Old habits find a new home in Jerusalem

October 2, 2011 - 10:16 AM by

They’ve been part of the Jerusalem landscape – as well as the backdrop for any neighborhood in the country with a substantial ultra-Orthodox population. Those black and white posters pasted up on top of each other in public billboards that announce everything from the latest rulings by rabbis to upcoming shiurim (classes) or street protests – called ‘pashkevilim’.

The word evolved from the name of an Italian statue known as Pasquino, in Rome, where locals pasted satire and protest calls in the 16th century, according to Ido Ivri, digital programs manager at Israel’s National Library. While the rest of the country has gone digital to spread the word, the haredim have continued to the rely on the pashkevilim to disseminate information among their community.

However, according to an AP story, one ultra-Orthodox resident of Jerusalem who has collected the posters for decades, is collaborating with Ivri and the National Library to establish a digital online archive of over 20,000 pashkevilim.

According to the story, Yoelish Kraus, a 38-year-old ultra-Orthodox resident of Jerusalem, began peeling the posters off the sooty stone walls of his neighborhood when he was a teenager. Today they fill a windowless, crumbling two-room library.

Two years ago, the National Library offered to help Kraus catalog and scan his collection. It was an unlikely partnership: Kraus will not enter the library because it carries secular literature and a boycott of it was announced — by pashkevil, of course — decades ago.

Kraus had been looking for a new place to store his collection. His library ceiling is crumbling. He stored posters in the cellar until mold destroyed dozens of them.
“It’s strange but I have no choice,” Kraus said. “I looked for years for someone to take it.”

The library staff agreed to lend him a scanner and computer with no connection to the Internet — largely banned by rabbinic decrees publicized by pashkevil. They then taught him to use it, as Kraus had never used a computer before. Soon, he was scanning and cataloging hundreds of the posters a day. The project cost about $27,000.

The library has put up 100 of the most striking posters in an exhibit. One warns against computer use by showing a Jewish boy turning into a horned beast after spending hours on one. Another provides a visual guide to women, warning against all the ways a shirt collar can be immodest.

So, while the pashkevilim will continue to adorn the billboards in Mea Shearim and other haredi neighborhoods, their history is now proudly online.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, Art, General, History and Culture, Religion, Technology 

Comments

One Comment on Old habits find a new home in Jerusalem

  1. Rebecca on Sun, Oct 2nd 2011 3:52 PM

    2. I didn’t realize there was a pashkevil that announced a boycott of the National Library – because in fact many Haredim use the National Library every day (in particular, the Judaica Reading Room and the Scholem Library – that’s where I’ve seen them). Some of the haredim in the JRR in fact use the computers there to surf the web.

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