Alongside an editorial column dripping hatred for the chareidim and the Gerrer Chassidim in particular, the daily Haaretz on Thursday, May 16, 2019, published a scornful cartoon that includes the image of the Gerrer Rebbe Shlita.
The column and the caricature, which relate mainly to the controversy surrounding the Phoenicia glass bottle factory in southern Israel, which was boycotted by Gur due to Chillul Shabbos concerns. The main arguments relate to the risk of the workplaces of hundreds of factory workers.
YWN-Israel recently reported that Yesh Atid party chairman, MK Yair Lapid visited the factory and used the event to accuse the chareidim for future loss of jobs in the factory, which employs 240 workers.
The Haaretz column on Thursday says, “for about two years a Phoenicia factory in Yerucham has been dealing with the boycott imposed by the Gerrer Chassidim. As part of the boycott, the chassidim approached the chareidi tzibur and asked them to stop buying bottled wine produced by the factory. The chassidim also appealed to wine and food manufacturers to stop using Phoenicia bottles. As a result, the plant suffers from a decline in sales and there is a fear that it will lead to its closure and all 240 employees will be fired.
“The boycott was imposed because Phoenicia works on Shabbos. But it is a factory that has to work around the clock because it is impossible to disable the furnace that melts the glass. But all this does not interest the Gerrer Chassidim, the largest chassidic sect and a central component of Yahadut Hatorah, whose senior representative in the Knesset is Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.
“If the chareidim succeed in subduing Phoenicia, they will be encouraged to cause other factories to surrender working on Shabbos, and the list is long.”
Alongside the article, there is a scornful caricature by caricaturist Amos Biderman. In the illustration, the rebbe is seen holding a glass bottle, which he was smashing on the head of a Phoenicia factory worker.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Haaretz has long been known as antisemitic rag. Their hatred of Judaism and traditional Jews is very old news. They are often referred to as Der Haaretz Sturmer as a result of their far-left extremist propaganda and Jew-hatred.
Let’s all calm down and work out a technological and/or financial solution to the problems. Many family’s livelihoods seem to be at stake. If all the government’s chometz can be sold to a goy for a week without anyone being bothered, why can’t the factory be sold to a goy every Shabbos? The goy can take all the net profits after the factory’s expenses have been paid. The goy does not have to actually put his money down up front. Isn’t this what happens with mechiras chometz? Everything is conditionally sold to the goy provided he comes up with the money by the end of Pesach. Funnily enough, he never does and from the look of the people who buy the chometz and whose pictures are on YWN, it doesn’t look like they are really people of means. The bottles sold to the kosher wine and grape juice manufacturers will be bottles not made on Shabbos.
They wouldn’t dare to print a derogatory cartoon about a
muslim leader
But lets be patient Haretz will
suffer the consequences of lack
of Kovod Ha Torah without anyone
lifting a finger
They could keep the ovens on during Shabbat without doing any work. Apparently, they don’t want to do that.
Its absolutely abhorrent and disgusting but the Ger Chasidim are the biggest Zionist of our times. Let them lick their own beef a little.
There is nothing anti-Semitic in the cartoon, and apparently the dispute with Phoenicia Bottle is straightforward and not tinged with any anti-Semitism.
Ha’aretz was ONCE the number one newspaper in Israel, but it has sunk down into a self hating Jewish rag that is very pro-Arab and anti anything Jewish….
Shame on them.
Perhaps they will soon go out of business….
Boycotting and Making hundreds lose employment is really going to make people keep Shabbos, Right? What is the goal? To show you are right and they are wrong, or to Help others Keep Shabbos? When they get fired, they still won’t keep Shabbos, but Ger can buy bottles, is that a worthy Goal? We better start thinking about what is expected from us In our Middos to others, and what solutions we can find that brings others closer to Yiddishkeit .
MDG, where is your degree in factory design from? i think you qualify for a refund! many factories must OPERATE continuously and a variety of heterim have been found. one of the most liberal is from the Divrei Haim which the CS opposed. the modern state required others as well, which great poskim came up with.
I think it’s a nasty cartoon, but then again, almost everything Haaretz writes about Chareidim is nasty. Why is this bigger news? Because of a cartoon?
DrYidd; The same claim was made by an Israeli steel mill. There is an Institute for Science and Halacha in Israel that finds solutions to such problems. They found one. By suspending a heater inside the furnace and closing it tightly they were able to maintain the necessary temperature that the furnace required.
Leahleh; it seems you believe everything the Torah bashing Haaretz wrote hook, line and sinker. Why do you assume that no attempts were made to get them to close before the the boycott?
Boycotts are a last resort after all else fails.
Haaretz, Lapid etc. are all haters of Yiddishkeit and Frum people, they are the last ones you should listen to.
Shame on YWN for reprinting most of the Haaretz article without attempting to report on the Torah perspective and options for shmiras Shabbos.