The news reported last night on  report that despite the much greater use of disposables in the Haredi community, the Haredi community in general creates far less waste than the general Israeli society.

Kan News presented this infographic:

 

this is showing different cities and the daily average of waste created per person, with cities like Rosh Pina, Savyon and Kfar Shmaryahu weighing in at 4.1kg per person and up to 6.1kg per person. DAILY! and Haredi cities like Modiin Ilit and Beitar and Elad producing 1kg and less per person.

I don't know what they are disposing of in Kfar Shmaryahu but that is a lot of waste. Maybe they are replacing appliances and cars and just throwing the old ones out in the trash. That weighs a lot more than plastic plates. I cannot imagine what they could be disposing of that would calculate to 6kg per person per day!

Just last week, on Thursday, a compromise was reached on a road that had some fighting associated with it before it even opened up. The new road between [mostly secular] Ramat Sharet and [mostly Haredi] Bayit VeGan was set to open and was highly contested as the residents of Bayit VeGan wanted it closed on Shabbos while the residents of Ramat Sharet wanted it open on Shabbos.

Two city activists, councilmen, Yossi Deutsch (Haredi) and Yossi Havilio (secular) led the way to reaching a compromise before it actually became a real fight. The compromise was that the road would be left open on Shabbos but a large sign would be placed by the road asking drivers to be considerate of the sensitivities of others. It was expected that while some people would still drive on the road on Shabbos, some would not because of the decently-worded request.

The compromise was hailed as unprecedented. Dr Avishai Ben Chaim was effusive about this

Maybe some thought it was too good to be true.

And maybe it was.

According to Jerusalem reporter Shlomi Heller, the road was not all that quiet (from fighting) as some people put out cones in the road to disrupt traffic and prevent people form driving. Others report that the road was open (and they drove on it), so I assume just as some people blocked the road with obstacles, others removed them.

Havilio responded to the provocation saying that if any of the Haredim think the compromise is that the road will not be driven on over Shabbos - they can forget about it (fuggedaboutit!). From his perspective, he says, the compromise is that some will drive and some will not. If a criminal is out putting obstacles in the road, they'll do what is necessary to prevent it, place cameras on the road and if necessary send municipal supervisors.

The Messianic Days of the Ramat Sharet road are not here quite yet.. At least during the days of the week until Shabbos the compromise is being upheld and is praiseworthy. We have to start somewhere!

A year ago an issue was raised in which the secular residents of Kiryat Arba were requesting hours of mixed family swimming at the local municipal pool, but the city administration was refusing the request. The residents at the time were petitioning the Supreme Court to force the city to provide them with a reasonable amount of mixed swimming hours.

At the time I wrote that just like when enough religious people move to a secular town and demand religious services, including, but not limited to, separate swimming access in the pool, and their requests should be granted, when secular people live in a religious town their needs and requests should also be honored.

A year later and the fight is still going on and in the news.

Ynet is reporting that the Supreme Court had heard the case and decided that the City must provide the residents with some mixed swimming hours. After the decision some local rabbis called on the public to cancel their membership at the pool. The pool was even shut down because of this issue for a period of time. Now City Hall has decided to reopen the pool and again only offer separate swimming hours.

It seems an agreement was even reached between the relevant residents and City Hall as to the times and number of hours of available mixed swimming, with the approval of the Court, yet City Hall has decided to break the agreement and not allow any mixed swimming at all.

The new mayor claims he is trying to find a solution but int he meantime the pool needs to be open, even with just separate swimming available for the health needs of the public. Obviously the secular residents are upset over this.

It seems that when the religious, and this is obviously not limited to the Haredi community as this is a case of Dati Leumi, are a minority in a town, they are very good at demanding services to satisfy their needs, be it eruv, mikva, [some] roads closed on Shabbos, separate swimming hours at the local pool, budgets for various events and things, and they rightfully deserve it. It is the job of City Hall to provide the residents of its town with the public services they need. Yet when the religious are the majority, they are not so good at taking care of, and providing for, the needs of the secular minority.

