Not too long after being attacked for her provocation on board a mehadrin bus line, dati leumi MK Tzipi Hotovely was a guest in Betar Illit, spending Shabbos in the home of Yitzchak Ravitz, who heads the city’s Degel HaTorah branch. On Friday night, Mayor Meir Rubinstein and his wife joined them as well.
The MK was in shul on Shabbos and in the afternoon, walked around the community with Ravitz’s wife, who is a member of Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin’s staff. She spoke with many residents, some of whom commented that they are confident that after her Shabbos in the community, she is not going to provoke incidents on board any mehadrin bus any time soon. She apparently learned a great deal about the tzibur during her Shabbos stay.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Now THIS is Kiruv! I hope they do this more!
Tzipi is a frum, shomer shabbos MK who knows her way around the Dati lifestyle. She can STILL have an alternate opinion about buses.
The problem is not all-Chareidi communities such as Beitar Ilit (which has a private bus service). The problem is forcing a chumra on others. The problem behind that is lack of respect for different streams of Halacha and lack of achdut – and hopefully this will start a movement for change.
As for Hotobelli herself, it should be noted that at the reception for new MKs she created a stir by declining to shake hands with a male reporter. However this passed quickly as everybody understood that this is a matter of her personal choice.
next shabbos she will spend with ultra extremists
#4, which ultra-extremists?
To #3 — The mehadrin bus lines have nothing to do with “forcing chumra on others.” These very few lines service communities that are almost completely Chareidi (ex. Bnei Brak), or are one of a few lines servicing mixed areas (ex. Beit Shemesh it’s 1 of 3). They resulted due to the fact that Israeli law does not allow private bus lines. When Chareidim pushed for permission to operate their own lines to meet their community needs, the “compromise” that was offered to them was a few mehadrin lines.
No one that I have heard is requesting any expansion of the program to lines servicing other communities, or even additional routes within Chareidi communities. Most bus routes within Yerushalayim are NOT mehadrin. All these people want is to keep a system that has been working for them without causing inconvenience to others. (Pretty much the only non-Chareidim on these lines are the journalists!)