Crazies, meet Kiryat Gat. Kiryat Gat, meet the crazies

I feel bad for Kiryat Gat in general, and for its chief rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Havlin, in particular.

Rabbi Havlin is a Chabad rabbi and rosh yeshiva. In his role within Chabad he negotiated an agreement with the army for young men of Chabad to be able to study and travel to 770 and perform their army service at a slightly older stage.

That upset the crazies, goons and thugs from the Eida. Suddenly the Eida people became so concerned with the spiritual viability of Chabadniks and went into a tizzy. A group of thugs went to Rav Havlins home and threatened to beat him up while vandalizing his home. He was ok after some treatment, but his wife fainted and suffered some trauma and continues to suffer and require treatment.

Since then the Eida has sent its avreichim and goons out to Kiryat Gat to protest the rabbi.
From what I have read, abbi Havlin and the mayor of Kiryat Gat have worked very hard to keep Kiryat Gat peaceful and have the various types of people live together respectfully. This includes the past few years when Kiryat Gat has experienced a population boom with massive construction and many religious and Haredi communities being built and populated. Rabbi Havlin even said that they have worked very hard to avoid anything similar to what has happened in Bet Shemesh and have been successful.

This fight now has nothing to do with that, as the protesters are not local, and the fight is not one among locals fighting for control or resource allocation.

Yet, while the fight is different, the goons are still ramping up their efforts and making the trek to Kiryat Gat to spend their days protesting. Maybe eventually they'll get bored and find something else to keep busy with, but these things have been known to change a city.

I feel bad for them because it seems that they really have worked hard to keep the city peaceful and together in harmony, and now these outsiders are coming in and messing that all up. .

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