The Dati Leumi Plot crisis in bet Shemesh

A Guest Post by Rabbi Dov Lipman

I have been asked to address the issue of plot 420 and why we demonstrated this past week and are going to court over the issue. Before doing so, I would like to use this opportunity to publicly clarify a few things. Many people have mistaken our efforts to contest Mayor Abutbol over the past 18 months to be anti-chareidi and full of hate. I receive e-mails and letters fairly regularly about this and want to state clearly that nothing can be further from the truth.

No one in any group that I have been part of, including chilonim who I have worked with quite closely, are anti-chareidi. In fact, in the one instance in all of our efforts where someone who is not part of our group, spoke at a rally and began to say negative things about chareidim, I quickly grabbed the microphone from her and she was booed by our group and the rally participants. I have actually been amazed by the love which the secular people I work with have for all fellow Jews.

With that background, I will explain the issue regarding 420 from our perspective. First, some history. The neighborhoods of Sheinfeld and Nofei Aviv have been in existence for well over a decade and the plans to build the Orot campus which services hundreds of children from these neighborhoods right between these two neighborhoods has been planned and approved by the Education Ministry for years. A new community, founded by Rabbi Shalom Rosner, Nofei HaShemesh, was founded a few years ago and is perfectly nestled between Nofei Aviv and the Orot Campus. All this creates a nice little corner for a dati leumi community, largely populated by olim from North America. Because of its proximity to these communities and the new Orot Campus being built, it was logical that the city designated 420 for a hesder yeshiva and another dati yeshiva, and a lot nearby was designated for Rabbi Rosner’s shul.

In recent years, a new neighborhood called Resido, which had been originally designated for French olim when I made aliyah six years ago, has become populated with chareidim. Unfortunately, some of the people who moved into those buildings give chareidim in general a bad name. They sprayed graffiti on our sidewalks and hang signs about how women should dress, many spit on women and say “shiktza” as those who they deem immodest walk by, they grab Israeli flags off cars that drive by and even those parked in our streets, they scream “Shabbos” very late into the night on Friday night when the occasional car passes by, sent threatening letters about televisions they could see through windows, and have been antagonistic on many fronts. Again, I emphasize as I always do, that I do not speak of all chareidim and not even all the chareidim in those buildings. In fact, I have developed relationships with some of the Chassidim in those buildings and have partnered with one of them for a joint learning group and other activities.

The most destructive of their actions on a community level came when they vandalized the Orot boys campus (they openly told me that they were the ones who did it) and used violence to stop the beginning of construction of the new girls building last September. The police came and wanted to arrest them but didn’t. Why? The police chief explained to me personally that the charges would have to be trespassing on city property and the chief knew that the Mayor would not press those charges. In fact, the Mayor intervened and, according to most accounts succeeded in stopping the protests by promising the “protestors” that the construction would be delayed which it was – until just a few weeks ago!!! Think about how angry the people of Sheinfeld, Nofei Aviv, and Nofei HaShemesh were and are to see that the same guys who spit on women and disrupt their lives in other ways were allowed to successfully halt the construction of their new school.

You can also imagine how threatened every woman in the area feels by everyone who dresses chareidi in those buildings since it is impossible to distinguish the trouble makers from the others. You can also understand how frustrated the people who are kept awake by “Shabbos” screams at 12:00a.m. on Friday nights feel with this group. The people of Sheinfeld and Nofei Aviv lived in complete peace and quiet with the chareidim of Nachala Umenucha for years and never complained about their being chareidim in their midsts. However, now that these trouble makers have arrived, fears and negative feelings have been generated.

Despite these difficulties, everyone in these neighborhoods accepted the reality and our communities continued to thrive, especially the new, growing Nofei Hashemesh community. The concept of a hesder yeshiva moving to the area thrills all of us even more and will be the crown of this community.

Now let’s shift gears. There is a problem in Bet Shemesh relating to space for all types of schools with an especially huge shortage for the chareidim. It breaks my heart and all our hearts that any Jewish children have to go to school in decrepit caravans and we hope that solutions are found to this problem. We are happy that new buildings are planned for them and understand that temporary locations have to be found for their caravans while new buildings are built.

If you were Mayor of Bet Shemesh, and you were very well aware of the tensions between the communities and the ill will generated by these trouble makers, and you were also aware of the hopes and dreams of these communities to grow their community, would you choose to place 1,000 chareidi children in caravans right in between Nofei HaShemesh and Orot on the very land which was designated for the crown jewel of the community – a hesder yeshiva? Are there really no other spaces in the Bet Shemesh area for those caravans? Let’s remember that these children will be coming via hasaa. Is there no other place for these caravans?

And let’s even say that there was no other place for these caravans (completely hypothetical since this is simply not the case). Would you simply take the land in a slick political maneuver or would you sit and talk with the Rabbis and leaders of the communities to explain that there is simply no other choice and temporarily those caravans have to be there?

Given all the background – the Mayor seemingly siding with those who do not want Orot there, the Mayor being against Rabbi Rosner’s shul being built there (because “right now there are only 30 families” – his words, not mine), and the Mayor not sitting down and talking with the people involved despite all the already existing tension – how can we conclude anything other than the Mayor plans to use the presence of the caravans to then take the Orot campus and to essentially destroy any chance of Rabbi Rosner growing his new community and to move the school which services hundreds of families who have been living in the area for years. As one of the more prestigious Rabbis in the community told me, once those caravans go down right there, that “is the likely the death of our community.”
Not because chareidi children are bad, God forbid. But because it is so crystal clear what the next steps will be.

So, no one is saying that chareidim and datiim cannot get along. We see a perfect example of how it can work for the most part in RBS Aleph and in the decade of co-existence between Sheinfeld and Nachala Umenucha. No one hates chareidim or wants to see chareidi children remain in caravans. However, you better believe that given the Mayor’s track record and the recent history, people are going to demonstrate, go to court, and do anything to save their communities and institutions. People, like Rabbi Rosner who gave up everything to create something special are not going to sit back quietly while this plot to slyly take Orot and that entire area plays out before their eyes.

I hope people now understand the seriousness of the situation and why we demonstrate and are going to court. Bet Shemesh can be a beautiful city where everyone gets what they need and live in peace and harmony with one another without anyone having to trample on the needs and lives of others.

Let us hope and pray that in these three weeks during which we all must work on loving our fellow Jews, that this spirit will lead the Mayor and his colleagues to simply find another location for these caravans, thereby enabling both the chareidi and dati communities of Bet Shemesh to continue thriving.


Dov Moshe Lipman