a new coffee shop has opened up in Modiin and has immediately caused a ruckus on Facebook. All because of its schedule. Caffit Modiin has opened its doors, but only for 6 days a week.

Upon announcement of its schedule with the location being closed on Shabbos, some Modiin residents flooded the Facebook page of the coffee shop (see mainly the section of customer reviews) with complaints about it not being open on Shabbos, suggesting the haredim and religious are taking over, calling it the end of zionism, and just plain-old kvetching..

I get that some people might be disappointed about not having anything to do on Shabbos, not even be able to go to the new coffee shop, but it is basically just a commercial decision, rather than a Zionistic decision. In Modiin, where I guess it is legal and acceptable at a municipal level to operate a business on Shabbos, it still has to make sense from a business perspective.

The management of the coffee shop has decided that by staying closed on Shabbos they will gain more business on the other 6 days, from the religious people, than the amount of business they would have on Shabbos, considering the loss of the religious people who then will not patronize the shop during the week. It is dollars and cents. That too is Zionism, and yishuv haaretz - running a profitable business, so that people can enjoy their lives in Israel a little bit better..

The national pastime is kvetching, and the pros are going at it full-blast on the Caffit page. But it is a business decision, and nothing more. It is not like in Jerusalem, where there is always political pressure and Haredi askanim fighting such decisions. In Jerusalem one can fight it as an issue of haredim taking over, of zionism, etc. In Modiin it is just business.

Modiin has had its share of up and downs in its relationship with its haredi neighbors of Modiin Ilit... Famously, Modiin tried to ban non-residents (i.e. haredi residents from nearby Modiin Ilit) from its beautiful park, Park Anabe, though that did not work out too well.

Leading up this Pesach, Modiin announced that the park equipment in Anabe would be closed to the public for safety reasons (as per the instructions of the Standards Institute)- some of the equipment had been damaged and was falling apart and had yet to be repaired.

Sure enough, some idiot has come up with a theory that "safety" was really just a ploy to keep haredim out of the park. By the end of Pesach vacation, the warning signs had been removed, prompting the theory that the entire time there were really no safety issues but was simply an attempt to keep haredim out of Modiin.
source: Kikar

The person quoted with this conspiracy theory asks if it was a safety issue, why couldn't the city fix it in time for the holiday vacation. Little does he know, that is not how cities work. They fix things a) when they get to it and b) when they have money for it. Not necessarily when it would make sense to fix. We have park equipment in Bet Shemesh for years that has been broken and remains unfixed, despite multiple vacations coming and going where it would have been nice to have those items fixed in time. Eventually the city gets to it.. or it does not.

Most surprising in this article is that it was written at all. If the fellow was an engineer or a safety expert and was making such a claim, that would be one thing. But he is not, or at least he is not quoted as being an engineer. This fellow is just an average person who probably knows nothing about equipment safety and had no opportunity to inspect the equipment. Yet he made his claim. And Kikar turned it into an article, validating his claim (to a certain extent).

Pointing it out on Facebook to friends in Modiin, it turns out the equipment was really unsafe, had been closed for a bit before Pesach, and already during Pesach it was reopened to the public and plenty of Haredim were there enjoying the equipment. As well, a number of other parks with wooden playground equipment were also shut down by the Standards Institute for being unsafe.

So, it seems this guy in Modiin Ilit had a bad day, picked the wrong day to go to the park, came up with a silly theory, and Kikar ran with it.

we regularly hear how great of a city Modiin is.. the residents of our neighboring city especially like to point out to us residents of Bet Shemesh how great Modiin is every time Bet Shemesh makes the news for some crazy incident..

It was pretty shocking to read today in the news that some young adults hate Modiin so much that they compared it to living in a concentration camp!

A 21 year old male posted to his Facebook page how bad it is in Modiin and said that it would be better to be in the gas chambers than to be in "this city". He generated a lot of discussion, with many people coming out and supporting his statement.

