The Bnei Brak Municipality has been ordered to pay over $16,000 in compensation after a 26-year-old chareidi woman sued for discrimination when she was denied access to certain books at the city’s library because she was unmarried. In addition to the compensation, the court imposed an additional $5,400 in legal fees on the municipality.
Judge Aviam Barkai, in his ruling, wrote, “The injustice caused to the plaintiff, a citizen of the State of Israel, is an unfair act that could extend beyond the boundaries of the municipal library and even beyond the city of Bnei Brak. The defendant’s attempts to declare the library an ‘extraterritorial’ entity, where state laws do not apply, cannot be accepted.” He went on to state, “The decision to discriminate against the plaintiff and similar women solely because they are unmarried was made covertly. To this day, no proper decision, criteria, or rules regarding this matter have been presented—likely because they do not exist at all.”
The lawsuit, which sought over $20,000 in damages, claimed that the library refused to lend the plaintiff certain books simply because she was single. The plaintiff stated that her requests to borrow books from the library were denied on several occasions.
For instance, in June 2022, she tried to borrow the book Waiting Room, only to be told by the librarian that it was “for adults only.” After further discussion, the librarian clarified that the book was intended “for married women only,” despite the book’s cover indicating that it addressed the experiences of couples undergoing fertility treatments.
Later, in November 2022, the plaintiff again attempted to borrow a book, this time one that tells the story of four young people from different parts of the world meeting in Yerushalayim and confronting challenges such as housing and shidduchim. Initially, the librarian claimed the book was for adults only but later explained that it was specifically meant for married people.
The plaintiff discovered that these books, along with others in the same category, were kept in a locked glass cabinet. According to the library’s policies, these books were off-limits to unmarried women. The lawsuit argued that there were no clear guidelines for such restrictions and that the librarian was left to decide which books would be included in this category.
The plaintiff also claimed that her attempts to negotiate with the Bnei Brak Municipality for permission to borrow these “adult books” were ignored.
In defense, the Bnei Brak Municipality argued that the library was not a public library in the usual sense but rather a “religious library” tailored to the chareidi community’s specific customs and needs. “The library’s rules were established in accordance with a religious Torah-based value system, which differs from that of a standard public library,” the municipality’s defense statement explained. The municipality further contended that it didn’t prevent the plaintiff from borrowing books in general, just certain books, and claimed this didn’t constitute gender discrimination.
The municipality added that the library operated according to its principles and that in the case of the second book, the content addressed male-female relationships, which were deemed “inappropriate for the plaintiff’s current spiritual state in this stage of her life.” They argued that the plaintiff’s claims of discrimination were a misguided attempt to fit the case into anti-discrimination law.
Judge Barkai partially sided with the plaintiff, ruling: “When there is a locked cabinet containing books prohibited to unmarried women, and when there is a debate about the contents of that cabinet, it is reasonable to expect the defendant to provide a list of the prohibited books… The prohibition on reading certain books is the result of a coercive decision that is not grounded in any regulation, and no examination was conducted before exercising this authority.”
The judge also pointed out what was said to be the “inconsistency of restricting access” to certain books while allowing the plaintiff to read the Torah, which contains gender-related content. “Even in the stories of the avos, one can learn about Avrohom Avinu, who feared for his life because of Sarah’s beauty and therefore asked her to say she was his sister,” he noted. “These contents are permitted for the plaintiff to read—yet there remains a locked cabinet in the library, lest, heaven forbid, a single woman reads from it.”
The judge did acknowledge, however, that the defendant’s representative explained that these “prohibited” books would not be lent to single men either. Yet, the representative could not explain how the library determined whether a borrower was single or married.
In the end, the court ordered the Bnei Brak Municipality to pay the plaintiff 60,000 shekels for discrimination, though it ruled that there was no basis for additional compensation for emotional distress.
Adv. Brihan Saif and Reut Michaeli from the Legal Aid Unit of the Ministry of Justice, who represented the plaintiff, commented, “Justice was served today with a young, chareidi single woman who was brave enough to fight against discrimination. Preventing someone from reading a book also prevents education, leisure, and enjoyment. No consideration, even a religious one, can exclude women for being single or deny them the right to read freely.”
The Bnei Brak Municipality responded: “This is a library located in the heart of a chareidi neighborhood, which serves this community in accordance with its customs and way of life. The Bnei Brak Municipality will study the ruling, draw conclusions, and act accordingly.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
Sew them in the thousands of sheckels
Interesting case. It seems to me that if a religious entity is funded by a secular government, then it cannot impose regulations not approved by that government, even if the regulations are in consonance with the Torah beliefs of the religious entity. So the solution would be for the religious community to fund its own library, and make its own rules. Most of the mundane religious problems in Israeli society vis-a-vis secular-chareidi discord are sourced from the unfortunate chareidi mentality (in Israel) of entitlement.
If they could properly prove that they are operating under clear religious regulations, I would, maybe, agree with you. But obviously neither the library nor the municipality were able to provide such sources. The claim of “this was done according to the ‘ruling of the Rabbonim'” when not a single Rav could be found who actually ruled on this, is the real issue.
If you are a religious library, then you need to have clear, publicized rules, and actually have a Rabbinical authority which makes these rules and is available for consultation and possible relaxation of the rules in properly indicated cases.
You’re right. Indeed surprising that chareidim in BB don’t have their own library with books not funded by the secular government, who no doubt would want them to carry treif books.