Former Labor MK Omer Bar-Lev, who protested outside the home of HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, zt’l, leading to the Chareidi boycott of Angel Bakery due to Bar-Lev’s new position as the head of Angel’s board, paid a shiva visit to the Rosh Yeshivah’s sons on Sunday.
Bar-Lev was accompanied by Yaron Angel, one of the owners of the bakery. Both of them presented letters of apology to the Rosh HaYeshivah’s sons.
Bar-Lev’s letter states: “First of all, I want to express my deepest consolations for the Rav’s petirah. I know what a great leader HaRav Edelstein, zt’l was, that he was moser his life for the fulfillment of Torah in Eretz Yisrael in modesty and pleasantness. The Rav loved each person without compromising on his positions and was zocheh to long life and thousands of talmidim. Consolations to you and to all of his many talmidim.”
“As you know, a number of weeks ago, a political protest was held near the Rav’s home. Various – mistaken – reports claimed that the location of the protest was opposite the Rav’s home and was against him and slighted the kavod haTorah and due to this, was an affront to a large sector.”
“That was not my intention. I intended to express my personal stance and definitely did not intend an insult against a Gadol HaDor. If I would have been aware ahead of time of the situation we became involved with and the hurt feelings, I would definitely have refrained from doing so – and therefore I express my regret and apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
“I view the kiyum of Torah v’lomdeha as an important value in mesorat Yisrael – and I was not protesting against it.”
“Our shared lives in the State of Israel obligate all of us to learn more about each other’s sorrows. The moreshet of the wonderful Rav should continue to the next generations.”
The letter from Yaron Angel explained that Bar-Lev participated in the protest as a private citizen and not as part of his position as the head of the bakery’s board. It continued by saying that the company could have clarified that fact immediately after it happened but “we thought that such a response would involve the company in political matters from which we’ve avoided being involved with for decades. However, davka this silence developed into another affront. And for this, we feel regret and apologize from the bottom of our hearts.”
The letter continued by saying that “no insulting comments or deeds were made on behalf of the company or with the knowledge of people identified with the company or its employees.”
“The Angel Company respects and has served the Chareidi sector for many years while being makpid on mehudar kashrus and the preservation of good relations with the varied Chareidi population and employs many people from the Chareidi sector.”
“We have no part of the matters attributed to us and we apologize that we were silent until now.”
Angel Bakery is also placing a public apology on the streets of Chareidi areas and cities throughout Israel beginning on Sunday evening.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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19 Responses
Am I the only one to notice that Bar-Lev’s letter is dated 15 Nissan?
Either he doesn’t know which month we are in or he prepared the letter in advance – a month before the protest…
A joke for a whole month they ignored us
Mow that he was niftar the remembered to apologizes
I’m still not buying there products
Is Omer a Shomer Shabbos? Is he a Shomer Torah umitzvos? Does he himself eat only kosher?
These papers, apologies, and letters, written by their PR firm, mean absolutely nothing. Yaron & Omer still hate Bnei Torah like poison, and like Target and Bud Light, they got caught with their pants down and now that they lost millions of dollars, they come crawling back with fake crocodile tears. Any 3 year old can see how disingenuous the arrogant ingrates at Angels bakery truly are. They bit the hand that fed them for all of these years. Now they have to live, or die, with the consequences.
“I view the kiyum of Torah v’lomdeha as an important value in mesorat Yisrael – and I was not protesting against it.” – so what was he protesting about in Bnei Brak?
They are not very sincere since this apology only came after they lost money. Even if their apology is accepted by the Rav’s sons, the people won’t be buying it.
If they were sincere ,Angel’s would have come out right away with an apology.Foolish companies who ostracize a large portion of their consumers when there are plenty of other companies with the same product. What charedi will choose Angel’s from now on??
We all ways knew that they don’t respect chareidim. The point of the boycott I assume was for the company to dismiss the chairman or at the very least an explanation/apology etc. Obviously a boycott will cause a company to loose money- isn’t that the point of a boycott – cause a company to loose money so they should rethink / change their ways? There is an option of boycotting a company to make them an example that others should not follow their ways – but that never seemed to be the intent with Angel. As the chief complaint was silence etc. so it clearly seemed we were demanding some kind of response not just a punishment.
They also got the new jelly sugar cake
His son also needs to apologize for his awful behavior and comments. And he needs to do so in public.
While some, including those in the comments thus far, see this as too little too late; and it may well be, there is something called T’shuva. Even if they are only doing this because they are loosing money, the letters make clear the two important factors: 1. they were wrong and 2. Torah and Da’as Torah are primary.
I’m not saying that everyone should go and spend money at Angel’s, each person may do what they want. However, I do believe that ending the boycott will be a kiddush hashem. Not doing so, unfortunately, may have the effect of causing some to think that Chareidim are unforgiving and irrational.
Personally, I agree that this took too long, however, I also believe that, as a humble apology has been issued, and publicized, the boycott should end; provided the Gedolim agree this is satisfactory.
If they had been remotely sincere they would have published it when the Rosh Yeshiva zatzal was sick those last few days!
Actually it allowed them to be able to raise the prices and make less bread that was price controlled. In the end there stock is starting to rise above where it was before the event.
Didn’t his son say some disgusting things about Chareidim? And wasn’t Bar-Lev silent afterwards? Bli neder, I will never buy from Angels again. And I don’t think we (Chareidim) should now say, oh well, he came to apologize, let’s forget it. Had the Rosh Yeshiva recovered, no apology would have been forthcoming. Yaapchik is right.
This is why the extreme, hateful left get away with it – because we back down every time. It’s about time we started playing by THEIR rule book.
Looks like boycott did indeed have a noticeable impact for the execs. It also looks like Yaron Angel is high on his product.
As far as why this should be a more general health wakup-call on cutting down on some carbs, see my posts on the original:
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/2189515/harav-zilberstein-buy-angel-why-isnt-kavod-hatorah-important-to-you.html
A little too little, a little too late.
While I agree with the “too little, too lat” mantra and I also have no intentions to buy their stuff again, as far as an actual boycott goes, that’s up to the Gedolim!
I understand totally the frustration that the anti-God lot seem to get away with things, but the Gedolim know better than us, so if they say forget we forget. Anyway, God will decide their long-term punishment or lack thereof, there’s no statute of limitations for Him!
The way we accept or reject their תשובה is the way השם is going to accept or reject our תשובה in exactly 16 weeks from now:- come the Holy day day of יום-הכיפורים
All the previous comments regarding not accepting their apology know full well if they would give 100k to Ponevezh Yeshiva they would be honored by the next dinner.
They apologized what more do you want?
Last time an apology seemed to not be accepted a BS religion came from that with an inquisition and progroms.
TannaKamma (ironically the first commenter here) has a great observation about the date on Bar-Lev’s letter.
In a Freudian (slip) manner, the whole content of the letter is as truthful as the date.