The following event has been advertised around Bet Shemesh:



The event is a Thursday night Hannukah kumzitz in honor of Shabbat Hannukah in the Sport Center of RBS. The City of Bet Shemesh invites the residents of Bet Shemesh and Bnei Hayeshivot to the event, and a special gift will be distributed to Bnei Yehivot.  Speakers will include a rosh yeshiva (Rav Gavriel Yosef Levi) and a city councilman (Shmuel Greenberg) and singing will be lead by Avreimi Rot and Dudu Kalish with choirs and a band. The event is Thursday night of Hannukah from 7pm until 11pm (doors open at 6:30pm), entry is free but no kids due to limited space available.

Interestingly, the sign is signed off by two city councilmen who are named as Rav Chaim Zamora and Rav Shlomo Brilant (both from UTJ), and the mayor, Aliza Bloch, who is left unnamed.

The fact that her picture has been left off a sign published by the Iryah for an event sponsored by the Iryah is somewhat understandable, despite it being strange, and she has already explained it away on a number of occasions, especially after the mayoral elections in which she posted signs in haredi areas without her image. Leaving her name off when every other person involved is named is just strange and demeaning, as if she does not deserve to exist.

The other interesting part about this is that while I would think such an event, targeting primarily the Bnei Yeshivot, would be open to men only, or at least with strict separate seating, the sign announces the invitation to the residents of Bet Shemesh and the Bnei Yeshivot, with no distinction of gender and no notice of separate seating. Historically that is unusual. I would suspect that they did this out of fear of the event being cancelled, as a number of similar events around the country recently were after protests were filed with the courts for discriminating on the public dime. If so, those court cases accomplished what they set out to do.

On the other hand, this event could easily be explained as a religious event that qualifies for such gender separation, as it is billed as a shabbos hannukah event praising God for the miracles and honoring Shabbos and those who study about the holiness of Shabbos - the courts did say events that are religious in nature could qualify for exceptions.

So, with the event not being separate seating or men only, just go enjoy! Party on!

Minister Aryeh Deri said in an interview with Israel Hayom that he has no intention to shut any shops on Shabbos, nor does he have the power to. The enforcement of this law is in the hands of the local municipal authroties, and if they do not want to enforce this law there is nothing he can do about it and stores will remain open on Shabbos. Deri added that the Minimarket Law has not and will not cause a singly shop to close, and it was meant to sharpen the reality in existence that local laws must be approved by the Minister of Interior. And, Deri further added, Chaim Bibes and the other mayors know how the law works and are just taking advantage of the situation and of many in the public not being as familiar with it to score political points off the backs of the Haredim.

So, to review, we have Aryeh Deri and his peers who fought hard for a law that does nothing, according to Deri, we have mayors who want to inflame the situation on Shabbos claiming the Haredim want to coerce Shabbos observance and change their lifestyle, we have Deri and his supporters flaunting the law (that they supposedly cant enforce even if they wanted to) in the faces of the public to scare or threaten them. And each side is accusing the other of engaging in hate politics.

They are all doing the same thing. Taking advantage of other people's ignorance in how the law works to claim meaningless political victories, and in the process making everyone hate each other. Maybe the politicians should all engage in more fruitful activities and work to better the lives of the citizens they are supposed to be providing services to.

Achdus, or calls for achdus, almost always means you should give up your own preferences and desires and follow me and do it the way I want. Almost always.

For example, Yossi Deutsch, of the Chassidic faction of UTJ in Jerusalem, has decided, upon consultation with the various Chassidic rabbonim, to run for the position of mayor of Jerusalem. As an aside, there are currently nearly as many candidates for that position as residents of the city, with more joining the race every day!

So Deutsch announced his candidacy. And he also put out a call that for achdus saying that Degel should support him as well. Obviously achdus in this case means for Deutsch to actually have any chance of winning he needs the support of Degel as well, but he calls it achdus.

Achdus would really have been if Aguda and Degel representatives sat together and discussed a list of issues important to each and discussed the potential candidates and together decided on a candidate acceptable to both of them that would work to promote their joint agendas and needs.

Whenever you hear a call for achdus, check to see what that person really wants from you.

