One of the local news media groups on Whatsapp posted the following image..

the irony is that Lapid said almost exactly the same thing...

This item will be of particular interest to people of Bet Shemesh... I am just going to translate from the Hebrew and not leave any of my own commentary on the matter:

As reported on the Shopping Mekomi Facebook page:

The continue to make a joke of the law! The newspaper "Chadash" is operating with no license, against the law, and continues to be funded by, among others, advertisements from City Hall, meaning, public funds. A request was sent today to the Interior Minister to shut down the newspaper. The mayor and the professional staff have been instructed not to advertise in the newspaper and to enforce this directive.

After a clarification performed by the Ministry of Interior it turns out that "Chadash Bet Shemesh", a local Charedi newspaper of Bet Shemesh, has no license. As has been publicized before, the newspapers administration has refused, during the election period, to publish election material for the candidate Eli Cohen. They even admitted to this and explained their reasoning: "The Chadash newspaper is the newspaper of the Charedi public of Bet Shemesh. Because all the Gedolei Yisroel and righteous men of the generation have expressed their definitive support for Moshe Abutbol for mayor, we will not agree to publish against that statement."

Eli Cohen's lawyer, Ariel Nissim, claims that this is a clear violation of the election laws and has requested that it should be investigated whether the newspaper is even operating with a license, as the law demands. This is the time to remind you that according to Paragraph 4 of the Newspaper Ordinance establishes that: One is not allowed to print or publish any newspaper in Israel unless its owners first receive a license signed by the person appointed  over the district on the form along with the first one for this order.

Today, Thursday February 20, Inbar Golshani, the director of the newspaper division of the Ministry of Interior, stated that the Ministry of Interior has no documentation of a license issued for the Chadash newspaper. Meaning, the Chadash newspaper is operating with no license.

This is the place to point out, that the Newspaper Ordinance establishes serious criminal sanctions - imprisonment up to 6 months and a fine for "the person who prints or publishes a newspaper prior to receiving a license for him or any other agent or who permits its printing or publication, in addition to sanctions defined in that paragraph, and the court is empowered to order him detained and to confiscate all copies of the paper that had been printed. 

Upon receiving the statement from the Ministry of Interior, Adv. Ariel Nissim turned to the Minister of Interior, MK Gideon Saar, with a clear request "to immediately turn to the Chadash newspaper administration and demand an immediate stop to the printing of the newspaper, and even more so when the newspaper is breaking the law of the State of Israel regarding election material, this matter is so much more important, for in Bet Shemesh there will be in the near future re-elections as ordered by the courts.

Adv. Nissim informed Chadash regarding the information received from the Ministry of Interior: You are requested to immediately cease printing or publishing the Chadash newspaper.

As wellAdv. Nissim turned to the mayor, Moshe Abutbol, to the legal counsel of the City of Bet Shemesh Adv. Miki Gastwirth, the Comptroller of the city Yaakov Dahan: you are requested to instruct all relevant parties in City Hall of Bet Shemesh to immediately refrain from advertising or make any other use of Chadash newspaper and immediately stop any other communication with the newspaper.

When turning to the mayor, Adv. Nissim added: you should know, the public sees you as directly and personally responsible  for any expense passed to the newspaper that is operating illegally with no license, from the time you receive this letter. As well, it is appropriate that a mayor of a city in Israel who is entrusted with enforcement of the law and of the order in his city, will not assist and give his money to those operating against the law and will not use the services of the newspaper that has no license, even just for appearances sake. So, it does not make sense that a mayor will fund a newspaper with no legal license, with the knowledge that lacking a license is a criminal offense.

Shopping Mekomi turned to Chadash for a response, but has not yet received one at this point in time.

Last week one of the haredi papers in Bet Shemesh ran an ad about protecting one's children from abuse. It was a full page of instructions, in English, of how to protect one's children from potential abusers, and what to do if God forbid one should be in a situation where he suspects something might have happened. Despite being only in English, and regardless of whether every single point was appropriate or not, just having such content in the Chadash was a groundbreaking event.

This week Chadash published a retraction and apology.