The newly elected mayor of Tiberias, Ron Kobi, said some nasty things the other day. He said he is going to do whatever he can to stop building projects designated for the Haredi community. Kobi said the Haredi community should continue to grow but only outside of Tiberias - in Tiberias they are already 22% of the city and they should not be allowed to reach the 30% mark.

Obviously Kobi has brought the wrath of the Haredi politicians dowqn on his head with these statements. Anytime a mayor talks about not building for Haredim or not being willing to bring a HHaredi community to his or her city, the Haredi politicians make a big deal out of it. Kobi was particularly nasty, but his point was not new or unique.

As I have said before, Israel is a democracy with a mostly free society. People can, and should be able to, buy a house and live, wherever in the countrey they wish to. Haredi people should be able to live in Bet Shemesh, Eilat, Ranana, Beer Sheva, Tiberias, Tzfat, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa or any other town, just like anyone should be able to buy his dream home in whatever town he or she might prefer.

However, I do not get excited by the outrage against mayors trying to prevent the Haredi community from buying in any given town, as wrong as I think it is, as long as those very same Haredi asknaim and politcians do the very same thing attempting to prevent secular or dati people from living in Haredi areas. As long as the Haredi asknaim are working to psuh secular resident sout of Bet Shemesh and ensure all future construction is for Haredim and not for secular, as long as secular wannabe residents are not welcome in Modiin Ilit, Beitar, Har Nof, among other places, I don't get excited by the outrage. I think both are equally wrong, but I do not think it is right to demand one side open its doors to the other with no reciprocation and to continue allowing the other side to build itself enclaves that keep everyone else out. Either we live in a free and open society welcoming to all or we do not. You cannot have it both ways.

Even though you are secular, you should know that Hashem loves you, but only if you choose a God fearing mayor in these elections...

  -- Rav Shalom Cohen, spiritual leader of Shas, regarding the second round of voting in the Tzfat mayora election, encouraging even secular voters to elect Nachman Gelbach.

I love it. God loves you, but only if you vote for the guy we want. If not you are probably destined for an afterlife of a toilet like the infidels in Bet Shemesh

The news headlines are shocking the readership with revelations of a concerted effort by secular residents in the neighborhoods of North Tel Aviv to keep out Haredim - they are working to encourage residents to not sell or rent homes to potential Haredi residents. Specifically, it seems some Chabadniks are trying to move in and to ramp up their "kiruv" efforts in the area, and the efforts are described as general "Haredim" but is really against these Chabadniks.

Everyone is shocked, and all the Haredi websites are discussing how this is racist, discriminatory, shameful, hateful, etc. Things like "replace "haredim" with "Jews" and what would you say?" Things like "you will let Arabs move in but not Haredim". And the like.

As I have said before, in a free democratic society, everyone is, and should be, able to buy or rent homes wherever they want and live wherever they want. I, however, do not get excited by the secular trying to keep the Haredim out of their neighborhoods, especially when those Haredim have ulterior motives of trying to do kiruv on the local residents and change their lifestyles, when the Haredi residents of Haredi neighborhoods do the exact same thing in the opposite direction. They get together to ensure that secular, or even other types of religious, people cannot move in, and if they do they expend great efforts to pressure them to move out. Neither should happen, but both do, and the crocodile tears do not impress me. If it is ok in one direction, it is just as ok in the other direction, though in truth neither is ok, even if both are understandable..

We have a serious problem with the draft of yeshiva boys. They are threatening us that they wont give us budget monies. What - do we live for the monies from these goyim? We won't send a single one to the the army - not a single one. We are the army of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that's why we are called [in the Torah] "Yotzei Tzava".

  -- Rav Shalom Cohen, spiritual leader of Shas, while paying a shiva call to Rav Gershon Edelstein and talking about the ramifications of the draft law

there are some groups of people that could maybe be thought of as honestly saying what they mean, saying something like this. Shas, living and surviving by all that government funding, and regularly fighting for it and for it to be increased, and its school system only surviving because of it, is not one of those groups. Funny how dismissive the Shas leader is of all that money that he so dearly needs for his organizations..let's see him put his money where his mouth is and give it all up.

I am a bit surprised he calls the Israeli secular government "goyim". That too is not really the way of Shas. Rav Ovadya said some harsh things about various groups, but Shas is very close, or at least tries to be, with the secular community in Israel and with the secular government. It is strange to see them become so extreme. It is more appropriate for the Eida types, though they dont really call them goyim either, or the Peleg people who do actually call them goyim. Just the other day Rav Tzvi Friedman of the Peleg, one of its leaders since the death of Rav Auerbach, called them goyim

During the Peleg protests in the streets, the police arrested a secular man who distributed flyers with inappropriate and hurtful materials on them at the protest. The offender tossed the flyers around and then left the scene.

Police investigated and picked someone up for the crime and will hold him accountable.
source: Actualic

I wish they would show equal competency and professionalism in finding the authors and distributors of the pashkevilim in the "chardak" campaign and holding them accountable.

I had no idea, but it seems from a report in Jerusalem Local MYnet that the secular residents have been holding protests the past several weeks on Shabbos against the increasing secular coercion in the city. It seems the protests are being held on Road 1 (not the highway but an internal Road 1 in Jerusalem, near Shivtei Yisrael St, behind Mea Shearim).

While I do not know what kind of protests are being held there, it does seem to have effected a change in the Eida's protests, as they have moved theirs to Shivtei Yisrael to counter the secular protests.

The secular participants say they are satisfied as far fewer Haredim are walking around town and approaching bars and pubs and bothering people there. From the Eida side of the protests they are calling these "provocative protests" - only other people protesting is provocative - and say that these protests are not going to change anything and will not cause them to cancel their regular protests against chilul shabbos.

It seems there was a video last week of young (teens?) Haredim on Friday night speaking inappropriately about the secular protesters and the Eida disassociates form them saying they do not need to justify, explain or reject everything someone dressed Haredi says or does. It also seems there was a video of secular protesters spray painting inappropriate messages to try to prevent Haredim from protesting in the area. The secular protesters condemn such actions and call on the police to take action against them.

Jerusalem is very hot right now. I don't know why this has not made a bigger splash in the news sites.

for the first time in 30 years, a non-religious student of the public school system, Sagiv Lugasi, has won the International Bible Quiz yesterday on Yom Haatzmaut.


Mazel tov!

Lugasi must be a prodigy, especially considering how poorly Tanakh is supposedly taught (or so we are told) in the Israeli public school system. Or maybe it is just impressive to see a secular 13 year old student so interested in Tanakh, and to have teachers that encourage him, to be able to accomplish this.

Melech Zilbershlag, a Haredi journalist with the new broadcasting corporation, scoffs at the idea of the secular coming to Bnei Braq to protest on Shabbos...

he might be right, he might be wrong. that remains to be seen. His tone though is one that sounds to me to be inviting for a fight - there's no way you can do it, you'll only get a few people to show up, what are you going to do here, I'll sponsor the kugel... such comments can even encourage and motivate more people to come, just to stick it to him and to others who think like that.

This is not going to end well.

As a reaction to the fight over the train-works on Shabbos, some group in the secular community has arranged a "street party" to take place this Shabbos in Bnei Braq, (supposedly on Rabbi Akiva Street - one of the main drags of Bnei Braq - but the location has not yet been officially announced).

The Facebook event created to arrange and coordinate this event has 1600 people who say they will be going, and another 3200 who say they might go.

This is not going to end well.