He explained what he said by saying that this feeling they have is due to the lack of entertainment options available in the city.

Funnily enough, residents of many other towns, including Bet Shemesh, keep their eyes to Modiin for their entertainment needs! In Modiin they have a skate park, bowling alley (which we now have in BS as well), movie theater among other things.
source: Mynet

While far be it from me to say whether there is enough entertainment available for the young generation in Modiin, it seems to me to be quite crass to say it is so bad that a gas chamber would be better. Comparing life to life in a gas chamber just because there is a shortage of bars and discos is truly insulting.

can youth be satisfied? no matter what or how much the city provides, eventually they will get bored with the available options, and will want more or different things. Is the answer to simply add more buses at night, so they can go to Tel Aviv and party all night long? A bedroom community like Modiin is never going to be able to provide enough entertainment to keep every kid happy all the time.

Good news in Modiin... what has become an annual fight and hatefest for the past few years is not going to  happen this Pesach...

The city of Modiin has decided that during the Pesach holiday Park Anabe will remain open and free for everyone. Visitors of all types and from anywhere will be able to go to park Anabe and enjoy the grounds, without having to pay.

On Sukkos, Modiin got away with only allowing local Modiin residents in for the duration of the holiday, thus keeping out the throngs of Haredi visitors from nearby Modiin Ilit. Legal counsel had allowed it as a temporary act, and they took advantage of that loophole.

Despite the decision to keep the park open to the wider public, the mayor explicitly said that he reserves the right to close it on future holidays, should he feel the need.
(source: Bechadrei)

I don't know what events or performances might be scheduled for the Pesach holiday in park Anabe, but I would recommend to anybody going there from Modiin Ilit to not tell the people of Modiin what to do, such as insisting on the removal of female singers or people dressed immodestly. That is one of the things that caused the original decision to block haredim form the park. If you don't ant to take a chance of having to hear a female singer or seeing immodestly clad women, go somewhere else.

I don't know my opinion on the following matter. I understand the concern - it is a shame to lose an historic site, a spot of nature, for some more housing. On the other hand, we have a housing shortage, people need places to live. Where many of us live, be it in Modiin or in bet Shemesh or in Jerusalem or in many other places around the country, hilltops had to be razed, nature had to be destroyed, so that there would be housing for us to buy. If there is an alternative to the Givat HaTitorah location, it should definitely be considered. if there is not, I don't know which should have higher priority - the nature and archaeology or the housing - so, read below the argument of Rimonah Traub.

 Guest Post by Rimonah Traub

After Modiin Ilit announced the development of a new archaeological park that would only be open to haredim, Modiin decided they would do whatever possible to lock out haredim from enjoying the popular Park Anabe in Modiin. The problem is that limiting entry to a public park is illegal, so they had to find a solution to figure out how they could block visitors from Modiin Ilit.

Legal Counsel for the city of Modiin solved the problem writing an opinion that based on the law, Modiin cannot discriminate and prevent entry to visitors from anywhere else, or certain types of visitors, but they could do so on a temporary basis, such as for the duration of a holiday. If I understand it correctly, because it is a holiday they could limit entry to only locals, residents of Modiin - and prevent entry to others so as to allow the local residents to enjoy a city park. But only on a temporary basis.

A human rights organization is now suing Modiin for discrimination. Their lawyer has sent a letter saying that preventing entry to non-residents is illegal and is discriminatory against a religious group.

So, there is a machloket between lawyers whether such a policy is legal or not even on a temporary basis.

I figure they will have to prove that the policy was discriminatory against a "religious group" (i.e. haredim). Even though it might have been well-known that that was the purpose, they blocked everyone from outside of Modiin, and they didn't discriminate between haredim and non-haredim in implementation of this policy. All non-Modiin people were turned away.

On the other hand, Modiin probably can't use the argument of Modiin Ilit's archaeological park to its defense, or maybe as a threat of counter-suit, because that park is not yet open and no discriminatory policy has [yet] been put in place, despite talk of future plans to do so.

b'kitzur, Modiin should not have acted like a bunch of kindergarten kids with this behavior.


