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Jul 4, 2010
Plots of land in Bet Shemesh
The latest fight in Bet Shemesh is over a plot of land. The background info I have on this is kind of sketchy, so I was hesitant to write about it, but this is a blog not a newspaper, so it doesn't really need to stop me. I read articles in all the local papers over Shabbos about this and my opinion is so far formed based on the knowledge from the local papers.
The dati leumi community in Bet Shemesh was promised a plot of land adjacent to the new community of Nofei Shemesh. The promise of the plot was given before the elections 5 years ago, as far as I can make out. The intentions for the plot of land were that it was meant to be used for a shul for Rabbi Rosners community, and eventually for building the building for the new Hesder Yeshiva of Bet Shemesh.
That plot of land is now being taken away and reallocated for use by haredi institutions, as the plot is also adjacent, on the other side, to a haredi community.
The DL community held a hafgana the other day and is very upset over losing this plot. They claim that Abutbol is only concerned about providing for the needs of the haredi community and does whatever he can to chase other communities away by making it difficult for them to exist in Bet Shemesh. And he does this while at the same time publicly calling for all types of people to move to Bet Shemesh, yet on the ground he only moves forward the progress of the haredi community and hampers the progress of other communities.
Mayor Moshe Abutbol's response is that the plot has been sitting empty all this time and other communities need it. the DL community has no intention to build on it in the near future, they have neither the money nor the need as the hesder yeshiva is very small right now and is housed within another complex elsewhere in bet Shemesh. When the hesder yeshiva will get its approval from the Defense Ministry to act as a hesder yeshiva, they will be happy to reallocate land for it to build upon.
In the meantime, the community meant to use the plot is only 30-40 families instead of the 700 it was meant for. Rabbi Rosner's community has not yet occupied the neighborhood except in small numbers, and again they have shown no intention to build in the near future.
It seems also, if I understood correctly, that the plot is only being taken over temporarily. There is another plot of haredi schools housed in caravans, and they want to start building real buildings. They need this plot to temporarily house the caravans while the real buildings get built.
That is the background as I understand it.
I am no fan of our mayor, and the sentiment expressed that he only progresses the advancement of the haredi, and mostly only of the extreme haredi, community is mostly true.
that being said, I disagree, based on my understanding of the events, that this case is another example of that. Plots of land cannot sit around empty forever. They need to be used. if the yeshiva is not going to be using it, then it needs to be used by others.
I understand that even using it as a temporary solution is likely to mean it will become permanent and will not be given back to the DL community, not in 2 years, not in 5 years and not when ever the yeshiva is ready to build. But a city in motion, which Bet Shemesh is trying to be (for good or for bad) cannot afford to let its plots sit in disuse for so long. The city, under Vaknin as well, has threatened (I don't know if they ever actually did take back plots because of disuse, but I know they threatened) on numerous occasions to take back and reallocate plots when they were found to be sitting empty with no plans for the foreseeable future.
The only part of this that disturbs me is that they are not even leaving a piece of the plot for Rabbi Rosners shul. The community needs a shul and cannot remain in someone's basement or living room for a long time. Part of the plot should have been left for the community to have a shul. They could easily put down a caravan and start using it right away, and I don't know why they didn't do so until now.
I hope to have a guest post from someone in the DL community on this issue in the next few days who can perhaps explain more some of the background and also explain why they think they should keep the plot even though they seem to not have any intention to use it (perhaps they do have intention to use it) anytime soon..
The dati leumi community in Bet Shemesh was promised a plot of land adjacent to the new community of Nofei Shemesh. The promise of the plot was given before the elections 5 years ago, as far as I can make out. The intentions for the plot of land were that it was meant to be used for a shul for Rabbi Rosners community, and eventually for building the building for the new Hesder Yeshiva of Bet Shemesh.
That plot of land is now being taken away and reallocated for use by haredi institutions, as the plot is also adjacent, on the other side, to a haredi community.
The DL community held a hafgana the other day and is very upset over losing this plot. They claim that Abutbol is only concerned about providing for the needs of the haredi community and does whatever he can to chase other communities away by making it difficult for them to exist in Bet Shemesh. And he does this while at the same time publicly calling for all types of people to move to Bet Shemesh, yet on the ground he only moves forward the progress of the haredi community and hampers the progress of other communities.
Mayor Moshe Abutbol's response is that the plot has been sitting empty all this time and other communities need it. the DL community has no intention to build on it in the near future, they have neither the money nor the need as the hesder yeshiva is very small right now and is housed within another complex elsewhere in bet Shemesh. When the hesder yeshiva will get its approval from the Defense Ministry to act as a hesder yeshiva, they will be happy to reallocate land for it to build upon.