In addition, if anyone thought the fight is over and behind us, after a day or two of quiet, that is highly unlikely. Chaim Katz, the minister responsible for giving out such work permits required for Shabbos work, has said that work on the train lines will continue to be allwoed on Shabbos, but everyone will be made happy - meaning he wont just give blanket allowances, but he won't stop the work either. In the meantime, the stoppage has been brought to the courts with the claim that the work permits have already been given and have not been rescinded, so stopping the work without rescinding the permit can't actually stop the work. And, with the issue now forced, even if the Haredi MKs originally did not mean for it to get this far and become such a fight, they will not be able to back down now. It seems this is far from over.

It is always upsetting and troubling when teachers, or employees in any profession, get fired from their jobs for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability to perform their responsibilities, nothing to do with professionalism.

That is true of the Haredi kindergarten teacher in a public school in the Tel Aviv region who was fired for being Haredi (until a Ministry of Education spokesperson backtracked on the reason), and that is also true of the Haredi teacher in the Haredi school system who was fired for learning how to drive (I am not sure if it is relevant that the reason she learned how to drive was to be able to drive her special needs daughter to treatments and that she had permission from her rav to do so).

There are angles to consider:
1. if the Haredi school scan discriminate against non-Haredim and non-religious teachers and refuse to hire them, why can't the non-Haredi schools discriminate in return?
2. If the Haredi schools can discriminate against Haredim and that is allowed to happen, can people really get so upset when non-Haredi schools discriminate against Haredim?
3. Is it wrong for schools, whether Haredi, Secular or Dati Leumi, to want to employ teachers who match the lifestyle ideals the school wishes to impart to the children?
4. or, perhaps the school should show diversity and be open to exposing their students to other types of people and ideas and as long as the teacher is professional and acts professionally, the teacher should be given the platform to teach.
5. or maybe any teacher should be hire-able in any school, as long as the teacher is qualified and professional. I assume schools could have guidelines for teachers - dress codes, topics that should or should not be discussed, etc. and as long as the teacher is willing to follow those guidelines, nothing else besides for professional reasons, should be a valid reason for firing.

Shas owns a building in Bet Hakerem that they will be using to establish a museum to commemorate Rav Ovadiah Yosef.

Bet Hakerem is a Jerusalem neighborhood that is largely secular, with some religious people interspersed among them. They are upset that Shas chose to build their museum in Bet Hakerem, and suggest that as Har Nof is a place where many Shas voters and supporters live, it would be a much more appropriate location. The building has until now been used to store archives of documents, but they have applied for  a zoning change.

The opponents to the museum say that they are going to put together an offer to purchase the building, if their opposition is rejected by the Iryah. They also point to the fact that if they would try moving in or establishing secular institutions in Haredi neighborhoods they wouldn't be allowed to, and if they succeeded in their attempts they would then be harassed until they agree to leave, so they shouldn't  let Haredim move institutions into their area.
source: Maariv

looks like we have another point of conflict in Jerusalem.

I imagine they are intending to use this building not as part of a plan to takeover the area, but because they already have it and it is likely under-utilized. Using it means they don't need to go spend money on buying or renting another building. The "takeover" of the neighborhood, or feeling of it, would probably just be a byproduct. Even if true, this won't prevent it from becoming a fight.

The Kiryat Yovel neighborhood in Jerusalem is one undergoing change, and a battle. It is an old secular neighborhood in which many Haredi families have been moving in in recent years.

The change in demographics, and therefore the resulting change in the styles and views, in the neighborhood had led to off and on fighting between the communities and their supporters..

According to Ladaat, a recent period of quiet in Kiryat Hayovel has come to an end.

After some recent municipal approvals of Haredi institutions (they are described as illegal institutions, whatever that means) in the neighborhood, their opponents have filed a petition to prevent the City from allocating parks to the local Haredi community in Kiryat Hayovel. They also want the local Haredim moved to other nearby Haredi neighborhoods, such as Bayit Vegan.

They are calling for transfer. Sounds like Rabbi Kahane, but against Haredim. So I guess it is ok.

But it is the park situation that really caught my attention. As long as there are Haredim living in the neighborhood, they deserve parks for their kids just as much as anybody else. The call for no parks for Haredim makes no sense and is probably a crime against humanity.