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Modiin, which until recently looked like the quiet alternative to Bet Shemesh for someone looking for reasonably priced housing outside the major cities, has been going through religious strife of it's own.

The biggest of the issues has been the fight over the Haredi visitors to Park Anabe in Modiin. Because the park is free, many haredim from Modiin Ilit have taken advantage of that for a nice vacation day activity. They crowd the park, making it uncomfortable for the local residents to enjoy the park, and have even tried to stop female performers from performing, thus intervening in local behavior.. Eventually Modiin Ilit announced the creation of a new archaeological park that would only be open to haredi visitors. Modiin then found a roundabout way of legally limiting entry, during vacation times, from visitors outside of Modiin itself. They even tried to prevent Modiin residents from bringing haredi guests to the park, something that was technically allowed based on the rules set.

The latest issue was the dancing of hakafot shniyot on the night after Simchat Torah. In the central hakafot shniyot event of Modiin, sponsored by the city, they decided this year not to construct a mechitza, but to have separate circles of dancing - one for men, one for women, and one mixed for those who would want it.

According to Mynet, some local activists, seemingly affiliated with the local Reform community, jumped into the mens circle and danced there. The men, who were religious men that wanted a separate mens circle, stopped dancing and some went to the side to make a new circle. Some said that next year the religious community will not participate in the hakafot shniyot celebrations.

The activists deny any attempt of a provocation, saying there was mixed dancing and they participated in the event as it was meant to be. They even say they were upset  with the city's decision to keep haredim out of Park Anabe.

Not all is kosher in Modiin. All over the world people learn to live together. There must be a way for it to be possible here as well...


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Modiin has responded officially to the approach taken by Modiin Ilit regarding the upcoming new attraction in the area.

Modiin Ilit is involved in preparing an archaeological park, Hirbat Bad-Issa (Bad-Issa Ruins) that has won governmental support for being operated according to haredi  oversight - the programs will not talk about the worklld being millions of years old or anything like that, but will discuss the history based on mishna and gemara and divrei chazal. Rav Gutterman, the mayor, had also originally told the press that the park would only be open to haredi visitors. That upset many, especially the residetns of nearby Modiin who have a big park of their own that is visited by many residents of Modiin Ilit during the vacation periods.

Now, with the information being posted officially on the Modiin Ilit municipal website, Modiin has responded officially. While I could not find on the site anywhere that it says the park will only accept haredi visitors, it does say that the atmosphere will be set by haredi decisions and all historical details will be only based on sources from Chazal.

Modiin is upset that the park will be designated for the haredi public and all program information will only be according to that, and the visitor experience will be designed for the haredi public alone, and has now announced that Park Anabe will only be open to residents of Modiin (and their guests) during the Sukkos vacation. If they can keep us out of their parks, we can keep them out of our parks.

While one might suggest this will not stand up in court, as such discriminatory policy has already been challenged (such as in park Ranana) and declared as illegal, they have legal council stating that such policy is illegal when it is permanent. When it is in effect at only certain times of the year it is seemingly legal. I imagine it can still be challenged, and then it will be determined if their council was right or wrong, but they are at least going to try to limit entry to only residents of Modiin.

Good fences make good neighbors. It's a shame, but maybe that's what they need... They can stay in their neighborhood, and they can stay in their neighborhood... Now Modiin wont complain about being overrun by Modiin Ilit haredim during vacations, and the haredim wont have to see the secular or dati leumi people at all, not in their own ghetto and now they wont have a reason to go to Modiin either...

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According o the European Union, residents of Modiin are not living in Israel proper, but are "settlers". I congratulate them on acheiving this new status.

