A court last week approved a planned Jerusalem City Hall move to demolish shtiblach, a shul established in a caravan structure, a complex used by hundreds and hundreds of mispalalim daily. This clears the way for the city to remove the shul complex in the coming weeks.
City Hall officials explain that from the onset, it was explained the buildings were placed on the location without permits, and the land was allocated for public buildings, not the shtiblach. Nevertheless, the caravans were placed in position and now, the city plans to move ahead with its original plan for the area, which demands the removal/destruction of the shtiblach.
Askan Rav Chaim Miller of Movement for Jerusalem announced “we will not permit a Gush Katif 2 here”.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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5 Responses
yeah yeah why are we even surprised!!!!!
The chevra who daven there have spent fotunes on their apartments. Can they not spare a bit for a proper shul.
No Permit, no Shtiblach, simple as that. Go get a permit and built a proper shul or shtiblach.
Firstly let us state a few facts:
1: The Ganei Geulah – Techeiles Mordechai neighborhood is one of the most overcrowded new building projects in Jerusalem, probably even Israel. There are literally THOUSANDS of young families, each with bli ayin hora, many children, living within a 2 minute walk radius.
2. The densely populated neighborhood continues to see enormous 10 storey buildings being built within meters of each other (e.g. Pninat Chemed on the corner of Shamgar-Techeiles Mordechai, the new buildings across from Yeshivas Ohr Elchonon, or the Bezeq building).
3. There was practically no public amenities set aside by the pathetic planners at the Jerusalem Municipality. The Ganei Geulah “park” (a slab of concrete and two slides) is officially private and may be used by Ganei Geulah residents.
The Techeiles Mordechai park is the size of a postage stamp – check it out (corner of Techeiles Mordechai and Argaman)! It is designed to cater for all Techeiles Mordechai residents of building number 1 though 19. Probably about 400 families minimum!!! There is an additional park (a sand pit with an antiquated, rusty slide), behind Techeiles Mordechai 1,3,5,7, that caters to the residents of Petach Tikvah too.
4. The building projects were given virtually no space for other amenities, such as shuls and preschools. The Belz Talmud Torah (which by the way will be a nightmare once school buses begin winding up the already narrow street) is practically the only other ‘public’ amenity given to the local residents, apart from the aforementioned postage stamp park. The Shefa ‘Luxury Towers’ (the apartments on top of Shefa Mall) currently have no designated shul and are mostly using the Ganei Geulah facilities. Additionally, the residents of the new HUGE apartment complex on Yirmiyahu (opposite Yesh) and the new buildings on Oholiav/Ohr Elchonon do not have shul facilities and are making use of Ganei Geulah shul.
5. The area where the Ganei Geulah Ashkenaz and Sefard shul’s are built was designated for shuls too. The only problem is that the proper permits were not received to build the current “temporary” buildings. Additionally, the ground floor of the shul’s were designated for a Gan Yeladim.
6. The local residents have been in contact with municipality officials for the past eight years with regards to all the aforementioned issues (including the shuls and gan yeladim).
7. The municipality continues to permit vast building complexes that bring to mind the projects in Bronx, NY. Anyone with a little foresight can only imagine what this neighborhhod will look (and smell) like in 25 years time. The municipality continues to ignore pleas and requests by local residents to start caring for these few streets. For example, the sidewalk across the street from Rav Shefa mall has been narrowed by two thirds because of the Peninat Chen building project. This building project has been going on for the past SEVEN years, and will not finish for at least another two, possibly three years. This sidewalk serves what is arguably one of the more busy bus stops in the area (both intercity and city buses stop there e.g. 402 to Bnei Brak). The sidewalk cannot even hold a narrow baby stroller – and is rachmana litzlan an accident waiting to happen! The municipality has been asked countless times to remedy the situation – but to no avail.
8. The Ganei Geulah shul situation may not be completely justified from the members’ point of view – but there are dozens of more pressing issues that need to be addressed in that neighborhood.
To Jerusalem Jew
I appreciate your comments but they just explain the situation. It seems very easy to get a building permit for apartments but no permit for a shul. Simply put its because apartments generate a lot of income for the city council in terms of ‘arnona’ and a shul doesnt.
By the way there is a shul underneath the building at 60 Yirmiyahu and that floor is designated as such. (I havent been to see it since it wqs built so let me know if it exsists)
Another point is that 2 years ago they finished that shul at the bottom of Minchas Yitzchok. There is plenty place there.