Here are the possibilities of the meaning of the retraction:

1. they really have no idea what's going on in the English section of the newspaper and it really slipped in without being noticed.

2. they put it in because they know how important the issue is, even if only in English for now, and the retraction is to save face and to placate those who were upset.

3. they meant to put it in but now regret that decision, either because they did not realize how upset some people might be or because they did not realize what exactly would be written and some of the content was objectionable.

Most likely they had absolutely no idea what they were doing, but this is a pretty big mistake. Even if they mistakenly let slip some of what was written within, it is hard to believe that they took a full page ad and not a single person reviewing the content of the newspaper noticed what the topic or content was.

Either way, it was a first. The second might be long in coming, but the first has already happened, by hook or by crook.

If you live in Bet Shemesh and read the Haredi weekly newspaper Chadash, you might have been surprised to see page 2 in the English section.

Page 2, the inside of the back page, was an entire page of information of how to protect one's children from sexual predators. In a Haredi newspaper! The world is definitely changing. Slowly, but surely.

To me the page looked like an ad, rather than an article. But even if so (I asked Magen if they ran this as an ad, and the response I received was that they had not, had nothing to do with it, and had no knowledge of it), it was an ad that the newspaper accepted and published.

Unfortunately, I only found this page on the English side, and found no equivalent in the Hebrew section of the paper. Obviously it is not just English-speakers who need to be concerned about such things. Perhaps they were simply not "daring" enough to try to sneak it past their Hebrew censors, while maybe the English side has more leeway. Still, despite not being in Hebrew, a start is a start and for the first time they actually published something on this very serous issue!

The following "Letter to the Editor" (translated by me) was published in the local Bet Shemesh haredi paper "Chadash", and made me laugh. So, here goes...

Last week  a letter was written from the parents of a certain school about a major failure regarding their needs, and amongst what was said it was also said there a very jarring sentence: "We will not elect you again...".
It seems to me that without intention the words were emitted from their pen, since every intelligent person knows and it is clear to him that we don't vote for a specific party or for a specific representative, but only according to the decisions and instructions of the rabbonim shlit"a and the expectations we have of our representatives is not connected and will not be connected to any system of elections (I am not getting into the issue and of the serious distress of the parents, but I think that even in the most frustrating situations there is no place for these types of sentences).
I think that even the Chadash needs to do some introspection on this issue, as from so much describing of the parents distress and the problems of the various neighborhoods every week causes a feeling that the elections are connected to some sort of independent decisions by haredi residents, we get dragged unknowingly into a spirit of representation, factionalism, interests, etc.
The community should be reminded that we are led by the rabbonim shlit"a, and fortunate we are that we have merited so.
M.M. 

That was my entertainment for this past Friday afternoon.


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Here is a class on Marketing.

A local yeshiva put out advertisements in one of this week's local haredi newspapers. The advertisements ran in English and in Hebrew, and they are a call for the community to support the yeshiva financially.

I have no opinion of the yeshiva itself, and nothing written here should reflect in any way anything about the yeshiva. I have heard the yeshiva is a good yeshiva, the boys are learning Torah seriously, and I know nothing more than that. I am not familiar with the yeshiva first-hand.

Back to the ads. There is a noticeable difference in the Hebrew and English ads, and they, or more likely the person who created the ads for them, is clearly familiar with both the English-speaking and Hebrew speaking communities.

There are two names that appear signed at the bottom of the Hebrew ad that do not appear at the bottom of the English ad.


It seems that whoever put the ad together knows fairly well that these two names (personally, I would have only thought to remove one of them if I had been in that position) would do more harm than good had they appeared on the English side.

If your own rabbi is signed on a letter of support, would you withhold support because a different community's rabbi whom you might dislike is also signed on?

Is that dishonest marketing? Isn't all marketing dishonest and only playing to what the viewer/reader would like to see?

The writer for the English side of the Chadash newspaper wrote, once again, a very balanced article about the OROT situation. You can see the difference between the Engliish and the Hebrew very clearly. Some people think Chadash showed how balanced they are by doing that, but the truth is that they are upset with the writer who wrote the balanced article.

