A protest involving several dozen people was held on Wednesday 28 Shevat 5774 at a Rami Levi supermarket in Betar Illit.
While Rami Levi is known as a generous bal tzedaka, one who is anxious to assist many good causes and mosdos, he has been under harsh criticism for employing so many PA (Palestinian Authority) residents in his stores. This is the case in the stores located in Shar Binyamin in Shomron, at Gush Junction in Yehuda and in Betar Illit. The clientele in these stores tend to be religious and right-wing, less than enthusiastic with the fact that the store employees so many Arabs. The residents of these areas area also very concerned that the stores become a hangout, providing opportunity for the employees to contact Jewish women.
In the Betar protest the fears expressed by participants is the growing assimilation between Jews and the Arab employees. One protester added the same holds true in a branch of the Yesh Chessed supermarket, not just Rami Levi.
Representatives of the Lehava organization working to stop assimilation in Israel visited Betar earlier in the week, holding a kenos to address the growing problem. The organization announced the protest that followed the following day is the “opening shot” in their campaign to oust the non-Jewish workers from the stores.
The notices circulated in the community succeeded in awakening some residents of the chareidi city, leading to the participation in the protest.
Lehava leader Benny Gupstein asked participants in the meeting how many knew of a girl who R”L is involved socially with an Arab, and sadly, too many responded positively.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
From my understanding the issue over there is not simple. There is a catch 22.
On the one hand, there is a major problem going on there that is resulting in unmentionable Isurim, R”L! This I have verified from inside sources and unfortunately this is not limited to just female employees. The further details I received (which I will not reveal) were extremely disturbing.
The protest and demands to remove the Arab employees are not only justified, but extremely necessary! This demand is in no way based on any hatred to Arabs, but rather a serious concerned to circumvent any further tragedies like the ones brought out in another article posted today on this website.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/212208/jewish-girl-abducted-by-arabs-in-broad-daylight-escapes.html
Now here’s the catch 22.
It appears to me that Rami Levi has no qualms about hiring local Jews instead. However, to my understanding, there is a stigma in the community for a man to be working instead of studying full time. If no one is will step up to the plate and fill these positions, what’s Rami Levi supposed to do? There are no Sudanim or Filipinos in the area to hand these jobs over to.
VERY TROUBLESOME!!!!
🙁
Frum-owned supermarkets in the New York region, e.g., Aron’s Kissena Farms, Seasons, Everfresh, do not hire many frum Jews (except in managerial positions). I assume that the reasons include the ability of most frum Jews to find better-paying jobs than as supermarket laborers, or a preference for learning over employment.
I would guess that the same economic circumstances are at work in Israel, but the low-end labor market in Israel has Israeli Arabs, whereas the low-end labor market in Metro New York has Latinos. So what is the point of protesting the operations of a supermarket that is only doing what supermarkets have to do to be in business? And socializing with Israeli Arabs is not a guarantee of tragedy. There must be some way to avoid the problems without denying employment to people (remember, Arabs are people, children of Hashem) willing to take hard jobs for low pay.
Very Jews, especially women, are attracted to an Arab lifestyle. If they really wanted to wear modest clothing and have restricted economic opportunities, they would become frum.
It makes sense to hire Muslims. They are far less of a cultural threat to us than western Christians, since even many frum Jews often wish to imitate western culture.
When about a century ago, the zionists introduced a policy called “conquest of labor” that was a boycott of Arab workers by Jewish firms, the Arabs then started to realize that zionism wasn’t about building up the Jewish community (which they hadn’t objected to), but about getting rid of the Arabs. While one can argue that a Jewish business should try to hire frum Jews, or even non-frum Jews who might be influenced to become frum — there is no reason why they should be reluctant to hire Palestinians when no Jews are available. The war is undermining the frum community in Israel (note the demand by the zionists that hareidim trade in their gemaras for rifles), and economic ties promote peace – which we desperately need.
Reb Chaim shlit”a of Bnei Brak has appealed on several occasions to NOT hire Arabs in food & service jobs.
Have the pay scale raise, add the expense onto the food products and offer jobs to Jewish men or women.
akuperma,
it seems you enjoy taking any and every opportunity to bash anything associated with zionism.
rami levi is a supermarket, a capitalistic enterprise having absolutely nothing to do with any zionist policy whatsoever. moreover, you express an incredible level of naiveté by saying that very few jewish women are attracted to an arab way of life. that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. many jewish women are seduced by arab men, oftentimes ending up in abusive relationships. there are whole organizations dedicated entirely to saving jewish women from these men. a sexual desire has absolutely nothing to do with a religious motivation. stop using this forum to persistently bash israel, zionism, or anything associated with them.
p.s. its readily apparent from your comments that you are both well informed and intelligent. but by the same token, your incredible bias oozes through every word you post. perhaps you need to get some new glasses.