Chaptzem Blog!      

Four months ago in the middle of the night, six men dressed in wide-brimmed black hats, black coats, white shirts and black trousers burst into the Jerusalem apartment of a young Jewish woman and taught her a lesson.

Mikhail, who is reluctant to give her full name, had scandalised members of her ultra-orthodox Jewish community by leaving her husband and embracing a secular lifestyle. The men, all members of the theologically conservative Haredi branch of Judaism, tackled her to the ground, slammed her head against the floor and tied a rag around her mouth. One assailant sat on her head as the others kicked her while demanding to know the names of the men she was seeing.

They also threatened to kill her if she did not leave the neighbourhood, which contains many secular as well as religious residents. 'A woman is only OK if she has a family, kids and a husband,' said Mikhail with a sigh.

Welcome to the new, increasingly orthodox, Jerusalem. The attack on Mikhail, although exceptionally brutal, was only the latest in a string of assaults over the past two years against Jewish women accused of immoral behaviour in the city.

In relative terms, Orthodox Jews dominate Jerusalem to a greater extent than in any other city in Israel. More than 30 per cent of its Jewish residents are Haredi while only 22 per cent are secular. Of the remaining 47 per cent, 14 per cent say they are religious and 33 per cent say they are traditional Jews.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/21/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast1