Dozens of policemen were on hand early Monday morning, 7 Nissan 5774 as Jerusalem City Hall inspectors arrived at the Heichal Nissim Shul in the N’vei Yaakov neighborhood armed with a demolition order.
City officials explain the shul was built illegally, without a permit, explaining the area used for the shul has been allocated for a talmid torah and a school.
One of the mispallalim, Itzik Hazan, is quoted telling Ladaat that this is part of the ongoing machlokes between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi chareidim and the former took advantage of the situation that Mayor Nir Barkat is out of town to carry out the demolition order to clear the land for their school.
Mispallalim were particularly angry with Shas and one of its councilmen who lives in the community for they feel the party did nothing to try to attempt to prevent the removal of the shul. A small number of people held a very brief protest outside Shas leader Aryeh Deri’s home.
City officials add that over recent years, efforts have been made to relocate the shul but the gabbai was adamant, insisting it must remain where it was set up. Officials insist they did everything possible to reach agreement but when they realized there was no one willing to cooperate, the city was forced to act unilaterally.
Officials add the new school will serve about 1,000 of the community’s children, including many from families of mispallalim of the shul.
Police report that four chareidi men who threw rocks at them were arrested.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
I thought that ey yiden are beachdus. oy vey!!!!
So its a crime to have a shul in Israel, in a building zoned for a Talmud Torah. The powers that be know very well that Talmud and Torah go together with a shul. Shuls are for learning.
If the building had been zoned for something totally different, such as a store or a factory, this might be believable as resulting from something other than hated of Torah on the part of those who are the rulers in Eretz Yisrael.
akuperma,
Did you read the article?
“the shul was built illegally, without a permit”
In New York City you build illegally, you have to tear it down. Why should Israel not enforce its building codes as well?
Akuperma:
If you have followed my posts here, you know I am no fan of zionism (to put it mildly). That said, my initial reaction was the same as yours, until I read the whole article. This was not the result of a dispute between secular and religious but rather, sadly, between askenazim and sefardim.
Without pointing fingers, it appears that sefardim, without a permit, set up a shul on land that had already been set aside for an askenazi talmud torah. It also appears that the city made multiple attempts to relocate the shul but the sefardim refused.
While there may have been a better solution, it appears the city was well within it’s rights to do what it did.
This askenazi/sefardi clash IS, however, a product of zionsim. The zionists state, established by and pretty much still run by secular ashkenazim has treated sefardim as somewhat less than equal; their backward cousins, so to speak. The understandable resentment of the sefardim has, sadly, spilled over into animus for ALL ashkenazim, secualr OR religious.
With the help of heaven, may Gedolim on BOTH sides seek the path of peace and find ways to overcome this culture clash.
Hey TorasMosheEmess,
Well said. I didn’t understand your ending: “may Gedolim on BOTH sides seek the path of peace…” The Sephardi Gedolim did not defend the shul. There does not seem to be any machlokes amongst the Gedolim on this issue. (Perhaps you didn’t mean specifically about the shul.)
I am posting this as someone who lives in the community.
1. The shul HAS to move for the schools, as the two schools that are to build there have NO space and have ‘buildings’ around the neighborhood and to the point they can’t even accept anymore kids for no space.
2. The cheder has MANY sfardi kids and therefore this is NOT against the sfardim, but rather this was space alloted to the schools.
3. The shul was offered a new place to move an was even offered to have their rent paid by the menahel of the cheder.
4. The person in the municipality in charge of having the shul removed has built many many shuls ‘illegaly’, both sfardi and ashkenazi. He has cut loads of red tape to have shuls put up.
5. There are many things going on behind the scenes that no one knows and you will not see in the news. Please don’t jump to conclusions.
This askenazi/sefardi clash IS, however, a product of zionsim. – You got it wrong on this one, review your history sir!!!
I was a member of the shul. This article missed some key points. 1. Almost all the shuls here are built “illegally”. 2. the land area is huge. it is possible to build the school without destroying the shul. For this Rabbi Yiztchak Yosef issued a letter saying it is halachically forbidden to destroy the shul. I saw the letter.