 The EU has decided that products manufactured in Modiin-Maccabim-Reut will no longer be considered to have been made in Israel, as Modiin was built on what was in 1948 a strip of no-mans land. So, while it is not "occupied" territory, Israel still does not have the right to it. The EU, by doing this, is saying that anything from that area will not be granted the tax-free status when imported into Europe.
(source: IH and INN)

Being that Modiin is now considered a settlement, residents need to make a decision whether to stay and accept their new status as a settler, or whether to leave to avoid being a settler. Staying in Modiin will require a change in lifestyle to one more commensurate with the settler lifestyle and appearance. We also now will begin to await the day when the Israeli government will decide to evacuate Modiin of its Jewish reidents and disengage from the entire area.

Thank you European union for your attempt to bring sanity, or even just balance, back to the Middle East.

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The news reported on Pesach about a show in Park Anabe in Modiin in which during the show a female volunteer was chosen to assist the presenter. With a large haredi audience present, presumably, but not necessarily, from the nearby Modiin Ilit, a woman from the audience requested that the volunteer be changed for a male volunteer instead of female.

(picture taken from Haaretz website)

This was not let to pass, and what might have been an innocuous incident, innocuous on both sides - the act could have gone on and those who didnt want to look didnt have to, and the request could have been honored and not challenged - has turned into another point in the fight of haredim in the public sphere dealing with women in the public sphere.

While I do believe there is no need to force the haredi public to integrate the ideals, lifestyles and philosophies of the general public into their own communities, and a certain level of leeway should be allowed for their cultural preferences even when they go against the laws and ideals of general society (as long as nobody is being harmed by it), I do not think that applies in this situation.

If the city of Modiin Ilit wanted to sponsor a circus performance with only male performers, and have gender separate performances, I would be fine with that. Despite the fact that it is sponsored by a public body (the Iryah) and it includes gender segregation. That is the culture the haredim have developed, even though it is fairly new, and I have no problem with that.

However, in this situation, the haredim went into Modiin to enjoy the performance there. The secular (and dati) city of Modiin sponsored a performance that was not deemed for haredim, but for the local residents who are not interested in gender segregation. The fact that hundreds of haredim showed up, should not change anything. When they go into secular cities to take advantage of secular entertainment, they should not complain when it does not conform to their ideals. This is an example of them attempting to impose their ideals on others.

And then they don't understand when Modiin residents get upset and try to devise ways to keep the haredim out of their events and parks.

Next time, instead of flocking to secular cities to enjoy the entertainment there, they should encourage their own city municipality to sponsor and arrange performances locally that meet with the ideals and culture they wish to live by.


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Picture Of The Day

snow day in Modiin

Mako News has a report about a situation in Modiin...

A building project was sold as "Mechir L'mishtaken" - this is subsidized housing that is built to be sold cheaply. To qualify to buy one must meet criteria set by the government, usually including some combination of having low income, over a certain number of children, sometimes must have served in the army, never have previously owned a home, etc.

In Modiin a number of the apartments in the project were bought by haredim. Nothing wrong with that, except that they actually had no interest in living there. They were buying ti for the investment, and now, 2 years later, are turning around and selling those apartments for double what they paid.

The purpose of mechir l'mishtaken is not for people to find a great investment to make a killing off. it is to help weaker sectors buy apartments they need for living. The government gives these subsidies, encourages the cheaper prices, nto so people can make good money off the government, but for people who need to have a place to live in.



I am a capitalist like the next guy. I have no problem with a person putting down money and making an honest buck off it. I also have no problem with the government building more houses -people need to live and there is a shortage.

When the issue came up in bet Shemesh, I did not like it. I said then that why should the government subsidize the purchase of apartments when they did not subsidize it for me? And, what is to stop anybody from buying these apartments and turning around and selling them for double the price? All the while, they are decreasing my property value. If the housing was built and buyers paid full value, bvakasha. go ahead. But why subsidize housing that will let people just go make money off it?

So, now they are talking about adding criteria that would make a buyer hold the apartment for 10 years. According to the quote in the video, Housing Minister Arial Attias is against setting such a rule. I would add, in addition to a rule like that, that the buyer must live in the house for a period of x number of years (fill it in as 4 years, 5 years, 6 years, etc - the number does not really matter because if people would have to live there, they would only buy it if thats where they were willing to live.)

