Matnat Chaim, the organization that promotes and encourages altruistic kidney donation, wanted to put on an event in Jerusalem at which 2000 kidney donors would attend, thus making it the largest congregation of kidney donors in one place ever. 

The Eurovision organization, under pressure form some European countries that think Israel should be banned from participating, has asked Israel to either pull out of Eurovision and stop competing, or continue to compete but under a neutral flag and not under the official flag of Israel and as representatives of Israel.

It seems several European countries are threatening to boycott Eurovision if a solution isnt found to keep Israel out.

After Noa Kirel's successful showing at Eurovision (a very respectable third place!) she made a statement about how this was really a victory when receiving the full twelve points from Poland after nearly the entire Kirel family was wiped out in Auschwitz during the Holocaust..

I understand Ukraine won this year's Eurovision contest yesterday. With Israel having not made it to the final rounds, I didn't pay attention at all, but saw a headline in passing.

I dont care much for the Eurovision competition and dont watch it, but of course as a patriotic citizen I am proud of and for my country when Israel wins or places well.

Adawi is out of the competition, despite some really good performances...

this was at a kabbalat shabbat event at the Eurovision village a few weeks ago, with all tunes of kabbalat shabbat being sung to Eurovision tunes...

This is funny.

Many are familiar with the heavy metal band from Iceland that performed in Eurovision this past week in Israel. Initially they wanted to boycott as part of the BDS movement but then decided not to. They turned their already bizarre performance into a political spectacle as they waved Palestinian flags during the voting. They have since come under heavy criticism and Iceland might actually be banned from future participation because of them.

It turns out they flew El Al and did not like their seats on the return flight home. They say they were each assigned of the worst seats on the flight (middle of row, near bathrooms, etc). They claim it was intentional due to their political views and behavior during the Eurovision. After landing back in Iceland they decided to file a formal complaint against El Al.

If they are in favor of BDS, while I understand forgoing that to perform in Eurovision, I do not know why they flew El Al. Perhaps they should have flown a different airline. Or maybe that was the only flight available between Iceland and Israel. I don't know - it just sounds strange for such people.

If El Al really "punished" them and gave them the worst seats, that is childish, funny and wonderful. Take that!

El Al denies it, and says everyone is treated equally by El Al, some might say equally bad, regardless of their race, gender or political views.

The thing is, whatever seats they were, they are regular seats on the flight. Assuming a full flight, some people are going to be assigned those seats. Presumably they are as inadequate as all the other seats on a commercial airline, so I am not really sure what they have the right to complain about in this instance. If this person was not assigned that seat, someone else would be. Can anybody seated in an undesirable seat file a complaint? Should El Al rip those seats out of the plane so nobody has to suffer in them? As long as they were given regular seats and treated the same as everyone else regarding service offered on the flight, they don't seem to actually have much of a complaint.

Regardless, welcome to the club of passengers not happy with El Al service...

source: Mako News

this is weird, and at one point (you can watch it to find out) the Hebrew and English doesn't quite match and it is quite rude, and is even a little anti-semitic...

In 1999, Prime Minister Ehud Barak permitted the transport on shabbos of a huge turbine for the electric company. This thing was so big and heavy that transporting it mid-week was deemed to be too disruptive to the public as it would cause tremendous traffic due to the snail-pace speed at which it could be moved which is why Barak gave the permit to transport it on Shabbos. This event cause a government crisis that eventually led to the collapse of the Barak government and to new elections. UTJ pulled out of the government and the government teetered along until it no longer could.

Since then, the Haredi parties regularly threaten a crisis when government-sanctioned chilul shabbos is discovered, yet they no longer follow through. They have sat in every government since, except the 2013 government Netanyahu formed with Lapid and no included no haredi parties, yet never again have they done more than threaten a crisis, despite the ever-increasing amount of chilul shabbos taking place at the government's initiative - be it road works, rail works, bridge construction, or whatever.

Now with the Eurovision almost upon us (the weekend of May 16-18), the special committee for Shabbos work permits convened and approved a mass permit for 30,000 workers to work on Shabbos to prepare for the Eurovision.

This committee is made up of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Social Welfare Minister Chaim Katz, and Minister of Religious Affairs Yitzchak Vaknin.

After a 15 minute meeting to discuss the issue, the committee voted in favor of the mass permit, for this and next Shabbos, for 30000 production workers. Netanyahu and Katz voted in favor and Vaknin voted against. Besides for the actual permits, Vaknin is upset at the precedent that was set in giving a mass permit rather than individual permits as needed.
source: Behadrei

I am also pretty sure nobody considers Eurovision production involves pikuach nefesh, the normal barometer for giving such permits.

All this while Shas and UTJ are negotiating entry into the coming government coalition, in which they continue to insist they will stay strong in the fight against government-sanctioned chilul shabbos and demand oversight and to be a part of the approval process. It is particularly sad that the increase in chilul shabbos has all happened on the watch of the Hareidi parties. As I mentioned above, they have always been a part of every government in the past decades, except for in the brief Netanyahu-Lapid government. They seem to give the issue lip service, but never actually deal with it.

I will point out, that I have no expectations of shmiras shabbos from the government, as it is a secular government. The Haredi parties insist they can influence, or force, the government to somewhat guard the sanctity of Shabbos in the public sphere, yet they continue to allow it to happen and to allow it to continuously increase in scope. I would almost rather they stop fighting about it and making it an issue of strife while doing nothing practical about it. And even if just in an individual situation they know they cannot do anything about it, stop making it a public issue and then doing nothing - just let it slide quietly if necessary and when needing to explain to your public explain that this was an instance that was exceptional and they had no influence. Everyone understands that there are some circumstances they just cannot control.

Yediot is reporting that the City of Tel Aviv will be operating two bus lines through the city to bring people to the Eurovision events on May 17 and May 18 - that is a Friday and Shabbos.

The two bus lines will operate on pre-determined routes and schedules and will be free of charge. The purpose of these lines is to bring tourists in town for the Eurovision competition to the events, but Israelis will be allowed to use the lines as well.  The city will be putting 600,000nis into these lines, while the State will not be funding any of it.

According to Yediot it also seems that locals are upset about this - besides for the frum  people who are, or will be, upset about this city-sponsored public transportation on Shabbos, seculars are upset that this is only being done for the Eurovision, for international tourists, but not for them on a normal weekend and on an average normal weekend, if they want to cross town to visit someone or go for entertainment they have to spend a lot of money on taxis.

It seems to me that if they hire non-Jewish drivers, there should be little halachic problem with this, but the appearance will be the big issue. Any opposition to this will surely only happen at the last minute, as that is the modus operandi of the frum parties, when it is too late to be effective, unless they insist on brute force. Either way, they'll turn it into an issue in a way that will magnify the snowball effect. Whether this happens in the end or not, this will raise the demand for public transportation on Shabbos in cities like Tel Aviv.

 

Izhar Cohen won the Eurovision song contest for Israel in 1978 with his iconic song, A-ba-ni-bi. Cohen again represented Israel in 1985 with Ole Ole, coming in 5th place, and tried to represent Israel in a couple of others years but failed to qualify.

Basically, Izhar Cohen has a lot of experience with the Eurovision.

And Izhar Cohen is disturbed that people planning to come, or trying to come, from Europe for the Eurovision contest to be held in Israel this coming May will have to deal with price gouging at the level that will make it prohibitively expensive for many people. The tickets for the contest itself are going to be expensive, but beyond that hotel prices have skyrocketed for that period.

Cohen says besides for people staying away, many will still come and then talk badly about being ripped off in Israel. To that end, Cohen has come up with an initiative in which participating people will offer space in their homes for free to visitors coming for the Eurovision. Cohen says this will give Israel a lot of good press and people will come and then go home happy and talk about their great experiences.


Cohen says he knows he can rake in a lot of money renting out his home or even just some beds in his home, but the good press Israel would get from this initiative is worth so much more.

And according to the Channel 13 news clip (in the Srugim article), people are signing on and opening their homes!

I wonder if they would let fellow Israelis stay in their homes like that as well...

But really, it is a nice initiative. I see nothing wrong with taking advantage of a service like AirBnB or Booking.com in order to rent out an apartment or a room in an apartment and make a little money off it. Nobody expects to travel to another country and to not have to pay for food and lodging. A fair price would be fine, while the price gouging happening is unfair. I know, a fair price is whatever someone is willing to pay and if a homeowner or hotel manager could charge an exorbitant fee it is driven by market forces and capitalism and is automatically a fair price, but still, price gouging and taking advantage of an unfair situation makes it difficult for a lot of people.

So, while it would be fair to charge something and nobody would complain, it is very magnanimous of him and other participants to do it for free in exchange for nothing but possible goodwill.

It is clear that Izhar Cohen really loves his country.

And it turns out that the Shalva Band will perform at Eurovision after all! Just not as part of the competition. The Shalva Band has dropped out of the competition to compete in Eurovision because of the requirement to participate in the full dress rehearsal recording on Shabbos, but the solution reached is that on Saturday night during the actual competition, during the semi-finals, the Shalva Band will put on a performance.

This decision was worked out between the Israeli and European relevant authorities and has been approved by all. They will be invited to perform, not compete, even though they will not participate in the dress rehearsal. That makes me wonder about Omer Adam who decided to not accept the invitation to perform because of the dress rehearsal requirement..

As the Kan Broadcasting Authority said, the Eurovision slogan is "Dare to Dream", and Shalva Band did just that.

I don't care for Eurovision at all, though I am always happy to see my brothers and sisters do well in this, and any other, competition, and I am happy the Shalva Band will have an opportunity to show the world what they are capable of. And I wish the best of luck to whichever other finalist will end up being the Israeli representative.

