’s deputy mayor, and has sparked a threat from secular residents of the city to stop patronizing the mall, called Big Fashion Danilof, if it caves to the Haredi leaders’ demands.

In a video that has circulated online, Leah Kook, wife of one of the city’s most prominent spiritual leaders, Rabbi Dov Kook, called the ads an insult to the city’s majority religious population.

The ultra-Orthodox population in Tiberias has increased to about 25 percent of the city in recent years, raising tensions over its character and way of life, according to the Walla outlet.

“They enter the mall, they see naked women as big as screens,” she said in a pained voice. She claimed that after speaking to a manager at the mall, nine of 12 such ads were taken down, but three remained, including one belonging to the clothing chain Castro.

Photos of the Castro store published in Hebrew media show a floor-to-ceiling ad displaying a woman wearing a bikini.

Kook called on residents to boycott the store.

“My loves, we’re boycotting them,” she said. “Don’t go into the mall.”

I think it'd be far better they don't. But that said, if she's going to be that disgustingly hysterical to cause a moral panic, then SHE should wear a bikini. No kidding. A woman who even has the gall to cover her hair as though she's to blame if men she's not married to would ask her out on a date.

Ultra-Orthodox parties are part of the municipal coalition led by Mayor Yossi Naba’a, who was elected in 2024 with their backing. A former mayor, Ron Cobi, who had run unsuccessfully to regain the position, had warned of the rising influence of the ultra-Orthodox over the city.

“Unless I’m elected, Tiberias will become the next Bnei Brak,” Cobi told The Times of Israel in 2023, referring to the heavily Haredi Tel Aviv suburb.

Following the call for a boycott, Deputy Mayor Aviv Yitzhak and another member of his party condemned the call and urged the public to continue visiting the mall.

“Especially these days, when business owners are struggling to survive after a prolonged period of war and we public officials are working to assist them, it is unacceptable to issue a statement that causes direct harm to the livelihoods of so many business owners and families,” their party said in a statement.

According to a Facebook page that carries local Tiberias news, secular residents of the city are threatening to boycott the mall if the ads are taken down.

This is not the first time Haredi and secular Israelis have clashed over a local mall. In the southern city of Arad earlier this year, a pair of Gur Hasidic businessmen bought the city’s mall, and there were claims that shop owners were pressured to take down pictures of women, and to have mannequins wear only modest clothing. The city government threatened to close down the mall over the new requirements.

If the Haredis have such a problem with women's sexuality, they should build their own mall. And all concerned should send an additional message by wearing skimpy clothes to the mall, and store managers who recognize why this is wrong should put similar imagery on their stores. And that's no joke.

It's also disgusting the rabbi's wife made what's basically a false statement about women in ads being "naked", when they were far from it, and bikinis don't literally expose genitals. Let's be clear. Of course nudity itself isn't always a good example. But to exaggerate it that much, and perpetuate the reduction of women to sex objects, that's utterly offensive, and it's exactly what the wife of the rabbi is doing, with the irony being she's possibly doing this on commercial video servers, where there could be lots more bikinis to see.

And again, this all desecrates the memory of October 7, 2023 victims. The Kook couple should both be asked to no longer enter the mall at all, nor any of their flock. It'd be better to go bankrupt than service their ilk, who likely did nothing to help in the war effort against Hamas. Must I point out that what Kook did was exactly what the Hamas/Islamofascists would want? And that her whole rant actually mirrors left-wing feminist blabber, including the whole ludicrous notion a woman should be ashamed of her body?

Update: since we're on the subject, here's also a troubling report about a Haredi beauty salon owner who implied she'd rather her son die than become secular:

Throughout the conversation, Blau emphasized that she loves her children and would accept them regardless of their path. However, she also described the emotional distress she would feel if they chose to leave religious observance, saying, “if one of them becomes secular, every day, every moment, every hour, it would burn in my soul."

The exchange reached its most controversial point when Sherki suggested that the loss of a child would be more painful than their living a non-religious lifestyle. Blau responded, “I’m not sure."

Her remarks quickly circulated on social media, prompting strong and divided reactions from the public.

Later, Blau appeared on the Channel 12 studio broadcast, where her comments drew sharp criticism from journalist Josh Breiner, who described her statement as “outrageous" and said it was “impossible to even conduct a discussion about such a claim."

This chillingly echoes a case from earlier this year where some Haredi parents made it sound like they were okay with their child dying, rather than have him or her in a non-Haredi daycare center. As a result, one must wonder if some ultra-Orthodox really do care about life, and whether they're proud of being Jewish/Israeli or not.