The weather forecast is predicting snow in Modiin, though the snow is expected to be driven in by truck rather than to fall from the sky...

According to the Modiin Info website, the city of Modiin will be trucking in 5 containers of snow and making them available to the public, for free, next Tuesday and Wednesday (February 14-15, 2012)!!!

From the source:

Snow is coming to Modiin- but not because of the weather forecast. The city of Modiin is arranging a snow activity for the whole family. At the event, real snow will be brought to the fair area outside the Azrieli mall.


Five large containers of snow from the Chermon area will be available for the kids of Modiin to play with and enjoy. The snow area will be open free of charge on Tuesday and Wednesday (14-15/2/12) between 16:30 and 19:00.


At the event there will be a snowman-building contest for the kids, with the winner receiving a 500 NIS gift certificate to "Happy Shop" in the mall. Kids who want to participate in the snowman-building contest are welcome to bring ornaments to "upgrade" the snowman-- noses, hats, glasses or other items.

I wonder if they will allow guests from Bet Shemesh to come enjoy... or maybe someone can get the City of Bet Shemesh to do something similar (hint, hint RBS Foundation)

A number of Modiin residents have complained that too many people from outside the city have spent the summer vacation coming in and using their parks, specifically the fairly new Park Anabeh with large and open  grassy areas, large swings and slides for kids, and a small lake with paddleboats, and have been making a mess. their complaint is that these people don't pay the local taxes but benefit from the parks, and then leave the city residents with the mess and the expense of cleaning it up. As well, they say the park gets so crowded during vacation time with people from outside Modiin that the local residents don't really get to enjoy it themselves.

Some residents of Modiin have called for the implementation of either an entrance fee to non-residents of Modiin or for paid, and expensive, parking in the immediate vicinity of the park.

The specific non-resident-audience targeted in the campaign has been the haredi visitors. That might be because they go to these parks around the country in large groups, often with fleets of a few buses, as many don't have cars. Either the city or an askan often will arrange buses to different locations and order buses dependent on how many people register. So while all sorts of people are showing up, the haredi visitors become more visible as they are showing up all together in fairly large groups.

In truth, the whole thing is a non-issue. The Facebook group they started to promote their agenda has garnered a total of 8 members. I am told the petition they circulated garnered 60 signatures. The press seems to be making a bigger deal of this than it actually is.

However, regarding the issue itself, I am in favor of charging fees to non-residents. the locals pay with their arnona and other local taxes towards the maintenance and upkeep of the city and parks. The visitors leave a big mess and don't pay anything toward the upkeep. It is not uncommon for cities around the world to charge visitors for using their parks and attractions while allowing residents free access or access at greatly reduced prices. In some places it is even standard.

Despite that, for some reason, in Israel the Supreme Court has already ruled that a city is not allowed to charge a fee to visitors to visit its parks. The parks are public places, and everyone has the right to benefit equally from the parks. one could say it is not equal as the locals pay for the upkeep, albeit indirectly, while the visitors do not, but the direct access has to be equal.

This played out a number of years ago regarding Park Ranaana. Park Ranaana is a beautiful park in Ranaana, with large play areas, open grass, small amusement park, small zoo, and more. They used to charge an entrance fee to non-residents of the Sharon area - Ranaana, Hod HaSharon, etc.

The entrance fee on one hand helped pay for the maintenance and upkeep, and on the other hand it also discouraged non-residents from coming. What might be a free trip to a really nice park for a large family, for example, suddenly might cost a couple hundred shekel. If you would have to pay for 7 or 10 people, you would think twice about spending that money on a park. I remember going to park Ranaana during vacation in the days when they still charged entrance fees. The large park was quiet, not swamped with people, clean and pleasant.