Today is a big day for women in politics.

For the first time (I think), a woman has declared her candidacy for the position of Mayor of Jerusalem, in the upcoming elections. Tat would be MK Rachel Azaria of the Kulanu party.

Does she have a chance? There are still a lot of candidates already running, and presumably more will still declare their intentions to run. As it gets closer to elections some of those candidates will drop out of the race when they see they do not have a realistic shot, and others will drop out after making deals with other candidates. It is way too early to know if she has a chance or not, but she definitely has name recognition (as do some of the other candidates) and most Jerusalemites will have a strong opinion about her, one way or the other.

In Bet Shemesh Aliza Bloch has announced her candidacy for Mayor of Bet Shemesh in the upcoming elections. She actually said that she is so far the only person to declare herself as a candidate, as even Moshe Abutbol has not formally done so. Does she have a chance? I have no idea. On the face of it, it seems very unrealistic, considering the numbers. It might depend on the negotiations between Degel and Abutbol and if Degel decides to run their own candidate or not. I think this might spur both of those sides to come to a more reasonable agreement and to stop fighting so as to avoid splitting the vote. Also, it might depend on how many Haredim in the city, especially in RBS C (Gimmel) are really upset at Abutbol to the point of being willing to not vote for him when the rabbonim will inevitably call on them to - talk is cheap and it remains to be seen if their complaining about Abutbol is just talk or is serious.

Some people are saying that she is an Abutbol plant, meant to put pressure on Degel to lower their demands. This was a theory last time as well when she split the vote last time - not in the ballot but in the city, as she caused, perhaps indirectly, many people to not support the other candidate after she dropped out.

Whether they win or not, whether they come close or not, this is still a big day for female politicians.

MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz) is proposing a law that would place term limits on the position of mayor. Gilon's proposal would set a two-term limit, but it isn't a lifetime two term limit. Rather, after 4 years of the mayor being out of office, he has the chance to run for office again. The mayor would just be limited, by this proposal, to two consecutive terms. That would give any given mayor a maximum of 10 years in the mayoral seat, then 4 years later the ex-mayor could run again for office.

Gilon explains his proposal saying that the level of corruption in municipal governments is expanding. The length of a mayors serving in office is a central cause in the amount of corruption of mayors and in the big money "rolling in the streets". Limiting the number of terms would allow supervision and regulation, and in the long term it will bring back faith in the system, which is generally in a decline. Some mistakenly think the position of mayor is a lifetime appointment. Limiting the terms would bring new energy into the system..
source: Actualic,  Kol Hai News

I am, as always, in favor of term limits. If Gilon is worried about corruption and energy and using this as the solution, he should  include in his proposal a limit on the terms of city councilmen as well, not just the mayor.

I doubt it will pass, but we'll see. Maybe if it does it will eventually lead to term limits on the national government as well.

A guest post by David Bar-Cohn




Let me start with the famous introduction from the Dickens novel which inspired the above title:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...”

When I read this, I feel like Dickens must have secretly/prophetically been referring to Beit Shemesh. Here we have so many capable, intelligent people among our ranks, and yet so much utter foolishness – dangerous and destructive foolishness. We have a great deal of fervent “belief,” and at the same time a great deal of cynicism as to where that belief is taking us. We are blessed with unprecedented opportunity – far beyond our previous generations’ wildest imaginations, and yet many of us are gripped with pessimism and uncertainty as to what the future holds for this city, indeed for Israel as a whole.

While day-to-day life here in Beit Shemesh may be agreeable, even quite wonderful in fact, many of us are deeply disturbed at the palpable and formidable darkness we witnessed first-hand throughout the campaign and election process. We are greatly troubled by the heightened sense of animosity and distrust we perceive between the Haredi and non-Haredi communities, where it’s hard to see much of any light at the end of the tunnel. We lament the fact that Beit Shemesh has emerged as a sort of “ground zero” in the turf-battle over religion in Israel, where each side sees itself as fighting for its own survival – if not physical survival then the survival of its ideals. And we dread that as long as that is the case, every election in this city will be cast as a "mortal battle."

Now, in the event that the current investigation of last week’s elections should turn up sufficient fraud as to render the election invalid, the next step presumably would be to hold another election. That of course means going through part of the gut-wrenching campaign process all over again – the posters, the rallies, the hate-filled invective, etc. At best we will have a final winner, and half the city will rejoice while the other half lives in doubt as to whether its needs will be represented in the foreseeable future. Whoever wins the distrust and resentment will remain. Yes, I recognize that this is life in the grown-up world of politics and elections. But just the same I thought I would offer up an alternative.

The idea is this: Instead of holding a second election (should it come to that), perhaps we could embark on a five-year experiment: A Beit Shemesh with two mayors, “co-mayors,” serving simultaneously – one representing the Haredi sector and the other representing the non-Haredi sector. Executive decision-making would be undertaken together, through a process of mediation and compromise.

Now I want to state straight away – I called this a “tale” of two mayors because I am fully aware that it may strike the reader as pure fantasy, something that could never happen “in a million years.” There is no precedent for it. Both sides are gravely embittered. Neither (I would venture to guess) has much of any willingness to share power with the other. And the very idea of the “co-leadership” model (even in much smaller-scale projects) is often known to be tall on “high ideals” and short on actual effective leadership. I get all that.

But I think we are in a situation now where a little idealism “lishma” (for its own sake) isn’t a bad thing either. We find ourselves presently neck-deep in profound mutual distrust – a good deal of which has certainly been earned. No one mayor currently has the right to say, “Trust me.” That is far too much to ask. What I believe we need now is to find a way where both communities can feel secure, where both feel they are being adequately represented – without requiring anyone to “trust.” Only when both sides experience a significant measure of security can we – slowly, over time – begin to build trust. And each community having a mayor to vie for its interests may just hold a hope of doing that.

There is of course another suggestion for two mayors – the “two-city solution,” i.e. dividing Beit Shemesh from Ramat Beit Shemesh. Whether or not this is a realistic solution (economically, geographically, logistically, etc.) I honestly don’t know. But we need to be aware of what that idea represents, what message it sends. It is a move toward two Israels – Haredi Israel and non-Haredi Israel. I admit this may well be taking place on its own, but to go ahead and formally split Beit Shemesh in two would arguably be seen as an “official statement” to that effect – a writ of separation, citing irreconcilable differences. We can no longer live together. Haredi and non-Haredi societies cannot coexist... And that is something I for one am not yet ready to concede. I would sooner try something else first – even if it is radical and unprecedented – before taking a step along the road to mutual isolation.

Having a single Beit Shemesh with two mayors would send precisely the opposite message. It’s a shake-up, a game-changer. It’s a statement – to ourselves and to the world – that we haven’t given up. We’re ready to do things differently. We’re ready to share power, not grab power. We’re ready to work together, not against each other. We’re ready to be stop being an example of what not to do, how not to be, and to instead do something totally out-of-the-box, something extraordinary, something which makes the world look at us, at Beit Shemesh (yes, Beit Shemesh of all places!), and say: “Wow, there might actually be hope for the human race.”

This city of ours is a crucible, a testing ground of sorts for issues of coexistence facing the society as a whole. The way we handle things, here and now, has the capacity to affect life down the line, and well beyond our borders. Yes, we may feel burdened, weighed down, by the problems we face. But we also have in our hands a unique opportunity to effect far-reaching positive change. We have a responsibility not merely to ourselves but also to all of Israel, and arguably to the rest of the world.

That is why I’ve put the two-mayor idea on the table. I think we ought to consider another way. And even if it can’t be done, even if the election results stand – even if it remains just a “tale” – that’s okay. Because I believe it’s a tale worth telling.


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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

As you probably know by now, 3 months ago I endorsed (whatever my endorsement is worth) Eli Cohen for the position of mayor of Bet Shemesh. He has the professional background and the managerial experience to turn Bet Shemesh and administer a complicated city to better meet its potential and to make it thrive.

Over the past months I have sat with Eli a number of times, I have participated in a number of events held on his behalf, and I have even gotten involved in various aspects of the campaign. 3 months later I still think that Eli Cohen is the right man for the job.

