It appears the Eida Chareidit protest planned for shabbos morning will indeed take place as scheduled since efforts to reach an agreement between rabbonim and directors of Intel Jerusalem will unsuccessful.
It is reported that Intel officials were asking that the frum community exhibit understanding, explaining that 16 employees must work, with at least one-third being non-Jews, employees who are responsible for monitoring and maintaining operations that demand round-the-clock supervision. All other employees do not work on shabbos.
The message was brought to Maran Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv Shlita and the Gerrer Rebbe Shlita, both rejecting it outright, insisting they cannot condone the chilul shabbos.
Interestingly, while the Intel issue has come to the forefront of the Eida shabbos concerns, the fact that employees are working on shabbos in the Har Chotzvim Hi-Tech Park is not new, and during the previous Jerusalem administration of Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky, many more employees were working but the matter did not result in protests.
Whatever the case may be, Intel appears determined, as does the Eida Chareidit. As of Friday morning, the 16 employees will be at their work stations on shabbos and the protestors will be making their way to the Intel building from Kikar Shabbos, via Tamir Hall, where they plan to stop and meet others wishing to participate in the pro-shabbos event.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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7 Responses
A hafganah is a good thing. When the economy is bad, it is best to turn one’s attention to an outside activity. This will keep the masses off the bad economy and their poor living conditions. As long as the Eida finds new scape goats to attack, they are in good standing. First the parking lot, now Intel. They will keep it up as long as the money as short and the numbers many.
i suggest that all log in to intels site and leave your comments of protest to the corporate responsibility area of their website.
great. there are gonna be a lot of frum anti semites before this ordeal is over.
#’s 1 & 3 obviously consider themselves wiser than Maran Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv Shlita.
I, for one, accept the holy words of Maran Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv Shlita.
There are thousands of Yidden becoming shommer Torah U’mitzvos every year thru Kiruv organizations, I havent heard of even one Jew becoming shomer Torah because the hafganahs over the past 50 years. So judge by yourselves why they still do it…
What we are really saying is that we cannot condone chillul shabbos in Jerusalem. Intel has already moved the bulk of its production to Kiryat Gat where they keep the factory rolling 24/7 without any opposition whatsoever. One thing that I didn’t understand about this series of news releases is that it was originally announced that Rav Weiss of the Eidah called the protest. AFAIK, the Eidah would not harken to Rav Elyashiv and the Gerrer Rebbe’s decision?
Disclaimer – I am not holding or stating a personal opinion about the wisdom of these protests in either way.
Disclaimer – I am not personally taking a position on the wisdom of these protests one way or the other.
I was very glad to hear about this matter because obviously the crowd that is protesting is about to start making large purchases of Intel-powered internet-connected computers, and want to be certain that all the Torah learning and good things they will add to society using these computers and communication should be built upon a very solid Shomer Shabbos pipeline, soup to nuts.
Per the subsequent details, obviously their intended contributions will include matters for which even the work of a gentile worker on our Shabbos would taint it.