I think it would be a good idea to let Chadash know you are pleased (if you are indeed pleased) with the way the English article about OROT was balanced, especially in light of how one-sided the Hebrew article was.

If you are indeed pleased, it would be good to either send them a letter or call the Chadash offices to let them know. They might not be a balanced newspaper in general, but at least let them know the anglos appreciate balanced reporting.

The phone number for the office is 02-999-1234, and the email address is g9991234@gmail.com and chadash999@gmail.com

I actually saw the following recipe in a weekend Hebrew newspaper this Shabbos.

The recipe was for "crispy shnitzel".

The Recipe for Crispy Shnitzel

Ingredients: chicken shnitzel, as per how many servings are needed; raw egg, breadcrumbs, oil for frying.

Instructions:

1. beat raw egg in a bowl
2. pour bread crumbs in separate bowl
3. dip chicken breast in egg then dip in bread crumbs
4. fry chicken until golden
5. serve hot and crispy. dont put in fridge, as it will make it lose the crispiness

A new paper has come to town. "Hashavua", a religious paper based in jerusalem and Bnei Braq, run by "Kav L'Itonut HaDatit" has been opening up satellite newspapers in various communities around the country, and this past week their Bet Shemesh branch issued its first edition of a local religious/haredi newspaper.

Of course, they are stepping on some people's toes in the process. The local haredi paper, "Chadash" is the most affected by this, and cannot be happy about their new competition.

Some businesses are complaining that they are being pressured and threatened to not advertise in the new newspaper. Local rabbonim are also being brought in to tell people not to advertise, despite the fact that the new newspaper was opened with the halachic permission of Rav Shteinman and Rav Kanievsky (supposedly).

I have no problem with Chadash fighting against competition they might consider as unfair or as taking a piece of their pie.

If they have claims of "hasagas gvul", take them to beis din. Fight it by giving better rates on advertising, improve the quality of the newspaper (in my opinion since they added the English section the quality has only gotten worse which was a difficult feat considering how bad it already was), make it more professional, etc.

Stop mixing the rabbonim into your business issues. Go to them with the shailos, bring your case to beis din, but stop calling on the rabbonim to help you pressure potential or past advertisers. Stop using the rabbonim as your askanim. keep the business apsect of it in the realm of business, and not in the realm of rabbinics.

When you mix the rabbis into these issues that they have no place being involved in, it only causes, in the long run, a degradation of the honor of the rabbis and of the respect and esteem in which the rabbis are held.

The rabbonim should not become askanim of businessmen. They should remain rabbonim. Ask them if such a campaign is allowed, ask if you can fight against the competition, ask if it is hasagas gvul, but don't get them mixed up in dealing with advertisers.

The budget numbers have been released, and the public was made aware of how much income the city has from arnona, and which discounts are being given out and which sector receives how much of that.

The Collections department of the Irya is run by a UTJ guy, and he released the numbers in a way that indicates that the haredi community does not receive the discounts at levels up until now thought or implied. The document shows the haredi community receiving discounts totalling about 26% of all the discounts.

the Chadash, who ran the item as the ir lead article, used that number to incite against the rest of Bet Shemesh. Basically, they say that this number refutes the long-standing claim that the secular community has been supporting the haredi community. According to the numbers, so Chadash says, it is really the haredi community supporting the secular.

Chadash went on, with M. Shottland writing the article (he is a regular hateful columnist for the Yated), claiming that not only is it clear that the haredi community is currently supporting the seculars, but basically the haredi community moved in 20 or so years ago and saved Bet Shemesh from being a city of vandals, drunks, drug addicts and primitives.

First of all, to get it out of the way, both secular and religious and haredi all take advantage of discounts offered. If they are offered within the framework of the law, and they are truthfully applied for and granted, I have no problem with it. no matter who is the recipient. You want a discount for learning in kollel and dont like that someone else receives it and you don't, so go learn in kollel and you will get it as well.