Anybody from Bet Shemesh is invited to come to any of the many parlor meetings being held around town to meet Eli Cohen and to learn of his plans and his vision for the city. Specifically, there will be a meeting in RBS, I am pretty sure this is going to be his first one in RBS but will also be the first of many, this week.

Come to the meeting for Eli Cohen at Nahal Luz 9/1 in the home of the Sait family. The meeting is scheduled to start at 8:30 PM on Monday evening. Come sit and hear Eli Cohen's ideas and vision, ask your questions - even difficult ones - and hear his answers.

Very strange, but I like the idea. According to this report, the haredi parties in Jerusalem  leading up to local municipal elections, have been negotiating a deal in which they would support current mayor Nir Barkat for re-election, instead of fielding their own candidate.

With two high profile names in the hat for the Haredi parties, the entire idea is strange. Both former mayor Uri Lapolianski and MK Aryeh Deri have been considered serious possibilities as haredi mayoral candidates. Both are capable of putting up a good fight in a race, and both are capable of winning. The parties though are worried about legal issues with Lapolianski, probably regarding his involvement in the Holyland corruption case, even though he has already pretty much been cleared, and Deri as the candidate could cause a lot of infighting.

Instead of coming up with a different candidate, somebody in the clear from both legal and moral perspectives, they are considering supporting Barkat. They say they are following the Tzippi Livni model - despite her having just a small party, her being the first to sign an agreement with Netanyahu gave her far more power and influence than she should have had solely base don party size. By throwing their support to Barkat before anyone else, and basically helping him lock up the election, they can get more power than they previously had and can snag the senior portfolios.

It is a strange idea, considering how decent their chances are for winning the election with their own candidate, especially in light of recent articles that described how split the general electorate is in this election season, but I like it. I think Barkat has been a pretty good mayor, and has put Jerusalem on the international map in a big way, and has administered the city very well and very professionally, and I think he has been pretty fair all around to all sectors.. I think it is very mature of them to back, or at least consider backing, a good mayor, which clearly they recognize he is, rather than insist on floating their own candidate just because they can.

Last night Eli Cohen officially announced his candidacy for mayor of Bet Shemesh. Cohen announced in front of a hall packed to the rafters of a diverse crowd of residents. The atmosphere was electric.

Not every group was represented in great numbers, and as candidate he will have to work hard to get support from the Ethiopian community and the Russian community (I only saw a smattering of people from these communities present), among others, but there were a large number of native Israelis, a large number of "Anglos", and lots of other people from others communities.


Cohen was introduced by some of his supporters, including Zvi Wolicki, who explained why they have chosen to support Eli Cohen for mayor, and then Cohen got up and spoke about what he wants to do and accomplish.

The bulk of his candidacy centers around the issue of professionalism; Run the city properly, bring the various forces to work the way they should, allocate resources properly, be prepared with a plan, advance the cities interests, make Bet Shemesh a beautiful place to live with harmony among the various communities, take advantage of the tremendous location for purposes of business and commerce along with tourism, improve the education system, etc.

Professionalism speaks to me a lot as being one of the most important qualities to manage the city. Cohen comes form a background of strong management and leadership, and I think he has the skills and demeanor to really turn things around and get the city of Bet Shemesh on track to be the best it could possibly be.

I am not aware of a lot of the behind the scenes strategizing, but I hope that at some point all the candidates who have announced their candidacy, or those that still are planning to in the future, along with their teams and staffs, will be responsible enough to come to a decision as to which of the candidates has the best chance of winning and then supporting that candidate together.

So far, as far as I know, none of the local political parties (except for Shas because their candidate is the sitting mayor) have decided yet who they will be supporting, and that makes a big difference. Which candidate will have the best chance to win will be very dependent on the support of which parties and influencers they hold. When the parties make their decisions and alliances, I hope the candidates will all re-evaluate, perhaps sit together and come to a responsible decision. In the meantime, I think the best candidate is Eli Cohen.

I went to a meeting last night with another candidate for mayor of Bet Shemesh. This time it was Shimon Biton. Biton announced his candidacy a few months ago and is working on meeting people from all parts of the city.

