Rabbonim affiliated with the Peleg Yerushalmi have sent a harshly-worded letter on Monday, 25 Kislev, to Bnei Brak Mayor Avraham Rubenstein regarding the city’s plans to destroy a shul affiliated with the Peleg, Beit Knesset Darchei Shmuel, located on Abarbanel Street in Kiryat Herzog.
The shul, which was established during the tenure of former mayor, Chanoch Zeibert, is built on a ‘green area’ city officials explain, and therefore, it must be removed.
Rabbonim who signed the letter include HaRav Tzvi Friedman, HaRav Shmuel Markowitz, and HaRav Asher HaKohen Deutsch. “The earth trembled, and the institutions of the world shuddered”, they wrote, adding lies and falsehoods are being used to battle against a home of Melech Malchei HaMelachim, accusing the city of acting out of “hatred”.
The rabbonim explain the mayor is receiving a “firm warning”, to “keep your hands of the Heichal Hashem, telling Rubinstein that if the warning is not heeded, they will be compelled “to act towards him in accordance with Shulchan Aruch”.
Peleg officials are quoted telling Chareidim10 News that City Hall is not telling the truth as the shul is not on a ‘green area’ but on an area designated for use by the city, insisting the beis medrash was built in coordination with the previous administration and work on the project did not begin until they had the required permit in hand. “The place is even more legal than many other places” Peleg activists are quoted telling Chareidim10.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Seems like whoever drafted this letter for the Peleg leadership had ready access to a thesaurus given the hyperbole and the effort to make a routine land use/zoning litigation matter into an existential threat to the ehrliche yidden of Bnai Brak. If they are correct, they should provide the documentation and copies of their land use map and permits to the Court and get it resolved quickly.
These people in my opinion are creating a terrible Chillul HaShem. They behave like gangsters. Making threats, and leaving the general impression with the majority of Israelis that the Torah is ugly and so are those who guard it.
In my opinion the Israeli authorities don’t come down on them heavy enough. When they violate the law, as they frequently do, they should be given long and expensive jail terms to dissuade them from their current approach of anti-Zionist fanaticism.