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Pashkevil



Pashkevil is the name given to the anonymous posters that can be seen on the walls of buildings and billboards in ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods such as Mea Shearim in Jerusalem or Bnei Barak near Tel Aviv. For a cloistered population that eschews 21st century technology, pashkevil serve as a kind of Internet forum.

Street literature or broadsides began in the 16th century and continued until the mid-19th century as a type of printing of large printed sheets of paper, designed to be plastered onto walls. By the mid 19th century, the advent of newspapers and inexpensive novels resulted in the demise of the street literature broadside.

The subjects of the posters cover political religious or personal differences, call on women to dress modestly, or simply oppose the modernism considered a threat to the community's beliefs and lifestyle. A favourite subject of censure is men and women sitting together on public buses.

Pashkevil is derived from the ltalian Pasquill or "little Pasquino," which is a libellous statement or lampoon targeting a particular person. Some pashkevils in Israel are up to 100 years old, and the National Library has begun a project to collect and preserve them.

Because the ultra-Orthodox shun television, radio and the Internet, these posters are the most effective means for communicating one's ideas and views. The pashkevils deal with just about everything: notification of funerals and lectures, rabbis speaking out against other rabbis, one ultra-Orthodox sect discrediting another, and disputes over kosher certification. Other popular themes are denunciations of abortion, the Internet which is described as a "cancer", and soccer matches and films on the Sabbath.