Shimon Biton is a lawyer in Bet Shemesh, and he has spent his entire life here in Bet Shemesh. Even though the past few years he has lived in Efrat, as he says for familial reasons, he still spends close to 18 hours a day in Bet Shemesh as all his interests are here, especially his law practice. When I asked him about living in Efrat, he stressed that he has never changed his identity card to reflect his address in Efrat, but has always considered Bet Shemesh his home and always will consider it his home. The fact that he spends a few hours during the night outside of Bet Shemesh does not change that.

Some have asked me why support a non-haredi candidate. The issue is being presented as if anybody not-haredi in the position of mayor means he (or she, but there is currently no female candidate that I am aware of) is automatically ani-haredi, and supporting a non-haredi candidate is also motivated by anti-haredi concerns. I say that is not the case. While some people might be motivated by anti-haredi sentiments, or perhaps some candidates potentially might have those sentiments, I personally do not believe that to be the case. Not as a definite, at least.

I believe a person can run against a haredi candidate, or against a haredi mayor, and not run on an anti-haredi platform. In my opinion, the mayor of a mixed city does not automatically have to be haredi, nor does he have to be secular/traditional, nor does he have to be dati leumi. The ideal candidate is one who is open to all streams and communities, one who wishes to fulfill and satisfy, as much as possible, the needs of all communities within the city and most of all manage the city professionally while servicing our needs and growth and promoting the city, its good name and reputation.

Whenever I have met with political people or groups who wanted my efforts or support, I always carefully assess whether I can detect a sense of anti-haredi sentiments as part of the person's/group's motivation. When I do detect such a sentiment, I back out, and I have done so even when agreeing with many of the candidates positions on other issues. I will not support someone, not for mayor of Bet Shemesh or for any other political position, who I think might be motivated by anti-haredi sentiments. Whatever problems or disagreeing I might have with haredi politics and culture, I am connected to it, I did grow up within the community, and I remain a part of it, and no matter what I want changed in that society, I won't be part of an anti-haredi movement.

I will state right now that during my meeting with Shimon Biton last night, I did not sense any anti-haredi sentiments in his motivations (nor did I in my meeting with mayoral candidate Eli Cohen a couple of weeks ago).

Shimon Biton comes from a background in which he spent much of his life fighting corruption. He claims responsibility for bringing down Shalom Fedida for corruption (the mayor before Dani Vaknin) and it is well-known that he was single-handedly responsible for the indictment of Dani Vaknin for fraud (he had faked a college degree). He ran a local newspaper for a number of years - not the current type of newspaper that is funded by advertisements (often more ads than articles), but a newspaper that he funded out of his own pockets for the express purpose of exposing corruption.

His main focus seems to be ridding the Iryah of corruption. Those who spent so much time in the system are incapable of changing the system. Even if the current mayor is a nice guy, he is incapable of running the city in a non-corrupt way. I personally am not aware of any corruption the mayor is involved in, and I did not hear any from Biton, but the system is corrupt, the interests in the city are corrupt, and the current mayor is incapable of changing that, and that is why the city looks as run down as it does.

A lot was said, a lot was discussed. At the end of the day, he and the other candidates are going to have to figure out a process by which they will determine which of them is best for the city, which of them has the best chance in an election, and the others will have to respect that process and step down at some point. Biton expects to be announced as the candidate of the Likud, which will give him a political base from which to work off of and form coalitions and agreements with the other parties. he might be right, he might be wrong, I don't know. He did agree with me regarding my statement above and said he would step down if it were to be determined that a different candidate had the best chance, and as well if the Likud ends up not supporting him as its candidate.

I liked Shimon Biton. He spoke dugri, he was welcoming and open and he looks capable. I am still not yet  supporting anyone specific, because it is irrelevant until only one candidate is left standing, and it is not the people who will determine which of the candidates will be that one - it will be the political alliances that determine who the final candidate will be.

I know that we are all busy and interested in what will happen this Tuesday with national elections, but I want to interrupt that briefly with the currently less interesting municipal elections coming up in October.

Municipal elections are coming up, and they include the elections for mayor. Some people are happy with Moshe Abutbol as mayor, and he has had some successes and has done some good work. If you are one of those people, then this is not for you.

