Thousands of Ultra-Religious Jews Pack Downtown Streets

Ultra-religious Jews packed behind barricades along Water Street, with the women blocks away from the prayer leaders' platform set up at Old Slip. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Tens of thousands of religious men, women and children flooded into the Financial District and Seaport last month in prayer and protest.

Transforming the neighborhood into a sea of wide-brimmed black hats and long black coats, the ultra-Orthodox Jews came to demonstrate against legislation in Israel that would require members of religious communities to be drafted into Israel’s armed forces.

“We are here to make a strong scream to God that we want things to change,” said Moishe Cohen from Lakewood, NJ.

The gathering was more massive prayer service than protest, with not a single slogan-bearing sign seen anywhere among the demonstrators who jammed onto closed-off Water Street, from Broad to Fulton.

Those designated areas for the rally filled to capacity, forcing thousands to pray along nearby Pearl Street or in alleyways, women always across the street from the men. On closed-off Fulton Street, too, men stood shoulder to shoulder for blocks. Some perched on hy­drants, others on the climbing equipment in Pearl Street Park.

Rabbis and elders from multiple sects of the usually fragmented Orthodox Jew­ish community stood on a platform at Water Street and Old Slip, their amplified plaintive prayers heard blocks away.

The demonstration echoed a rally held March 2 in Jerusalem, where an estimated 300,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered for mass prayer against a new conscription law.

The law was later passed, repealing the longstanding exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews registered in a seminary, or yeshiva. This segment of the population makes up approximately 10 percent of the 8 million Israelis. All other Israeli men are required to serve three years in the military (women two years) from age 18.

“This development is both deeply dismaying and profoundly shocking, an affront to the world Jewish community and to the honor of Hashem’s (God’s) name,” one of the prayer leaders said at the conclusion of the service.

One of the marshals, Alexander Rap­aport of Brooklyn, said he came to “share in the anguish with those who feel intimidated in the Holy Land.”

“This is a protest against Israeli law that would imprison Jews who want to study,” added demonstrator Yitz Farkas.

Not everyone, however, was protesting a new conscription law. One man came out “to pray for the general situation in the Middle East and in America,” he said, “and get a little help from above.”