I remember that, when the child allowance grants were at their original levels before being cut, I used to hear the claim that the haredim take advantage of the child allowance, etc. The same was said about money for learning in kollel. My response was that it is there for anybody who qualifies. Have more kids and your child allowance grant will increase proportionally. They are not stealing anything, and the government does not give the grant to the haredim, but they give a certain amount of money per kid - you want more money, have more kids. The kollel stipend is just that - you want it, go ahead. It is not for haredim only - go sit and learn torah in a registered yeshiva/kollel/Bet Midrash program.etc. and you will be given the stipend as well.

As long as it is within the law, there is nothing wrong with it being actualized.

Second, regarding the numbers. I am no expert int he numbers, I have no inside information on the truth of the numbers, and I am not even any good with numbers. I cannot even balance my own bank account. But the fact is that the only numbers released were those that are meant to make a certain point.

They have no way of knowing who takes advantage of what discounts. All they know is who takes advantage of the kollel discount, and even that probably is not 100% correct. So 26% of all discounts are for the haredi avreichim. Yet haredim can also take advantage of other discounts that are offered, some of which are also almost completely used by haredim - such as the discounts for large families (they have different discounts depending on how many kids), or income based discounts, etc. Also, not every haredi is an avreich, and not every haredi gets these discounts.

So I have no idea what the truth of the numbers are, but I know that the truth was not displayed in the document that was publicized, or in the way it was analyzed.

Regarding the 26% - the paper said that the fact that only 26% of the discounts are for haredim, yet the haredi community is over 40%, meaning haredim take far less of the discounts than what would be representative of the community.

I don't know what the actual percentage of haredim living in Bet Shemesh is, or how they would calculate it. 40%-45% is the number being used based on election turnout.

Using such a number though for these purposes is really disingenuous. True, that is the number base don elections, but we are not dealing with politicial power right now. We are dealing with an analysis of who actually lives here. You can't decide that based on who voted. You can decide who has more power based on who voted, even when it sometimes means the power is skewed. Haredim vote in very high percentages, while the general community votes in very low percentages.

So if the haredim accumulated 40% of the political power, it means the actual percentage of haredim in the actual bet Shemesh community is much less than 40%. because they vote in high numbers, and the secular vote in low numbers. Again, for political power, the haredim gain by this fact. But when analyzing social issues, looking at the 40% political number is mistaken.

Is the actual number 25% or 35%? I have no idea. But it is far less than 40% I suspect.

What did bother me was the tone and content of the article. Shottland, and Chadash, made it sound like until the haredim came to Bet Shemesh, the city was a backward village with rampant crime. All kids were on drugs and were getting involved in thievery and thuggery. The natives were primitives.

It was only the haredim who came along and saved the city, providing jobs and services for everyone else to get rich off the backs of the haredim.

Yes, it is true. Bet Shemesh was always a lower income town. Old Bet Shemesh still is. Even during Vaknin's days it was well known that many vatikim form old Bet Shemesh dont bother paying arnona. They were always cousins of someone, etc. Collections were not enforced. They received discounts because of economic status. The whole gamut of reasons were applied.

It is probably still true, and I dont know if it has improved or not.

Yet, that does not mean we have the right to consider them primitives, drug addicts, criminals, and the like.

Haredim can take advantage of the kollel discount and any other discount they qualify for. Anybody who wants to apply for a discount, is welcome to, and if they qualify, more power to 'em. I wish I qualified. Unfortunately I don't qualify for a discount (that I am aware of at least) - if I did, I would apply for it.

If you are from Bet Shemesh, you might be aware that the haredi newspaper Chadash recently underwent a major change. The newspaper was sold, as Mati Rosenzweig, the previous owner, had a conflict of interests being that he was appointed to the job of Municipal Spokesperson. Shortly after the sale, the editor of the paper was also changed.

In the few weeks since the editor was changed, I have noticed a major change in the tone of the paper. The previous editor always had a column on the first inside page in which he analyzed a lesson based on, usually, something in current culture - a holiday usually or something similar, only vaguely, at most, touching on local politics. In the paper itself, even if the reporting and writing was low quality and biased, at least the tone was reasonable.

Since the change, the quality has not improved (yet), but the tone has changed. Almost every article is spent attacking anybody in the city who does not tow the haredi line. The first page editorial has been, weekly, a scathing article against anybody who is not haredi or doesn't vote haredi, mostly against the Mafdal because of recent events, and many articles within are also spent attacking those who do anything other than the haredi position.