In the meantime, the community meant to use the plot is only 30-40 families instead of the 700 it was meant for. Rabbi Rosner's community has not yet occupied the neighborhood except in small numbers, and again they have shown no intention to build in the near future.
It seems also, if I understood correctly, that the plot is only being taken over temporarily. There is another plot of haredi schools housed in caravans, and they want to start building real buildings. They need this plot to temporarily house the caravans while the real buildings get built.
That is the background as I understand it.
I am no fan of our mayor, and the sentiment expressed that he only progresses the advancement of the haredi, and mostly only of the extreme haredi, community is mostly true.
that being said, I disagree, based on my understanding of the events, that this case is another example of that. Plots of land cannot sit around empty forever. They need to be used. if the yeshiva is not going to be using it, then it needs to be used by others.
I understand that even using it as a temporary solution is likely to mean it will become permanent and will not be given back to the DL community, not in 2 years, not in 5 years and not when ever the yeshiva is ready to build. But a city in motion, which Bet Shemesh is trying to be (for good or for bad) cannot afford to let its plots sit in disuse for so long. The city, under Vaknin as well, has threatened (I don't know if they ever actually did take back plots because of disuse, but I know they threatened) on numerous occasions to take back and reallocate plots when they were found to be sitting empty with no plans for the foreseeable future.
The only part of this that disturbs me is that they are not even leaving a piece of the plot for Rabbi Rosners shul. The community needs a shul and cannot remain in someone's basement or living room for a long time. Part of the plot should have been left for the community to have a shul. They could easily put down a caravan and start using it right away, and I don't know why they didn't do so until now.
I hope to have a guest post from someone in the DL community on this issue in the next few days who can perhaps explain more some of the background and also explain why they think they should keep the plot even though they seem to not have any intention to use it (perhaps they do have intention to use it) anytime soon..
Labels:
bet shemesh,
haredim,
Moshe Abutbol
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The question is have all plots that were allocated to the charedi community been built or are there empty plots there too?
ReplyDeleteI dont know the answer to that.
ReplyDeleteHad the mayor done anything, anything to earn the trust of the non-Chareidi community instead of slyly and underhandedly undermining at every turn it's possible that this could have been viewed as a reasonable temporary accommodation like you suggest.
ReplyDeleteBut the mayor's behavior to date gives nobody in our community the slightest confidence that he cares about anything but, as he's said, turning Beit Shemesh into a Chareidi Mecca no matter what agreements he has to break to achieve his goals.
1) I believe that R' Rosners community as ready to start building and were rejected because the land was re-allocated. Certainly they are ready to take a few caravans like the Chareidi community would be allocated. Was this option given to them?
ReplyDelete2) To me the fact that Tov voted with the mayor on this issue is completely scandalous and shows a real lack of integrity and responsibility. True they were not a swing vote but they should have taken a stand on this.
Tov did take a stand. It's the same stand they've taken on other similar issues.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone really think they'd side with DL, even if they're Anglo, rather than the Chareidi side?
Lerner's party should learn from this - if Balayish and Perez are willing to vote against their interests, Lerner shouldn't assume he has a winning mayoral ticket in the next election and instead find a mesorati candidate who will take him back as a sgan rosh.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite obvious to me (someone who doesn't live in BS/RBS) that the Charedim are turning BS/RBS into a Charedi city. Aren't there other Charedi-only cities all around the country? Like Modiin Elit (Kiryat Sefer), Beitar Elit, etc. Is Elad Charedi?
ReplyDeleteSeems as if the next election or maximum the election after that, they will control the city council of Bet Shemesh. Just the teens turning 18 might shift the balance, but add in the new folks moving in and who knows???
The blog post is not exactly accurate -- you have mixed 2 related issues. Let me explain:
ReplyDelete1. Nofei Hashemesh is an Orthodox community in Bet Shemesh with Rav Rosner as our Rav. We (and our immediate project -- Ramat Neriah) are the only community in Bet Shemesh that does not have a shul for daily use. We applied to get the approval to use the land designated for one of the community shuls -- SO THAT WE CAN BUILD A SHUL. Our Mayor, has decided that 60 families (which btw, amount to over 300 people), do not need a shul and refuses to bring the matter to a vote. We are therefore shut out -- because the matter is not even brought to the agenda.
2. At the same time, the plot of land that was set aside 2 years ago to build a hesder yeshiva has been revoked and is being alocated for Charedi yeshivot. The mayor claims that "nothing has been done" in the past two years. This is inaccurate. In fact, in the last year, the Hesder yeshiva began and is completing its first year with 8 students. Next year the yeshiva is expected to have nearly 25. The yeshiva held a dinner to raise money for the building, which attracted over 400 people. All of this, the mayor knows -- why would he misrepresent?
The question remains, what is the mayor's real intention?