This Shabbos, Shabbos HaGadol, in the Great Tel Aviv Shul, mispalalim will mark 100 years since the establishment of the city in the shul that was once headed by Rav Isser Yehuda Unterman z”l, the city’s chief rabbis elected in 1946.

The city’s current chief rabbi, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau Shlita explains that city has a bad reputation but it is indeed becoming increasingly mitzvah observant, providing some of the following statistics.

Today, there are at last 545 active daily minyanim, 200 daf yomi shiurim, 900 establishments with a hechsher, of which 70 are mehadrin. There are many yeshivos of all hashkofos, as well as 7 shomer Shabbos city councilmen of a body containing 31 members, quite a high statistic, higher than most other cities.

The number of yeshivos continues to grow, mentioning the recent opening of the Shirat HaYam Hesder Yeshiva.

Rav Lau explained that when the previous Belzer Rebbe came to Eretz Yisrael, he wanted to live “in a city without avoda zara, without a church or mosque,” so he opted for Tel Aviv, adding at the time, there were no less than 50 admorim in the city. He noted the significance of the Belzer Rebbe’s decision at a time when the Imrei Emes zt”l lived in Yerushalayim, but the Belzer Rebbe insisted on Tel Aviv.

Today Rav Lau boasts the changing trend towards Shmiras mitzvos, a fact he plans to address in his Shabbos HaGadol drasha in the shul.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)