HaGaon HaRav Yitchak Zilberstein serves as a Rav in Bnei Brak but has lived in Ramat Gan since his second marriage.
The public chillul Shabbos in Ramat Gan has pained HaRav Zilberstein for years and recently he made the decision to fight against the phenomenon by establishing a political party that will fight for kedushas haShabbos in the city. The party’s name is ‘מאמינים ברמת גן.’
Those close to the Rav say that he has spent years of speaking out against the increasing Chillul Shabbos and has tried various ways to decrease it, including speaking to Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama Cohen, but to no avail. Now, ahead of the upcoming municipal elections, HaRav Zilberstein decided to continue the battle via political means.
Sources told B’Chadrei Chareidim that HaRav Zilberstein has taken on the issue as a personal project and recruited senior Degel HaTorah askanim to assist him in establishing the party.
In May, HaRav Zilberstein published a letter to the residents of Ramat Gan saying that everyone should know that anyone who votes for a mayor who will lead the city through public Chillul Shabbos is considered as choosing to be a partner in fighting against Shabbos and kedushas Eretz Yisrael and against Hashem, chalilah.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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13 Responses
He should be מצליח
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim refuse to serve in the Israeli Army.
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to physically attack soldiers of the Israeli Army, simply because they ARE soldiers of the Israeli Army.
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to have less-than-zero gratitude for the soldiers of the Israeli Army.
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to NOT work and NOT pay taxes.
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to wear costumes from Eastern Europe 300 years ago, that nobody else wears.
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to publicly display “Palestinian” flags, thereby taking the side of our enemies, whose highest goal is to brutally murder ALL JEWS: including Jews who are non-Zionist, and including Jews who are anti-Zionist, and including Jewish teenagers and children.
Square Root: Go back to your kibbutz where they serve chazir.
No, “square root”, you’re mistaken. The correct thing you should’ve said is
“Secular Jews will Never keep shabbos period…. simply because what they consider Freedom,is not keeping Shabbos, and Having to follow an authority, is wrong in their eyes. Simply put, they don’t feel the need to follow a Torah, and all the other reasons you gave above are excuses people like u use in order to act the way they do!
SQUARE_ROOT, I take it you’re one of them. Your venom matches their’s.
I truly believe in a much better solution/compromise for all parties involved. They should end the draft along with an agreement with several Rebbes and Roshei Yeshivos to allow Bachurim to join the army. Ending the mandatory draft would prove Israel isn’t using the army to shmad us (because at any point we have power to stop sending our boys to the army). There have been polls showing most of the Israeli public would support ending the draft. Mandatory conscription could still be implemented in case of a real manpower shortage (requiring act of government just like in the united states)
SQUARE_ROOT: Maybe you should not worry so much about all your personal problems and instead worry about Kovod Shomayim!!!!
IMHO the best thing would be to organize the Shomrei Shabbos in Ramat Gan (and adjacent areas of Bnei Brak) to invite their neighbors for Shabbos meals and give them a wonderful experience (without being at all judgmental) so they’ll see first hand how very gemach keeping Shabbos is. Also get them to organize to do lots of chessed and ahavas chinam for their neighbors. I feel such a strategy would produce better results than political organizing (not saying that there should not also be political organizing). Especially when neighbors have special health (or other) needs let them know that frum people are there to help them. Do this all over the country, I think it could produce spectacular results.
Square, it has long been the ethos in tue religious zionist world that being modern, being in the army, working with seculars, etc…will make a “kiddush” Hashem, and draw seculars back to “Torah,” or whatevers left of it after such secularization occurs.
There are hundreds of thousands of religious zionists who live by what you describe. Has it brought down chillul Shabbos? Nope! All it’s done is result in a 20% drop out rate among religious zionists, according to the chief rabbi of the IDF (hardly an anti zionist). Whereas in ths Torah world in eretz yisroel, the drop out rate is half of that.
@square root your comment “Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to wear costumes from Eastern Europe 300 years ago, that nobody else wears.” Is hard to comprehend.
Don’t many secular jews unfortunately go to India seeking
” spirituality”despite the fact that Indians walk around with ancient traditional dress?
I would likewise be interested to know if you’re strong sentiments regarding Orthodox Jewish attire is something you reserve only for Jews or are you similarly against any form of traditional dress in any culture in the world be it, India ,Africa Arabia or what not? And if so wouldn’t that make you a bigoted person ? Also while you’re at it please answer the following question, what is the square root of a bad argument?
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to produce numerous scandals involving Gilui Arayot.
Secular Jews will NEVER LISTEN to pleas for Shabbat observance, so long as Chareidim continue to produce numerous scandals involving: fraud, cheating and stealing.
Square root will NEVER LISTEN to truth even if it hit him in the face
Square root will NEVER LISTEN to truth when Chareidim are around pricking his conscience
Square root will NEVER LISTEN to truth while he harbours so much self hatred.
See a psychologist and spare us mate. And please please take gadolhadora with you.
And a big shkoiach to all the recent surges in backlash against these people – it gets tiresome reading their drivel.
Square Root:
What you plainly don’t understand is that kedusha can NEVER be compromised. It is not feasible to lower the Torah’s standards in order to make it fit for everyone. In the end, there would be nothing left. So, on the contrary, WE must adapt our lifestyle to the instructions of the Torah. A Yid has really only two alternatives. It is either for the Torah or against it. Those who sought to remain on more neutral ground were eventually all sucked up by the tumah.
You can’t likewise accuse ALL chareidim of “gilui arayos” or “fraud, stealing, and cheating.” For starters, individuals who are guilty of such violations are not chareidim in the first place. They stroll around in a Purim costume all year. However, as we are not “The Judge”, it is not our position to pass judgment on them. Second, the frei have a considerably greater ratio of such persons. A crook remains a crook. Regardless of what he wears or says. But it will be moshiach’s task to sniff them out and expose them for what they truly are.
Returning to what I said earlier about not reducing Torah standards. You should be aware that the last geula will be equal to the first. This signifies that just 20% of all the Yidden (according to Rashi) will survive. The Torah is not intended to be simple or comfortable for everyone because it acts as a filter, separating between “kodesh” and “chol”.
HaRov Samson Raphael Hirsch made the following remarks:: “Yisroel is a nation and became a nation only through and for the Torah; it possessed land and statehood only as instruments for translating the Torah into living reality: This is why Yisroel was a people even before it possessed land and statehood; this too is why Yisroel survived as a people even after its land was destroyed and its statehood lost, and this is why it will survive as a nation as long as it does not lose its only inheritance, the sole foundation of its survival and significance.”
The Zionist Enterprise, however, has forged for itself an independent, secular, nationalist ethos, devoid of all sacred features. They have deliberately deprived generations of Yidden of the sole thing that has historically ever defined them, substituting an eternal mission for fleeting nationalistic pride. Zionism has thus sought to strip the Yid of that one crucial component that has defined him for thousands of years. A relationship with G-D. From Herzl to BenGurion, they all but aspired to accomplish one mission. To reinvent the Jewish people.