"I don't exclude women. The opposite. The status of women is holy in Judaism. She isn't something cheap, and isn't supposed to be accessible. Therefore women are given a designated place at [my] concerts," haredi singer Motty Steinmetz tells Israel Hayom.
A recent concert by Steinmetz in the city of Afula, which took place with the audience segregated by gender, sparked a national controversy about gender segregation at public events, even those held for the ultra-Orthodox community.
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On Sunday, the Haifa District Court discussed another petition submitted against another scheduled Steinmetz concert, scheduled to be held at the Haifa International Convention Center on Monday.
"It's infuriating. People who assume to understand how the haredi public's mind work come in and try to dictate how we should live in a Jewish state. I think that the minimum [they can do] is let people who adhere to a 3,000-year-old tradition, who keep the Jewish fires burning, live according to their beliefs," Steinmetz says.
"A musical event is holy, in my eyes. Every time I sing at a concert, I thank God in song … it's a kind of prayer. So as far as I'm concerned, the concert hall is a kind of synagogue, and above all, there needs to be separation [between men and women]," Steinmetz says.
Q: What kind of responses did you get after you announced that you would not appear in Afula unless there was gender segregation?
"Before the concert, [Interior Minister] Aryeh Deri and MK Moshe Gafni came to me and said, 'Good for you for standing up for your principles and for God."
Q: In the US, you recently appeared before male-only audiences. How was that received?
"It only shows the hypocrisy here in Israel. In non-Jewish countries, all over the world, we appear before audiences with full [gender] separation, and receive public funds. We even held a show at a park abroad, with full separation. People everywhere understand that there is an audience that wants this, and there is acceptance and understanding that people think differently. But not in Israel."