Overall though, the city is poorly run, the most basic services are not provided such as street cleaning, repairing ditches in roads, etc., there is strife between certain parts of the city with other parts and he has not been successful in calming the waters, new neighborhoods are being planned and built at a quick pace with inadequate resources and the city gets a lot of bad press.

It does not have to be that way. The city can be planned and managed, for everyone - haredim, datiimi and secular-traditional, so that we can all have quality of life.

This is no official statement, and I am taking the liberty of saying this without first getting any official permission or intent. I met last night with someone who is preparing the waters to open a campaign for the position of mayor of Bet Shemesh.

He is almost ready to make his announcement, and I am not yet officially endorsing him - it is way too early for that, and I do not yet know him or his intentions and goals well enough. All I am saying is that I was initially very impressed with the person I met with (as part of a group). This fellow, Eli Cohen, is accomplished, he is sincere, he has ideas and he is open to everyone and accepting of everyone. He wants Bet Shemesh to be a model of diversity and believes we can live together not just as a form of cold war, with each side trying to take over the other side, but we can live together happily.

As I said, this is not an endorsement - he has not even announced his candidacy yet. I am just asking that you be open to hear Eli Cohen when he will soon publicize his candidacy. Be open to hear him, look into him and his accomplishments and decide whether you think he is capable and whether his vision for the city is one you agree with.

Ynet is reporting that people have been sending threatening letters to the mayors office, with bullets included.

The letter, signed by "The Secular Lobby" threatens his life and the lives of his family members saying "this is a war, we will take your life and your families lives, we will make a "big boom" for the religious. we have a lot of power and fire."

Some people are losing their heads and taking this way too far. Nothing about approval of new construction justifies a threat on anybody's life. Buy apartments instead of threatening the mayor. Buy apartments instead of complaining.

Realize when it is time to move on. You fought the battle. You lost. Move on.

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Update: According to this article on Kikar Shabbos, the threats are connected with the fight over the RBS school building under dispute, not the construction. Mayor Abutbol blames Yair Lapid, who hosted a show recently on the topic of the dispute over the building.

I went running last night with the running group. Last night we ran what we call "The Merkaz run". Basically, we run an 11km circle through Bet Shemesh. Our midway point where we stop and get everyone back together (as everyone runs at a different pace) is outside of the kiosk across from the Irya municipal building.

Last night, just as we pull in to our rest stop, at 9:10pm, we see the mayor of Bet Shemesh, Moshe Abutbol, leaving his office and getting into his car. I have heard that it is not unusual that he works late.

Whatever you want to say about him, he definitely works hard.

Now this morning I saw he was a guest at the nefesh B'Nefesh ceremony welcoming the new olim. The ceremony started at 7:30am. He must have gotten up very early to daven and get to the airport to start his day.

Way to go Mayor Abutbol!

Clearly he had the upper hand because he was the only candidate with a real jingle...

I have not yet heard any official numbers, but I did hear that Moshe Abutbol won the mayoral race.
As far as parties go, I also did not hear official numbers, but TOV people are saying they got 1 seat. I also heard Gimmel got 5 seats which makes them the largest party in Bet Shemesh by far, if the number is correct. For the rest of the parties successes and failures, we will have to wait a bit longer..

I wish Moshe Abutbol hatzlacha in running the city. I am confident he will be a good mayor. The consolation prize for those who did not vote Abutbol is that next week construction is starting on the new hospital, the womens convalescence center, and the new train tracks to Ramat Bet Shemesh, and we all stand to gain from that... (just joking, not being cynical you can all read that again, this time with a smile on your face)..

There has been a lot of talk and speculation about the possibility that the Eidah and Neturei Karta rabbonim would not publicize their standard prohibition against voting in elections for the upcoming municipal elections. This was discussed in Bet Shemesh and in jerusalem.

The idea is that with the possibility, strong possibility even possibly hinging on whether or not the kannoim vote or not, of getting a Haredi mayor or two, it is worth at least not restating the issur, letting the people vote, and gaining from it.

