Chareidim in Ashdod protested last Shabbos as the ‘Big’ shopping area opened for business, breaking the religious status quo in the city. Ephraim Weber, who heads the city’s Finance Committee told the media “in addition to the chilul Shabbos, the stores are in violation of the law and it is an affront to the city’s shomer Shabbos residents”.
Rabbonim led a protest at the entrance to the ‘Big’ shopping center, calling on people to boycott the venue rather than to support those who chose to trample on Shabbos.
There is already an effort on social network called “Stopped the Chareidi Coercion” to muster support for opening businesses on Shabbos. They are calling to take control of the city and to shout “Enough of the chareidiazation of the city. We are fed up seeing small businesses, restaurants and large chain stores closed on Shabbos. The time has come for the non-religious mass masses in the city to take control and stop the negative migration”.
It is explained that generally speaking, the frum and secular residents in Ashdod maintain good relations and this campaign must be the work of radical elements.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
This is what happened.
1. The yeitza hora stirred up machlocus
2. This will lead to terrible gazeiras
3. The media will jump on this( especially if a slow news day). Will turn it into a culture war.
4. The politicians will keep quiet
5. People will realize that despite all the polls showing Israelis are interested in Torah, Israel will always be a secular Zionist country.
6. The frum community must realize they are always a minority for the next 50 years, and they should do intense kiruv and work on their behaviour. Our limud torah, mitzvahs, and acts of chessed are shielding our brethren from all threats and dangers
6. Solution; pay secular Israelis to learn 5 minutes of Torah a day on a hotline. Problem solves
The solution is to realize that the core belief of zionism is the erradication of Torah (or at least, rewriting it into something that modern secular Jews can tolerate, e.g., take all all those “shoulds” that so annoy normal people). Perhaps if the Hareidim can both come up with a way to co-exists with the Arabs, and offer a Jewish alternative to zionism, they might be able to convince enough zionists to defect, but absent that (unlikely) scenario, the end result will be the State of Israel will continue on its war against Ha-Shem until they are ultimately defeated.