We have seen plenty of attempts by cities to keep Haredim out of their local parks (usually during vacation periods, but not just). Often they do so by charging entrance fees to non-residents or making some other rules that the Haredim will find uncomfortable enough that they'll choose a different park to go to. In the past the courts have shot down all such attempts, as public parks are meant to be open to all equally.

The City of Petach Tikva might have found a way, though I am not quite sure why.

According to Hamechadesh, the city of Petach Tikva has reopened Park Petach Tikva, the large municipal park, after it was shut for a while due to the Corona lockdown. The thing is, they have only reopened the park on Shabbos day - it remains closed the rest of the week.

Local Haredim are complaining that opening the park like this, for seemingly no good reason, is obviously just to keep the Haredim out.

Why can't the local Haredim go to this park on Shabbos? They could, but they don't. There is even an eruv (like in all cities in Israel, so they could carry a picnic basket of they wanted to, and other non-muktza playthings as well. Still, the kids would not be riding their bikes to, or in, the park. and the Haredi families probably would not be playing ball int he park or doing other things they don't consider "Shabbosdik". So even though they technically could go to the park on Shabbos, they don't, and the city is not opening the park during the week.

If the local Haredim are upset about this, and not just one or two people who spoke up, they should go, en masse, on Shabbos for a few weeks and show the city that they will use the park when it is open and the city cannot circumvent them and avoid them. They do that for 2 or 3 weeks and it is likely the city will open the park during the week too.

A situation is brewing in Petach Tikva. A local swimming pool has been rebuilt - while formerly it was an outdoor pool and only open in the summer, it has been rebuilt into a complex and is now an indoor pool.

Until now, the pool was open and functioning on Shabbos, though only in the summer because of it being an outdoor pool. Tickets had to be purchased before Shabbos, and the kiosk was not in operation on Shabbos.

Now, with the pool set to reopen as an indoor pool, religious residents are upset about the change in status quo. They are worried that with it now being an indoor pool, it will also be open on Shabbos, in addition to bringing increasing numbers of secular people to the area for their Shabbos entertainment. In addition, they say there will be tznius issues between the pools, despite the separate swimming hours, with multiple pools in the complex and everyone going through the same entrance and passageways, it will not be a modest situation.

I should add, according to Kikar, while the Haredi representatives in City Hall have not spoken up on the issue, the fight is being led by the Dati Leumi representatives.

The mayor claims the situation is as i always was, with the pool open on Shabbos, as per municipal decisions. Mayor Rami Greenberg says when he was in the Opposition and this was decided, at the time he wanted to protest the issue, but local rabbonim instructed him not to so as to be sensitive to the needs and desires of the long-time residents, and that is why the Haredi representatives also did not oppose it.

Will it open or will it be closed? Will the status quo prevail? What is the status quo - an open pool on Shabbos? An open pool in the summer? An outdoor pool but not an indoor pool? So many complex questions!

there have been some big changes in the kashrut supervision of Rabbanut Petach Tikva. This specific problem is one that is relevant all over Israel, and not just in the Rabbanut, but the Rabbanut of Petach Tikva is the first to deal with it...

If you plan on doing your kapparos with a chicken, you had better plan to do it almost anywhere besides for Petach Tikva. Petach Tikva is once again joining Tel Aviv in banning the practice of kapparos with a chicken from its streets, due to the "tzaar baalei chaim" involved in the practice.

City Hall of Petach Tikva is actually only banning the slaughtering of the chickens, but the practice of kapparos with a chicken without slaughtering it will be allowed but only with a permit from the veterinary services. Permits for this should be requested no later than September 9. I am not sure what people with permits are going to do with the chickens after the kapparos if they will not be allowed to shecht them, but I guess they'll figure something out.

City Hall recommends changing your minhag to do the kapparos with a donation of money to tzedaka instead of using the chicken.
Source: Srugim

It must be Elul already....

It is well known that Petah Tikva follows most of the minhagim of Jerusalem. The reason for this is the founders of Petah Tikva were all religious pioneers from Jerusalem, who went there about 130 years ago to start a new community. They, being Jerusalemites, founded Petah Tikva with the minhagim of Jerusalem. It was their way of remembering Jerusalem, instead of taking the minhagim of the rest of Israel.

An example of such a minhag is candle lighting time on Friday afternoon. Most of Israel, and most of the world, lights candles 18 minutes (some light 20 minutes) prior to the onset of shabbos. Jerusalem, and other places that keep the minhagim of Jerusalem, light candles 40 minutes prior to the onset of shabbos.

That is, most other places that keep the minhagim of Jerusalem.

I just found out Petah Tikva is an exception.

Petah Tikva keeps minhagim of Jerusalem, for the most part. However, regarding candle lighting for shabbos, they do something unique. This was the first I have heard of this minhag, and it shows how they kept Jerusalem at the forefront of their minds and thoughts.

The editors of Torah Tidbits noticed some discrepancies in the listed candle-lighting times of Petah Tikva. They could not understand why the listed times looked like they were a few minutes different than what they should have been. While Petah Tikva famously lights 40 minutes prior to sunset, their sunset is a couple minutes earlier than the Jerusalem sunset. 40 minutes prior to sunset in PT should be a few minutes earlier than 40 minutes prior to sunset in Jerusalem.

So why were the listed times equal to those listed for Jerusalem?

The editor called the religious council representative of Petah Tikva and asked him for the resolution to the discrepancy.

The response was that the minhag of Petah Tikva for candle lighting times does not follow the minhag of Jerusalem, being 40 minutes prior to the onset of shabbos (sunset). Rather, the minhag of Petah Tikva is to light the shabbos candles at the exact time they light in Jerusalem!

That makes them light candles 37 or 38 minutes prior to sunset, but it was a unique method of keeping Jerusalem in their minds!

"אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני"