Jerusalem City Hall is planning a cultural center designed for the chareidi public. The complex will include a number of halls that can be used to air movies as well as a gallery for exhibitions, and a health center with advanced equipment in line with lifestyle of the chareidi tzibur. The city is thinking the Schneller complex, the old IDF base at the beginning of Geula would be an ideal venue for such a facility.
The plan was raised in a session of the city’s culture committee, and it appears spearheading the plan is Deputy Mayor (Hisorarus) Ofir Berkowitz, a secular councilman. The chareidi councilmen back the plan, so it appears the project may enjoy widespread approval. While no sum has been announced for the project, it is expected to move forward and be a part of the 2016 budget.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
11 Responses
This is an attempted shmad, pure and simple.
Has anyone noticed that the Charedim of Yerusalayim are suffering from boredom and in need of being entertained.
From what I hear, affordable housing might be a good use of the well located land in the heart of the frum community.
This isn’t “evil” by the government, but an apparent addiction of secular quasi-socialists to waste money, especially if it is being paid for with “funny money.”
So the guys that hang out in this “cultural” center, will they then appear before the army tribunal and enlist to serve in the IDF? Or will they claim they are still learning in Yeshiva. Just wondering.
Have I lost the plot??
Sounds like an updated medical clinic with modern facilities & a women’s division would be helpful.
Maybe some hands on science exhibits, Israel museum & Sciene center is full of Charedim every chol hamoed.
#1 bogen – what is wrong with you?
are they joining the yevonim??
#2, housing is planned for that complex but the chances of it being affordable for the average chareidi family are nil. That compound is prime real estate, there are schools in Geulah that have been begging for that compound because their classrooms are busting at the seams but the city would never agree to let that kind of real estate be used for a school and from a purely economic standpoint I can’t say I they’re wrong.
Right now that is where a huge project called Meromei Yerushalayim is being planned and work has started. Looks like it’s going to be the kind of very high-class apartments like the ones in Tnuvat Haaretz, the kind that only very rich Israelis and well-off Americans can afford…
As for the entertainment center, #4 sounds right – what’s the catch?
@EY Mom – No catch. #1 is 100% correct. Even if totally motivated by economics, the potential results will be recorded in the debit column in the spiritual register. This is not the first such attempt. The movie theater, now Satmar Yeshiva, was an awful threat to the Jewish community at large in the early years. Yes, the Jewish community, not only the Torah, chareidi, Dati L’mitzvos communities. Any breech in mesorah, any public waste of time and distraction from productive and protective limud ha’Torah and shmiras ha’mitzvos is ultimately destructive to the entire Jewish community and the entire world.
#1 BOGEN well said
It may be positive development or not ,but surely it should be outside the city’s boundaries