According to Mako, it is official. The Shalva Band is dropping out of the competition in "The Rising Star to Eurovision". After qualifying as one of the finalists, it seems they have already sung their final song in this forum.

The reason for dropping out is due to the requirement to perform a full dress rehearsal on Saturday, and with some of the members being Shabbos-observant, that is not possible. I suspect that even if they were not, with the "Shalva" organization at least having a religious face, even if not officially being a religious organization, I suspect they would not have been able to perform, using the Shalva name, regardless of the observance level of the participants (though that is just a guess).

Efforts were made, including by members of the government, to persuade the European broadcasting administration in charge of Eurovision to grant an exemption of some sort and arrange a work-around solution, but that has not happened.

While it is a shame they cannot compete and represent Israel, especially after showing everyone how talented they really are, they do not have to feel sorry for their decision or regret anything about this. The Shalva Band performed admirably throughout, at the highest level, and there is nothing not admirable about sticking to one's beliefs and ideals and putting that first before other things. The Shalva Band and the rest of the people involved can all hold their heads high and bask in their wonderful accomplishments, both in the success of their band and in their ability to tear down walls and show us all how people with disabilities and special needs can function as well as, or better than, anybody else.

As well, dropping out, after getting so far, in order to preserve the holiness of the Shabbos is a tremendous kiddush hashem and I am sure many non-observant and traditional Israelis will be proud of this and perhaps appreciate Shabbos observance just a little bit more because of it. Jews in America, even the non-Orthodox Jews, were so proud when Sandy Koufax refused to pitch in the first game of the 1965 World Series because it was to be played on Yom Kippur...This is no less powerful of a moment than that was.

They worked hard, they succeeded, and they changed the world. I think Israel is better off after this experience.

Sweden TV's nice hat-tip to the four Israeli Eurovision winners...

Omer Adam is an Israeli singer. Adam is not religious, though he is traditional and famously does not work on Shabbos.

Omer Adam was approached by the organizers of the upcoming Eurovision concert (being hosted in Israel) and was presented with the opportunity to perform at the Eurovision event.

Omer Adam thanked them for the honor and for the offer, but politely declined. The Eurovision event takes place on Saturday night with rehearsals on Saturday. Adam was not willing to participate considering he would be obligated to do his rehearsals with them on Shabbos.

I don't really get why a song contest needs to bring in another singer to perform, but I wish Omer Adam all the blessings in the world for choosing, on his own volition, to not sacrifice Shabbos for this tremendous opportunity, and making a public kiddush hashem in the process. It would have been so easy for Omer Adam to say yes and grab this once in a lifetime opportunity, especially considering he isn't religious anyway. Or, perhaps we need to redefine what it means to say someone is or is not religious. Is there anything more religious and faithful to Judaism than holding Shabbos dear the way Omer Adam is?

While all the threats and attacks on the Eurovision competition happening in Israel next year seem to be falling away, for now, there is only one remaining. Well, maybe two, if you count the possibility of Miri Regev politicizing it enough as she did the exhibition game with Argentina...

The last threat standing is local politics, specifically the Haredi politicians, though they seem to be resigned to it happening as well.

The Eurovision administration has said that Jerusalem is fine, any location in Israel is fine, as long as the specific location meets the professional and technical standards required. The only question remaining is the chilul shabbos aspect, and what the Haredi politicians and askanim will do about it.

According to a recent news report on Mako, as reported by Haredim10, the Haredi MKs have requested from PM Benjamin Netanyahu that if it has to happen in Israel and has to include chilul shabbos, as the rules set by Eurovision requires it, at least keep it out of Jerusalem - out of sight, out of mind - and hold the competition somewhere where we wont see it and it wont disturb us.

on the one hand it is good that they realize the limits of their power and influence and how important so many Israelis, and the politicians, feel this is that they aren't willing to flex their political muscle on getting it cancelled and pulled from Israel.

on the other hand, since when are they ok with public chilul shabbos outside of Jerusalem - "in any other city where we wont see it", as they said...? Why is that a good solution for them? They do not allow public transportation in Tel Aviv or anywhere else (with Haifa being the exception), they fought strongly against more stores being open on Shabbos in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, they every now and again fight against the work on the railroad tracks - even though they have yet to have any significant victory on this issue, and more. Why are they not fighting this stronger? Since when are they ok with chilul shabbos just because the Israelis really want it (if that's the reason)?

Mazel tov to Neta on her success in Eurovision and mazel tov to Israel. This is a tremendous PR victory and hosting the Eurovision next year is a great opportunity as well, in addition to all the money that will be coming in to Israel because of the event, both directly and indirectly.

My biggest concern and caution is what happens next year when we host the event and it causes massive chilul shabbos? How is that ok, no matter how great the event is for Israel? Will it cause a political crisis? Will religious/haredi politicians prevent it from happening or try to? Is there flexibility in the schedule - does it have to be on a Saturday night or can it be moved to Sunday night? Will it be during the "first part" of the Omer, as it often is, causing music problems in Jerusalem, or will it be late in the Omer season?