Jews for Allah

[Yousef Al khattab]

Police probing `child brides' in Bratslav city
of Yavne'el

By Uri Ash





UNDER AGE AND UNDER FIRE: Police are probing child marriages in Yavne'el.
(Photo: Yaron Kaminsky)

Benjamin Mevorach stood yesterday afternoon in one of Yavne'el's alleys wearing Wellington boots and holding a long branch, surrounded by sheep grazing at the road's edges. He pointed at the nearby house, the first in a long row of dilapidated single-story houses. All of them bore a poster saying, "Welcome to Yavne'el, Bratslav city" with a Hasidic crown in its center.

"That guy, who lives here with his wife, isn't 18 yet. That one over there, with her children," he pointed to a young woman surrounded by toddlers. "She isn't 14 yet, if you ask me."

The native-born sheep farmer is not the only one troubled by underage marriage in the village. The police are investigating suspicions that some 20 couples of youths aged 12 to 16 were illegally married there in recent years. On Sunday a Yavne'el resident, Moshe Zilber, was arrested on suspicion of organizing some of these weddings. His lawyer denied the allegations. Members of the Bratslav community also deny the police's allegations.

One of the village's prominent figures says it is all part of the secular farmers' fight against the ultra-Orthodox community.

Located southeast of Tiberias, Yavne'el is one of the Lower Galilee's oldest villages. About 15 years ago the Bratslav Hasids, most of them newly observant, arrived with their leader, Eliezer Schik. Their spiritual leader resides in New York and seldom visits the village. From the first days of the radical Hasids' arrival, a bitter conflict erupted between them and the farmers. In the last two years the confrontation escalated. The police and local council say the Bratslav Hasids set fire to the cars of councillors and others who object to their presence, that one farmer's barn was set on fire, while some farmers were threatened and some were assaulted.

The Bratslav Hasids claim there is a conspiracy against them and the police are part of it. "The council head set his own car on fire, because he wanted to get rid of important documents and a farmer burned down his barn to libel us," they said yesterday. There are only some 500 Hasids to 2,800 Yavne'el farmers, but they make their presence felt. Stickers of "I love Yavne'el city of Bratslav" appear on every car and large slogans to the same effect are smeared on every second wall.

"We knew about the premature weddings all along," says local council head Abik Kostitzky. "It was going on from when they first came. One of the Hasids told me, `when our children begin to understand the difference between a man and a woman, we marry them.' There were girls who came to the hospital to give birth and ran away afterward, before they were identified. We live in a village, and they don't hide it from us, they're not afraid of anyone."

Kostitzky said he heard of four to eight child brides aged 13, 14 and 15. "They marry them off, make some kind of contract, and as soon as the girl gets pregnant, they come to demand the financial benefits they deserve as parents. Then, when the couple reaches the legal age, they get married officially."

"The police kept telling us that until one of their families complains, they cannot investigate," he adds. "Only now, after we exerted immense pressure, and a new intelligence chief entered the police station, have the police started to act. The Bratslav Hasids felt so safe here, they started doing whatever they wanted. The police got on to them a few months ago and haven't let go since," he says with satisfaction.

The Tiberias police agree. Only the inquiry into the burnt barn and other crimes of violence a few months ago led the detectives to the marriage matter. "We're focusing on the organizers," says Tiberias police chief Doron Cohen. "In five homes we searched, we found video cassettes of weddings, ketubot (marriage contracts), stills shots, various documents and identity cards. We also met teenager couples who were married contrary to the law."

"Cohen says the community leaders inform a girl's parents that she is designated to marry someone, tell his parents as well, pressure them and marry them. It happens in other places, too, but I've never come across girls of 14 getting married anywhere."

"I don't know of any child marriages," says Sima Goldfinger, one of the Bratslav community's most prominent figures. "Our children sometimes marry as early as 17. But fourteen - no, that's wrong. You can come to the school and see them."

At a later stage of the conversation, she admits, "Maybe there was one or two cases of an underage wedding. At the moment it doesn't exist, I think. Nobody wants to marry his daughter off secretly. We'll wait to the age of 17 or 18 and give them a proper wedding, in a hall with guests and video."

"But anyway," she cannot resist adding, "if someone marries young, is that a reason to persecute the community? Even if there are a number of couples who did so, it's their right. True, it's against the state's laws, but they are so happy. Can anyone come and say to them now, why did you get married?"