Cheerleaders for God

June 26, 2010 - 8:34 PM by David

Here’s a scene from the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall on Friday in Jerusalem. A group of young teenage girls from the religious Bnei Akiva youth movement were collecting funds for underprivleged kids, and synchronized flag-dancing troupe was performing.

They were quite good, marching in beat to an Israeli pop song, and other girls from the movement were walking around with cups soliticing funds.

Standing in front watching was a group of teenage boys, also religious, with knitted kippot. Perhaps friends of the performers, they were whistling and hooting through the show like they were at a burlesque show.

Off to one corner were a group of young Shas-looking teens with white shirts, black kippot and cigarettes dangling. They were watching intently, not really sure what to make of the it. Finally, one of them started to walk away, and the others followed.

But there were plenty of people who stayed to watch the show, which was thoroughly enjoyable. As I commented to my wife, it was like watching cheerleaders for God. And it was a nice way to enter Shabbat. And best of all, they raised NIS 6,000.

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