The quality has not improved, and the tone has gotten worse. I don't like it. It is getting even worse than the stupid attacks of the Keren Or newspaper on the haredim. And that is pretty bad.

I hope the turn for the worse is just a case of bad journalism and not an indication of a change for the worse in the general haredi community.

In this weeks local BS Chadash newspaper, there is an article condemning an attack perpetrated by a couple of teenagers on some avreichim walking from the Heftziba neighborhood to the Kirya Hareidit.

Not only that, but they even say they, the newspaper, complained to the police about it. I don't know what a newspapers place is in society, but I was not aware that it is their job to file police reports and complaints for people.

Regardless, the perps should be prosecuted and taken care of to the full extent of the law.

I don't, however, remember the Chadash writing about attacks that have happened with Haredim (the "kannoim" in RBS B) attacking people walking through or just rioting in general and destroying public property, so if they normally stay away from stories of violence, it is strange that they wrote about this one. Clearly they are simply just not objective and haredi crime/violence doesn't happen but secular violence does.

Also, the Chadash has written about getting those arrested for hafganot out of jail and even quoted Mayor Abutbol that he was working to get somone arrested for his kannoi violence out of jail (as a way of preventing more violence was left unsaid) and Chadash praised him for his efforts. I wonder of Abutbol will work to get these kids out of jail as well, despite their violence (I hope not), and if Chadash will support him in his efforts if he does.

Obviously this is tongue-in-cheek. They should be prosecuted for their violence, and others should see that violent attacks do not pay - not against haredim and not against anybody else. The mayor should not work to get people arrested for violent acts out of jail - not secular (though I have never heard of such intervention happening) and not on behalf of haredim. And if a paper is going to write about and complain to the police about secular violence, they should do the same regarding haredi violence. Just because they are haredim does not give them the "get out of jail free" card.

Two weeks ago there was a cute ad in the local Haredi rag "Chadash". The ad was in the form of a letter seemingly sent from a child.

The child, Yossi, was "thanking" the Mayor and the Director of the city for being so concerned for all the children of Bet Shemesh. The "child" writes that they thank the mayor for 4 years in which they had to sit and learn in caravans and containers, so that 2 months prior to elections the mayor can give us new buildings, thereby "buying" the elections. And that his friends in other schools will have to wait for more years in caravans until the next elections before they get their buildings.


Somebody is doing their job pretty decently, based on the response in this past weeks newspapers. There was a letter back to the "child" from another child named "Meier" (whoever is behind that name I do not know).

"Meier" writes that he read Yossi's letter and would like to know in which school his friends from the various neighborhoods study. He goes on to list in each of the Haredi neighborhoods the various Haredi schools and when they each were given a building, ranging from this year back to 6 years prior.

he also mentions a number of school buildings that are in the planning but will not be ready until next year (after elections), and have already been designated for certain schools.
"Meier" concludes that it must be either "you do not learn in a haredi school, or you wrote with ulterior motives".

Meier concludes thanking the mayor for all he has done, and blesses the mayor with a productive future. He then wishes that next time [Yossi] will be more careful with his tongue!



I love it!

I always enjoy reading Letters to the Editor. It is probably my favorite part of any newspaper/magazine, aside from the sports section of course.

The local BS rag "Chadash" that came out yesterday had some pretty boring letters printed, except for one short one. I present it to you here, translated to English:

As you know, whenever the mayor feels he is in distress from a public point of view, he arranges an "open line" in which he enables people to call in and talk directly with him. We have not heard or experienced anybody actually being saved by this "open line", rather just being offered platitudes.

However, everybody should know that in the mayors office, all sorts of other people with various responsibilities are invited to be present during the "open line" times, and listen in on the calls, and your discussion is broadcast over the speakerphone to everybody in the room, despite the possibility that your call is regarding them or their functioning, and you don't necessarily always want them to be there when you are talking about the issue, with them hearing what you are saying. This is "gneivat daas" of the highest degree to a public that thinks they are talking to the mayor alone, yet that is not the case, and people have already been hurt by this.
Everyone should know and beware.

