Word: sabbaths
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...Shabbes." In Jerusalem each Friday afternoon, as the sun dips behind the old, whitish buildings and the Sabbath begins with the sound of a horn, black-coated men with beards and side curls scurry through the orthodox Jewish district known as Mea Shearim (Hundred Gates) to roll heavy stones across the entrances to the quarter. Thus they make sure that for the next 24 hours-until the first three stars are visible on Saturday night-there will be no profanation of their self-imposed "ghetto" by "heathen" Jews who do not observe the Sabbath. No one smokes or turns...
Even outside this orthodox quarter, the Sabbath lies on the city like a heavy prayer shawl. The strong orthodox contingent in Jerusalem's city government has seen to it that public transportation is banned from the streets; shops and cinemas are closed. For the unobservant Jews, who make up about half Jerusalem's population outside Mea Shearim, the Sab bath became a day of insufferable tedium...
Last fall some enterprising truck drivers began to run Sabbath excursions for young boys and girls, packing them in for a day of swimming, ice cream, fun and games in the country. But the elders of Mea Shearim began turning up after morning prayers at the truckers' parking lots to yell "Shabbes" (Yiddish for Sabbath) at the holiday makers, often adding such insults as "sons of whores, abominations, unclean creatures." Last month Jerusalem saw a wave of violence, with orthodox Jews stopping cars and roughing up their occupants or beating up those seen smoking publicly on the Sabbath...
This week, when Jerusalem's Hanukkah lights had flickered out, few believed that the peace would last. Many Sabbath drivers took the precaution of marking their cars with the Shield of David-the symbol of the Jewish Red Cross that marks doctors' cars. "Even with a Magen David one isn't safe," said one driver, "but at least one is safer." The orthodox leader, Rabbi Blau, however, deplored the violence. "If I had my way," he said, "every Jew who wishes to stand up against what he believes to be a desecration of his faith would demonstrate...
...About 40% of the U.S.'s estimated 5,500,000 affiliated Jews belong to Conservative congregations, which stand between the religiously strict Orthodox Jews (4%), who insist on the letter of the law, and the Reform Jews (20%), who have changed the letter considerably (e.g., work on the Sabbath permitted, no hat worn in the synagogue...