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Too Big To Ignore

Today on Tablet

by
Marc Tracy
January 09, 2012

The case of eight-year-old, English-speaking Naama Margolese, whom some ultra-Orthodox men spat at and called a whore for allegedly not dressing modestly enough on her way to school in the town of Beit Shemesh, has galvanized Israeli society and stirred a long-necessary discussion about gender equality and the increasing power of Israel’s growing Haredi minority. Daniella Cheslow reports from Beit Shemesh today in Tablet Magazine, noting that the fight is over not only modesty but also municipal funding (the ultra-Orthodox had wanted the building that Margolese’s brand-new school occupies for their own purposes). And she quotes one Orthodox rabbi: “We don’t want to live here like in Tehran.”

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.