While I have mostly avoided talking about Jerusalem municipal elections, because I do not live there and only know as much as the average bystander about what is going on there, I do support Meier Porush for mayor of Jerusalem. If anybody reading this can vote in Jerusalem, that is my opinion (as if any of you care).

There has been nobody more loyal to Eretz Yisrael than Meier Porush (even considering his opinion on Har Habayit). He has shown himself and proven hiumself to be accessible to all, no matter what the persons background. He has proven himself to helping everybody, no questions asked. When he was assistant Housing Minister he helped hesder yeshivas and settlers without hesitating, even though they had not supported him. People, from all walks of life, turned to him for their needs and he always did his best to help.

That being said, I do not think it would be a catastrophe if Nir Barkat won. I think he would manage the city well, though I know less about his political stance.

But I digress. To get back on track, there was talk about, and there was pressure on, the Eidah not restating its issur against voting. It turns out that that did not happen, and at least in jerusalem the Eidah has pput up its signs telling its adherents that it is prohibited to vote in the upcoming elections.



The irony of this is that, as you can see below in the document detailing the Jerusalem UTJ party list for City Council, the number 5 man is Yoeli Krausz. Krausz is an avowed Neturei Karta'nik, who has clearly decided it is pragmatic to be part of Porush's control of Jerusalem..

so, while the Eidah has prohibited participation in the elections, it looks like not everybody got the message... Yoeli Krausz for mayor of Jerusalem in 2013!!

I don't remember the Haredi UTJ party ever being so divided in any previous election season as they are this year. they always squabble over which faction will get priority and jobs and the like, but the fights this time are really all out.

Meir Porush is the official candidate of UTJ for the jerusalem mayoral position. He got the nod due to previous coalition agreements between the various factions. The UTJ party makes very detailed agreements every election season, and they include all the cities in which they contend. For example, they will not just make an agreement on how to vote in jerusalem, but will say this year Degel gets the seat in jerusalem and Aguda gets it in Bnei Brak, and in bet Shemesh they will support this candidate and in Beitar they will support that candidate, and in the knesset this faction will get these spots on the list and that faction will get those spots...

Meier Porush got himself into some bad blood with other factions of UTJ in last years Beitar elections. he supported a rival candidate over the incumbent. the incumbent -Pindros - had been the Degel guy. Porush was acting within the agreement that had been previously signed, and his candidate was supposed to be the agreed upon candidate by all parties. Degel chose to not honor the agreement and they fielded Pindros again against Porush's candidate. Porush did not back down and kept his man in the race. Rubinstein, Porush's man, went on to win, and a lot of people got very upset at Porush.

Now they are taking it out on him. And it does not just affect Porush and his candidacy in jerusalem, but all election campaigns in various cities in which UTJ has a position.

One of those cities is Bet Shemesh. Gur, one of the parties upset at Porush, has decided that they will support Moshe Abutbol in bet Shemesh. The condition attached is that Shas work against Porush in jerusalem. That puts Shas in a tough position, because Shas and Porush worked together in beitar for the success of Rubinstein, and they were expected to support Porush in jerusalem (ever since Deri's failed bid to join the fray). if Shas agrees and goes against Porush, it could be disastrous for Porush.

So what did they do? In Bet Shemesh, Gur fielded their own candidate - a guy named Ehrenreich from Immanuel. This was obviously only done for internal Gur reasons, as he had absolutely no chance of winning anything other than possibly 500 or so votes from the Gerrer community. MK Litzman was using his candidacy to negotiate with the various other candidates and see from whom he could squeeze out the most.

It turns out Ehrenreich has now pulled his candidacy and come out in support of Shalom Lerner. I do not know what Lerner offered Gur for this support, other than a vague promise of construction in the upcoming neighborhood of RBS Gimmel, and some positions in a new city goverance.

This is big for Lerner, as it is his first agreement with any other group. On the othe rhand, I suspect it is still only temporary, as Gur is probably using it as a way to pressure Abutbol and Shas into an agreement. I don't know how Shas can agree, considering their relationship with Porush, but I do not see how Gur can support Lerner when all the other Haredi parties and factions have finally come out in support of Abutbol.

