MK Svetlova criticizes Bnei Brak Chief Rabbi for posting public banners requesting girls not congregate in the streets during Purim.
By Chaim Lev, Shoshana Miskin
This year, like every year, posters signed by the Rabbi of Bnei Brak, Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau, have been plastered throughout the city requesting that women, for modesty purposes, not congregate in the streets during the Purim holiday.
“From experience on what happens on Purim in the street, I am turning to the parents and educators in (the Land of) Israel to warn girls not to congregate in the streets of the city on Purim. They may celebrate indoors in their homes with their families,” the poster read.
This year, the poster’s message aggravated MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union) who demands that the Bnei Brak municipality remove what she calls the “signs of exclusion”.
“The Purim miracle would not occur if it happened today, as Esther would be imprisoned in her house and so unable to rescue the people of Israel,” wrote MK Svetlova on her Facebook page.
Svetlova claims that the Bnei Brak municipality should remove the posters which degrade Jewish culture, heritage and the great women in history, “Sadly, the prophetess Deborah, Yael the heroine and Ruth the Moabite would not even receive minor recognition should they have lived in today’s Haredi communities.”
“Another thing to think about: If such behavior were customary during the time of the Megillah, we would not even hear about Queen Esther, and the miracle of Purim would probably never happen. I challenge (the public) to share this (Facebook) post, until the humiliating and excluding signs are replaced with calls for all the women and men of the city to celebrate the holiday. The holiday exists thanks to a woman who did not ‘stay away’ from the streets,” she added.
