It’s not clear when exactly the town of Netivot became shrouded in religious holiness. As the towns of the south have been gradually returning to their faith over the last two decades, Netivot has gained a special status. Tens of thousands of believers stream to it most days of the year in order to pray over the graves of holy men and supplicate for relief from their suffering. Aside from ultra-Orthodox Bnei Barak, no other city in Israel has such a concentration of believers.  

In recent days Netivot has fallen into turmoil following the arrest of one of its most prominent rabbis. Residents watched in disbelief as policemen took Rabbi Yoram Abergel from his home and put him into a police cruiser. The astonishment only grew when it became known that one of the heads of organized crime in Israel, Shalom Domrani, was arrested with him. The joint arrest of the criminal and the rabbi shocked the ultra-Orthodox street and turned a spotlight on a world that is usually hidden from the eyes of most Israelis.  

The two were accused of threatening Rabbi Yaakov Ifergan, called “the X-ray,” so that he would pull his support from one of the candidates for mayor of the city. They supported the reelection of the incumbent mayor, Yehiel Zohar, while Rabbi Ifergan supported his rival, Eyal Mesika. Zohar got elected to a fifth term, and Mesika turned to the police to complain of an extortion attempt and threats from the rabbi and the criminal.  

Three rabbis have a grasp on Netivot as if it’s their private property: Baruch Abuhateizra, Yaakov Ifergan and Yoram Abergel. The three were secular in their twenties, until one day their world changed, and they became religious and cloaked themselves in holiness.