Bnei Brak - Kosher Shopping Mall

TOL: It is not your everyday mall. The shopping centre in the Tel Aviv suburb has no coffee shops, no cinema, and bans men from its upper floor. There is a long list of things that Shopping Bnei Brak does not have.......Bnei Brak’s 20 stores are carefully calibrated to appear alluring without overstepping the mark to give offence to extreme conservatives. The rabbis agree. Clothes in the women-only department store have been given “kosher” certificates, declaring them sufficiently demure for ultra-Orthodox women. The rabbis also ensured the absence of a café and cinema to guard against unnecessary fraternising between men and women. All the mannequins are headless and there is a dearth of in-store posters because of the Torah’s edict against any likeness of the human image. On the packaging for women’s tights the human form has been discreetly hidden behind strategically placed stickers. The bedding department has only single beds because even married ultra-Orthodox couples must sleep separately...........