With blessings,
D.C.

Did you really think you were calling the mayor and getting a private line into his bedroom or bathroom? Have you ever been to the mayors office? There are always people in and out of it. Even if you have never been there, you have to be pretty naive to think the mayor sits alone all day waiting for your phone call.

While I am no fan of the mayor, he has had this open line for years. Not just when he needs some public relations (though maybe when he first opened it that was the purpose). I have no idea if anything actually gets accomplished by calling the open line, but that is a different story. The mayor has the open line, he takes your calls, and he has people from various departments on hand so he can get an immediate answer to a question asked by a resident or give instructions and delegate immediately based on a complaint by a resident and know whether there is something they can do and how quickly.

So, if you want to make private calls to the mayor and talk intimately with him, get his personal number. If you want to report problems in the city and get responses and possible solutions, call his open line and speak with him and his staff.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how the local rag "Chadash" had run an editorial about some guy with a small kipa was shopping in Aleph and not Shefa and he did not know about the ban but when he was told he said he supports it because he too is hsomer shabbos. The editorial chose to talk about how ignorant the guy was, citing the size of his kipa as proof, yet he still joined the sentiments against chillul shabbos.

The following week, something very unusual happened. I am a big fan of the "Letters to the Editor" section of every newspaper and magazine. It is my favorite part, and often it is the first section I look for. For the first time that I can remember, Chadash ran a letter that was criticall of the magazine.

Usually people sending letters, to frum newspapers at least, I have noticed, start off saying how you have such a great paper, thank you and here is my comment. This letter blasted them for their attitude, similar to what I wrote, claiming how can they say just because his kipa was smaller that he is less frum or ignorant and the like.

This past week's edition ran a letter someone sent in response to that letter.

The writer attacked the initial writer. He starts off claiming that the writer was attempting to disgrace anybody who wants to live the life of mesirus nefesh. Then he says, "while we do not know in heaven who is considered more important than whom - for example a Jew in Siberia who just got engaged to a Jewess (instead of a goy) might be considered very important and get tremendous reward in heaven, while a talmid chacham might have something held against him for having learned only 12 hours in a day and not 13. But that is in heaven. We hold the talmidei chachamim (i.e. all avreichim obviously) as being the level AAA, those that attach themselves to them as being level A and those that do not as being..."
He adds, "If you don't understand that, let people run for brachos to those with small kipas and that will shorten the lines by the Admorim?"

He goes on for a bit talking about size of kipa and the like, but the main part of it is what I recapped already.

When I was in Yeshiva, I do not remember anything ever beign discussed about who was considered better or more important than whom. I do remember that there was an attitude though that yeshiva guys were better than anybody else.

There was this avreich in the kollel I was close with. He was a big talmid chacham and while hew as an avreich in the kollel in my yeshiva, he also taught as a rebbi in a number of other yeshivas and seminaries. I used to go to his house frequently for shabbos meals.

This avreich had a thing that everybody who came for a shabbos meal was asked to say a dvar torah during the meal. I remember one time I said a dvar torah I had picked out of a sefer - I remember the sefer, but I do not remember what the dvar torah specifically was. I do remember it made some drasha on a passuk and went on to describe how sitting and learning Torah is much more important than anything else and people who d so are much highe ron the food chain than people who do not.

I was a good yeshiva guy and when I saw that vort it seemed great, so I said that vort at the table.

This avreich/rebbe started screaming at me how that vort is baseless and not true. Torah learning is very important but people who do so are not a class above others. the Torah compares Yisachar and Zevulun as equals. Yisachar was not better than Zevulun because he learned and Zevulun was in business. People who work and have good deeds, and are koveia itim and support Torah learning are equally as important and on equal levels with people who dedicate their lives to learning Torah.

The author of the letter above reminded me of that incident in the avreich's house.

As an aside, just like people are not running for brachos to people with small kipas, but run to admorim, they also prefer the admorim over the average kollel guy. Does that mean the average kollel guy is no good and not Level AAA? no. It also does not mean the guy with the smaller kipa is not Level AAA.