But even more confusing to me is the call to not allocate parks for Haredim.

Are parks now denominational? Every part of the city, of each neighborhood, should have parks for kids. However the city planners plan parks, whether it is a park every x number of meters, or a park for every x number of families, or whatever formula they use, they should continue to use the same formula.

Are parks now denominational? A park is allocated for Haredim or for secular? Can a Haredi child not play in a secular park? Can a secular child not play in a Haredi park?

What does that even mean to not allocate parks for Haredim? There are parks in the neighborhood, and there might be new ones, and all kids can play in all of them. Are there rules who can enter which park? Is there segregation in the parks of Kiryat Hayovel?

The Hiddush organization is upset with the fact that it looks like Moshe Gafni of UTJ will be appointed to head the Knesset Finance Committee, rather than one of Moshe Kahlon's people.

I am not sure why some people get upset with whatever the Haredi parties are offered to join the coalition. No matter what they want it is considered outrageous demands, extortion, knavery... and whatever they are offered is called political bribery and corruption.,

The Haredi parties represent a portion of the population. I don't like the system that gives unbalanced power to narrow interest parties, but as long as that is the system, the Haredi parties are no more and no less deserving of any given position than any other political party. There is no reason UTJ demanding the head of the committee is extortion but Kahlon demanding it is perfectly ok.

Back to Hiddush...

Hiddush has published the results of some survey they conducted. According to Hiddush, 87% of the non-Haredi public wants Moshe Kahlon to have the position of head of Finance Committee, while only 13% want Moshe Gafni to have the position.

a. why only poll the non-haredi public? is the Haredi public not part of Israel? Are they not citizens of Israel? Does their opinion not matter? Is the non-haredi public any less biased towards a non-haredi person versus a haredi person than the haredi public is biased to a haredi person versus a non-haredi person?
why is this a legitimate survey? Why do these results bear any significance? If I ask only Druze people, they will surely overwhelmingly choose a Druze candidate for any given position. Only women? Most likely they will choose the female candidate. Only secular? Most likely they will choose the secular candidate? Only dati leumi? They will choose the DL candidate. Only Haredi? They will choose the Haredi candidate.

Not only do I ask why is it legitimate, but it is grossly insulting? Why does one part of society have more of a say than any other part of society? Hiddush is almost saying the same thing Amir Chetzroni said.

The survey published by Hiddush is meaningless because it is biased to the result they wanted.

b. I think by now we have learned the value of polls and surveys. This survey is most likely brought to you by the same people who spent the last 4 months polling the elections. Last week we saw exactly how reliable and unbiased their numbers are.

According to INN, the Left is concerned that there is a takeover of the IDF going on by the religious.

All I have to say is that they started a process of bringing more and more religious people into the army, they will now reap what they sow. If they did not want so many religious people in the army, moving into leadership positions, they should have left the system alone. They thought they were fixing it, and it turned out not to their liking. Oh well.

You can't have everything. That's what I was always told. the Left can't have all the religious in the army, btu still retain control and run the army the way it used to be. The more religious people that join, the more religious people there will be moving into the running of the army.

You reap what you sow.

Bechadrei quotes Rav Moshe Shternbuch as having said that we are living in a time of increased extremism. Rav Shternbuch pointed to the Arabs who have gone crazy extreme in their religion and are killing and murdering. He also pointed to the secular Jews and said they have gone to extreme secularism and that has led them to doing things bordering on the crazy. (Rav Shternbuch somehow connected that to the suggestion that we can do a lot today to effect kiruv momentum among the secular Jews)

The one he did not mention that I would add is the extreme religious Jews doing things bordering on the crazy as well, such as burqas, sitting in body bags on airplanes, wearing blinders or male burqas  while flying to Uman, abusive behavior, separate seating on buses, erasing women from newspapers and magazines and other publications, among others...

Too bad it is only other peoples extremist behavior he calls out, and not our own.