About 100 families comprise the צעירי הגבעה neighborhood in Modi’in. Because their neighborhood does not have a shul, they change around a kindergarten building on Friday, which serves as their shul for Shabbos tefilos. This has been the case for the past five years.
The couples are planning to remain in the city and they are looking ahead. As such, they are asking each of the 100 young families to commit to paying 15,000 NIS for a shul fund. In addition to the 1.5 million NIS they will raise, they have succeeded in getting a contributor to add an additional 1 million NIS, so they can move ahead with a permanent shul building.
Modi’in City Hall did its part, allocating a plot of land and issuing all the required permits. So what is holding up the start of construction – Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, who refuses to grant the nonprofit organization launched for the shul building fund tax-exempt status.
The application was made about a half year ago, to receive the tax exempt status. The paperwork now requires the signature of the Knesset Finance Committee and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, and the latter does not appear to be in a rush to sign.
Tax Authority officials have signed off, and the Finance Committee has promised to do the same but Lapid’s signature is required. In the last session during which non-profits were discussed, some two months ago, the organization was not approved. The residents say Lapid stated “It’s not my thing to help build a shul” and he has since held up the paperwork without reason.
Resident Ohad Shachar is quoted saying “We are not asking for money, not a penny. We did our own fundraising. We simply need the tax-exempt status”.
When asked how they know Lapid is the source of the delay, the residents explain that have learned Lapid is holding up the paperwork of all shuls and yeshivos.
The Finance Ministry has not responded at the time of this report.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
You have to understand, Lapid was born from the depth of the Sitra Achra where anything Jewish irks him, especially a holy place like a shul. If you tell this anti-Semitie racist that it’s for a mosque or church and you’ll immediately get a tax-exempt status and perhaps even a nice payment on top of it.
make a mosque then he will eagerly sign and make a big mitzva out of it may he meet his maker soon
Reply to AThought:
You also have to understand Lapid must have had some encounter in his life that makes him hate frum people. No irreligious Jew hates frum people for no reason.
Well, I hope mr Lipman is happy.
Sounds like his father 🙁
Lapid and his secular atheist firends see the handwriting on the wall.
Seculars have less than the required 2.13 children to maintain their numbers. they will literally die out and disappear in the coming years.
The hareidi community, BA”H, has an average of 8 children per family. They will be the majority in the not-too-distant future, if lapid and friends don’t put the beakes on the growth of the hareidi community.
That’s why they passed a new law that you can’t get married until 18 years of age, and that’s why they are sabotaging all Hareid fundraising and institutions.
Yosef, your assessment is not true, and especially not when it comes to Zionism. Zionism is shmad. Any proponent of shmad is not a friend of Orthodoxy.
“….Zionism is shmad. Any proponent of shmad is not a friend of Orthodoxy…”
I’m an orthodox Zionist. Your assessment of Zionism is getting old and stale..AND—- false.You’re risking being called a Meragel, since it is Hashem Himself who began the ingathering in the last century.You’re confusing non-religious Zionism with Torah Zionism because you and your ilk hate the Jewish state and call it the vilest names. You lost, we won..
#7– SOME Zionism is anti-religious but certainly not shmad. Stick to facts , not outlandish lies to make your point.In fact your lie has been repeated so many times over the years that you yourself actually believe it.
deepthinker, The hareidim may in the future indeed be in the majority, but that is not necessarily Judaism. As it trends presently, hareidi will be synonymous with extremism and Talibanization , but not authentic Judaism as presented at Har Sinai.As a result, many of them, if not the ,will “fly the coop” , as is happening presently in the NY, NJ metropolitan area, sad to say.
Yoseph that is not true.
Plenty of non religious hate the relugious simply because they want to do things that Torah forbids and they do not want anyone following Torah which would by example, remind them they are following the wrong path.