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Gai Ezra, “The Sarug boy refused to compete on Saturday and lost”, Srugim, 16.05.22
Translated from Rotter, 16.05.22
An Israeli boy lost an international chemistry competition because he refused to compete on Shabbos
“Hello Sivan, my name is Nehama Spielman, the director of social education at Kibbutz Tirat Zvi. I think it is important to publish the following story:
Nat’e Eiger, an 11th grade boy from the kibbutz, traveled abroad to compete at the International Mendeleev Olympics in Chemistry (by the way, Neta is a descendant of Rabbi Akiva Eiger who was famous for his [genius] Ge’onus).
The six best young chemists in the country were sent from Israel to the competition, among them Nat’e. He excelled in the first two stages but unfortunately the third and most important lab test was held last Saturday.
Despite early promises to allow Nat’e to be tested on Friday or Saturday night, in practice he was not allowed to do so. In our opinion, Israel should insist on this as an official policy, and not as a private benefit to Nat’e.
In the end, Nat’e did not take the test on Shabbat. For us – he passed another test. At the kibbutz and at his school in Sde Eliyahu, a world champion’s reception is being prepared for him. “He prepared for this competition for three whole years, he is an outstanding chemist, and tonight he takes off back to Israel, without a trophy, but with a lot of faith and loyalty to values.”
(In the photo: Nate, with a Kippa, in the competition)This is a surprise only to those who believe that anti-Jewish bigotry died out some time in the ancient past. Outside of Eretz Yisrael (where only Hareidim have to deal with discrimination), any non-assimilated (defining assimilation has one who has given up observance of Shabbos and Kashrus) Jew faces substantial discrimination.
What is the point of saying Sarug boy? The type of kippa makes a difference?
There are multiple cases of competitive events where frum yidden seek to participate but have to navigate the rules and schedules for events. In some cases, event organizers are able to juggle the schedule to accommodate competitors who are shomer shabbos w/o disruption or creating problems for other participants. In other cases involving tight schedules and multiple rounds of events, it really isn’t feasible. In this cases, it would seem that they SHOULD have been able to accommodate but I wouldn’t jump to conclusions about anti-semitic intent versus simple stupidity and bureaucracy.
Jewish shmad state at it again
He will get a much bigger and eternal reward in the next world. The the true world above where Hashem is waiting.
Avirah – did you even read the article?
Syag; sure – kid did a great job, just he shouldn’t have to in a “Jewish” state
Try again
The 2022 International Mendeleev Olympics in Chemistry took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; not Israel.
Wow, i did miss the boat – my mistake
Hatred blinds. And now that you know you are not immune you have an achriyus to do something about it
Great kid. I wonder whether he could have gone there and just told them what to do so they felt bad about it. I guess it would be easier with questions rather than labs. Any chemistry would be mutar? Heating using a blech? Mix into food and drink? Might have worked for some experiments… Or just say there learning Mishna as a protest, maybe other kids would support him
You can’t cope with a jew who makes poor money choices but you sit here trying to find ways around shabbos. You should be ashamed of yourself. Your lack of torah priorities are the worst chilul of all them
I’m curious, what general level are these chemist savants on that participate in this competition? Are they like undergraduate students majoring in chemistry, graduate students pursuing a Phd in chemistry, full on Professors, or something else entirely?
Syag, i think my lesson is more that i shouldn’t skim articles to confirm my priors, not that I’m blinded by hate
Confirming prior by missing information that disputed it 3 times is being blinded by hate. That wording just absolved you from taking full responsibility for it.
Somehow I agree with syag when she chastised someone else 🙂 the lesson learned is that everyone fills in the blanks with assumptions. In this case, it was a simple fact, other cases might be more subtle and stay undetected, reinforcing biases even further. I was also confused by lack of a location, so suspended judgment until I saw the references.
I don’t suggest the boy to break shabbat at all. My first idea is to make it public by just coming there. Separate suggestion to do experiments that might be allowed might be wrong in this case when Muslims did not change the rules, so this became an issue of principle rather than pure melocha
Syag, there’s no hate involved in mentioning that the Zionist Entity is a Shmad State. It is simply stating the facts, regardless if the specific example was in error.
Dear Ujm,
You obviously just skimmed through her posts. If you would have taken the time to read them, you would understand.
Can someone actually explain using primary sources how the “Zionist entity” is actually a “shamd state”? It’s an oft-repeated line but I have yet to see hard evidence for it.
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