Bet Shemesh is not a stranger to the national headlines and news media. Unfortunately, usually it is for negative reasons. Despite the beautiful city we have with an amazingly diverse population, and the tremendous accomplishments and chessed that happen here on a regular basis, the negative is what draws the headlines.
Truth is, one can say that some negative headlines are also positive. The fact that there are hafganot and fights for all sorts of crazy reasons is bad, but on the other hand it means there is an active populace in Bet Shemesh and each is willing to even fight to influence and have an affect on the direction of the city. Perhaps in a way it is better than just sitting back and letting things happen without really caring.
It is especially nice when Bet Shemesh makes the news for good reasons.
Ladaat is reporting that representatives from the Ministry of Absorption came to Bet Shemesh on an official visit. They toured the city and were impressed by the diversity of the city and how Bet Shemesh is able to handle all the different types of people that move here from such a wide variety of countries.
During the meeting, Mayor Abutbol presented the city and explained how Bet Shemesh was established 60 years ago as a town to receive immigrants from Morroco and Romania. Since then Bet Shemesh has never ceased form being a city of aliyah and of olim. The mayor also explained how he calls on people from countries around the world, and that the city pays a lot of money to participate in aliya "fairs" around the world to do so, to make aliyah and move to bet Shemesh, as he feels it is important to preserve the special diversity of the city.
The ministry representatives were duly impressed and promised to represent Bet Shemesh in the various committees and forums in the ministry to help the city continue succeeding in absorbing olim from around the world.
Kol hakavod!
Maybe someone should point out to the mayor that there is no point spending money on going abroad to Aliyah fairs, when BS has earned itself such a lousy reputation in the media for it's local industry: Hooligan Haredim.
ReplyDeleteA search on Google will quickly reveal what BS is famous for, and sadly it's not the amazing chessed done by Olim across the community.
He needs to clamp down on Kanoim and show them that BS will not tolerate their crimes. It may be possible to repair our town's reputation, but he better act fast.