In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Balfour Declaration, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu traveled to London to honor the day together with Prime Minister Theresa May and various British officials.
According to a report by Bechadrei Charedim, the transportation service on the ground that provides the VIP car service for the Netanyahu family was a Charedi company by the name of Darchei Noam. The owners of the transportation service live in Stamford-Hill, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood of London.
Rabbi Raphael Godelevsky owns the company and also serves as the Rabbi for the Adas Yisroel community of Edgware, London. This is not the first time that the Charedi transportation service has arranged the vehicles for Netanyahu’s visit in London. For the past seven years, the company has arranged all of the visits for the Netanyahu’s whenever they come to England. The reason for the choice of this travel agency is that all of the drivers for Darchei Noam have an Israeli I.D.
The Israeli Embassy in London called the transportation service in advance and requested that they make arrangements to carry the Prime Minister from the first of November to the 5th, including on Friday and Shabbos. Rabbi Godelevsky called the representative from the Embassy back and refused to take the account on the grounds that he would not send out his drivers on Shabbos. “I won’t take even one shekel from you,” he was reported as saying.
Rabbi Godolevsky went one step further and warned the Embassy that if there was a desecration of Shabbos due to the visit of the Prime Minister in London, then he would personally call the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau and make as much noise as he could while asking for Rabbi Lau’s intervention.
The Embassy capitulated and reached an agreement with Rabbi Godelevsky. There would be no request for the transportation service to drive the Prime Minister on Shabbos. However, they would allow for two mini-buses to be driven by non-Jews in the event that the Prime Minister needed to travel on Shabbos itself.
(YWN Israel Desk – NYC)
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2 Responses
I don’t quite follow this. Rabbi Godolevsky was asked to provide service for the Prime Minister including service on Shabbos, which he obviously refused, also threatening to make a big noise if the Israeli Prime Minister travelled by car in London on Shabbos. The Israeli Embassy then backtracked, not capitulated as YWN writes, and asked Rabbi Godolevsky to provide his services during the week. This he happily agreed to and no doubt not for free. The Israeli Embassy then rented two mini buses for Shabbos with non Jewish drivers “in the event that the Prime Minister needed to travel on Shabbos itself”. Were these rented through Rabbi Godolevsky or independently of him? How many Israeli Prime Ministers can you fit in two mini buses? Where were the promised protests or was the Prime Minister shomrei Shabbos last Shabbos? Either way Rabbi Godolevsky got his well paid contract!
What a story! I can just see Darchei Noam’s large Satmar clientele in N. London boycotting them now.