After the Supreme Court decision, suddenly Park Ranaana was free for everyone. The few times during vacations periods we have gone since it was less pleasant, dirty and crowded. I understand the problem of the Modiin residents. unfortunately for them, the law is not on their side. I don't think charging an entrance fee to visitors, if the Supreme Court would allow it, is discrimination.

What Ranaana did do was charge exorbitant rates for parking in the immediate vicinity of the park. It didn't really help, as paying for parking, even at expensive rates, is still far cheaper than paying entrance fees or going to more expensive places. As well, many of these visitors come in large groups by bus - the bus can drop off the visitors and go park farther away until it is time to pick up the visitors and leave.

At the end of the day, it seems like the press made this into a bigger deal than it really is, and even the City of Modiin says that the park is open to all and they have no intention of charging for parking. The idea is not even realistic. The park itself only has a small lot. there is no street parking in the area, but a reasonable distance away are a few larger parking lots for train station, that they will not, or cannot, charge for.

Modiin has been going through a lot of religious fights recently. I think this is what happens when a city becomes much more religious than originally expected. the city of Modiin was planned to be a secular city, but has become a fairly religious, National Religious mostly, city.

Bet Shemesh was also originally planned as a secular neighborhood. When the religious chose to move to Bet Shemesh, the fights for control began.

It seems that has been happening in Modiin too, with the increase in religious residents. That is why we are witness to a number if recent incidents, such as the school banning the kid from wearing tefillin, the recent kid becoming religious and fighting with parents, a kid being banned from the soccer team because he wears a kipa, and others.

On the one hand it is easy to say we can buy apartments wherever we want, and they have to learn to live with us. And that sentiment is kind of correct. It is a free world, and if I want to move to a secular neighborhood, nobody can stop me.

On the other hand, perhaps the approach of those moving in is too heavy handed and not sensitive enough to those already living there. I do not have specific examples, but just the idea that some soul-searching might be in order.

Why do I say that? Why do I suggest that perhaps the religious people moving in to Modiin have perhaps been not sensitive enough to the secular residents?

only because of the recent incident on Simchas Torah in which a sefer torah was dropped. The torah was dropped after being given to a child to carry. The child was old enough that this act was not considered negligence.

Rav Dovid Lau, the rav of Modiin, therefore paskened that the community must fast. He differentiates between causes, saying that if the Torah was dropped out of negligence, then there is no need for a communal fast. When, however, the torah is dropped with no negligence, then it is a sign from heavan that the community must do soul-searching and improve its ways.

Rav Lau says that in this situation the child was old enough to hold the torah, and therefore there was no negligence. That means that they must fast and look for ways to improve.

I would suggest, perhaps rightly perhaps wrongly, that this incident indicating the need for soul-searching added to, and occurring in such a close time-frame to, all the recent incidents of secular fighting with religious residents, perhaps the soul-searching needs to be directed toward the way the religious have treated the irreligious when they have moved in en masse to a secular neighborhood. Perhps if they would find ways in which they could be more friendly, less threatening, mor eopen, etc. to their secular neighbors, and improve in those areas, perhaps all of these incidents would happen less frequently.


Thank you to the reader who sent me the scan of Rav Lau's original letter

Bowling in Hebrew is pronounced "Bowww-leeeng" (bow as in bow-wow of a fictional dog, rather than bow like a bow and arrow).


This evening we went Bowling. There is a bowling alley in Modiin, which is a short hop, skip and a jump away from Bet Shemesh. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the lanes, after many years ago having had tried the bowling alley of Talpiot in Jerusalem and found it sorely disappointing.

Everything was computerized, the lanes were nice and slick, and they even had these cool bumpers that go up and down automatically depending on who is bowling (you tell the guy at the front desk which bowlers want the bumpers, and he puts it in by their name, and presto!).

The place was not jam packed, but it was busy, with both Anglos and Israelis having a great time...




We all had a great time, and I bowled a 140 - not bad for having gone many years without bowling.

What can't you get in Israel nowadays???