We'll see what happens with that. I must say Degel signing an agreement with Abutbol makes it very tough on Lerner. The polls have shown him to be neck and neck with Abutbol even in such a scenario, but polls are rarely reliable, and the polls are already a few weeks old. Much has changed since then.

In the meantime, the agreement between lerner and Gur has been acheived, and perhaps this will be the first of others, as Belz is also rumored to be following Gur in supporting Lerner. After that, perhaps others will follow.

While I was out running last night, I had the opportunity to pay attention to some election campaigning by Shas candidate for mayor of BS, Moshe Abutbol. The opportunity presented itself in the form of a sign on the back of a bus that I happened to be running behind for a few minutes.

The sign said "There are no secular, there are no religious, we are all Jews. Vote Moshe Abutbol".

It is actually a brilliant approach. He knows that many of the old Bet Shemesh secular and traditional (really the traditional more than the secular) residents would not vote for a Haredi candidate for mayor. They think of the haredim as having stolen their city from them, as the haredim have moved en masse to BS and have nearly become a majority in the city over the past 10 years or so.

Even though Abutbol is haredi, he makes absolutely no mention of it in his slogan, and he had no picture of himself on the sign. He did not say "no haredi and no secular". He said "no religious and no secular". He does not want the old BS people thinking about the word haredi in his context.

As long as they do not associate him with haredi, he has a chance of getting their vote. he is one of them in a sense - he is sfardi, he has been in BS for a long time - over twenty years. As long as he does not remind them that he is haredi and represents a haredi party, he has a chance at getting their votes.

What is really slick about it is that while he is playing down his being haredi as much as possible during his campaign, he comes to the other haredi party, UTJ, with a complaint how can it be that they have not come out supporting the haredi candidate. He runs portraying himself as not haredi, but just another person, but then attacks UTJ for not supporting him.

The truth is that he is probably better off, for now, without their support. When they come out in support of Abutbol, he will start losing his support from the old BS people. It is not Shas that has taken the city from old BS - Shas has always been a power in BS, since its formation. It is UTJ people who have moved to BS the past 10 years making it nearly a haredi majority.

So, Abutbol should really stick with his current slogan, and hope that UTJ continues to take its time coming out in support of him.

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.

This past MOtzei Shabbos, Shalom Lerner held his event in which he offically announced his candidacy for the position of mayor of Bet Shemesh.

I purposely delayed writing about it, so I would not be caught up in the excitement of the event and write a post while pumped on adrenaline or anything like that.

The event was fun and exciting. The hall was filled to well-beyond capacity. Reports say that there were around 950 people who showed up. Not everybody stayed the whole time - people came and left, and many stayed for the duration.

Of course there was the social aspect of it, and everybody was having a good time seeing friends, but when the event actually started it was exciting.

There were various speakers representing varying communities. An Ethiopian Rabbi, the Rabbi of Nofei Aviv, a representative of the Russian community was meant to be there speaking, but he got called away on an emergency (he is a doctor), so he sent his good wishes to be read. A representative of RBS spoke, a rep from the Dati Leumi community spoke, and Shalom Lerner spoke.

Aside from the speakers themselves, the crowd consisted of people representing the wide spectrum of the Bet Shemesh population. There were people from old Bet Shemesh, next to new Bet Shemesh and RBS residents. Some Haredi residents, some secular, along with the naturally larger representatino from the Dati Leumi community. A lot of anglos and a lot of Israelis, along with plenty of Russians and Ethiopians.
They played a video speaking to various people about why Shalom is the right person for the job. You can see the video at the end of the post.

Surprisingly, even Moshe Abutbol was there. Abutbol (Shas) is currently the leading candidate for the mayoral position. He even spoke in the video and said that if he himself does not win the position int he elections, he would be happy if it was Shalom lerner who won!

Shalom's campaign is picking up momentum. I am told that a new professional and scientific poll being released on Friday is expected to indicate that Shalom has overtaken the current Mayor for second place and is closing in on Moshe Abutbol for first place.

Of course polls don't necessarily mean much, but they are a reasonable indication of trends, even if they cannot be relied upon for accuracy.

Email shalomformayor@gmail.com to help out or to get a sign for your front of your home!

And here is the video: