While mall pledges to remain open on Saturdays, a Haredi boycott and labor investigation may force the complex to shutter its doors on the Sabbath.

By World Israel News Staff

A recently opened shopping mall, which is now the largest commercial complex of its kind in Israel, has become the focus of a legal battle because it is open on Saturdays.

Big Fashion Glilot, which opened to the public in late February, is located within the municipality of Ramat HaSharon, a Tel Aviv suburb.

The sprawling outdoor complex boasts 160 stores, with the vast majority of them remaining open on the traditional Jewish day of rest, known as Shabbat.

Israeli law forbids businesses from opening on Saturdays, permitting fines to be levied against owners who choose to defy the law. n some largely secular cities, however, such as Tel Aviv, municipalities often turn a blind eye to businesses operating on Saturdays and do not fine them.

There are a number of legal issues regarding Big Fashion Glilot’s Shabbat operations.

While the mayor of Ramat HaSharon has pledged not to enforce fines against businesses in the complex that are open on Shabbat, the city’s legal adviser, Micha Blum, said in a letter that it must do so.

“The law is not merely a suggestion,” Blum wrote.

Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur, who is a member of the Haredi Shas party, announced that he would launch an investigation into the mall for potentially violating labor laws.

“Labor laws in the State of Israel are not a recommendation; they are a civil obligation to preserve the rights of workers. The Working Hours and Rest Law in the State of Israel clearly states that it is strictly forbidden to employ Jewish workers on Shabbat without a special permit,” Ben-Tzur said in a media statement.

“I will not let monopolies exploit workers from disadvantaged populations in violation of the law. Accordingly, the Enforcement Division at the Ministry of Labor has increased enforcement. As Minister of Labor, my policy is clear and firm. In the Jewish state, neither the Sabbath nor the rights of workers will be trampled underfoot,” he added.

Haredi leaders recently announced a boycott of the mall, along with its parent company, Big Fashion, due to their “public trampling of the sanctity of the Shabbat.”

Comprising some 10 percent of Israel’s population, the Haredi community has significant purchasing power. Boycotts endorsed by Haredi community leaders see near-universal participation and can potentially make or break a business.

Big Fashion responded to the boycott in a harshly worded public statement, accusing Haredi leaders of religious coercion and adding that it would be “preferable” for them to “enlist in the IDF and participate in the war” defending Israel.

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The film night did not go ahead after the men, labeled “pure evil” by one media outlet, protested.

By World Israel News Staff

Several men disrupted an event for Haredi women and girls in Jerusalem on Saturday night, in apparent protest over gender segregation.

The event, a movie night showing films produced exclusively for Haredi women, took place in Kiryat Menachem – a mixed neighborhood with religious and secular Jews.

According to the Haaretz daily, the men prevented the event from going ahead.

Kobi Bornstein of the haredi Mishpacha magazine labeled the disruption as “evil.”

“Pure evil. There is no other way to define it. Destroying the holiday for women and girls who came to the screening separately just because it doesn’t suit you. Tell me more about enlightenment, liberalism, women’s rights, and democracy,” Bronstein said.

Journalist Yinon Magal lambasted the protesters’ double standards. “You will never see a group of privileged men disrupting a secular women’s event or a women-only race in Tel Aviv. This only happens when it comes to religious women or girls. Suddenly it’s not ‘misogyny’, and it’s not ‘paternalism’. It’s all kinds of hypocrisy in one picture.”

Another Israeli journalist, Aryeh Ehrlich, called the disruption “heinous” by “monsters without a heart” and a “harassment of haredi women and girls”.

“Make no mistake, the majority of the left is not like that,” he said.

Social media users also blasted the protesters, with Israel National News citing one as saying that they should “go to maternity wards next” to protest gender segregation there. Another suggested they should protest Muslim gender segregated events in Jaffa. “Then we’ll see who the heroes are,” the post said.

Last week, left-wing demonstrators – among them members of the Brothers in Arms protest group –physically and verbally attacked Jewish worshippers praying throughout Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

Demonstrators who converged on a prayer session in Dizengoff Square asserted that the worshippers were breaking the law due to the erection of a small mechitzah – a divider separating men and women, which is mandatory for Orthodox prayer.

However, police had determined that the small bamboo frame decorated with Israeli flags constructed by Rosh Yehudi, the group which organized the prayers, was not large enough to constitute a violation of a policy barring gender separation in public spaces.

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Notably, the Tel Aviv municipality did not interfere when Muslim worshippers in the southern part of the city, Jaffa, enforced gender segregation in public spaces during the Islamic Ramadan holiday.

By World Israel News Staff

The Tel Aviv municipality is considering canceling events for the upcoming Sukkot festival organized by the Rosh Yehudi group, fearing a repeat of the clashes on Yom Kippur when anti-religious activists harassed Jewish worshippers in Dizengoff Square.

Rosh Yehudi, a group aimed at strengthening Jewish identity and Orthodox practice in Israel’s most liberal city, previously obtained permits from the city for a series of Sukkot events.

But following the Yom Kippur incident, which saw Rosh Yehudi erect a small mechitzah (divider) between men and women in violation of a court order banning them from doing so, the municipality is “reconsidering” permission for the group to hold prayers next week.

In a warning letter to Rosh Yehudi, the municipality placed the blame for the clashes solely on Rosh Yehudi, failing to criticize activists who verbally harassed Jewish worshippers who were quietly praying and threw prayer books and other sacred ritual objects.

“On August 15, 2023, we gave you a permit to hold an event in the public space for the purpose of ‘using Dizengoff Square… for holding the [Yom Kippur eve] Kol Nidrei prayer and the Ne’elah prayer with the Rosh Yehudi community,’” the letter, published by Hebrew-language media, reads.

“It was brought to our attention that the following violations were committed: 1. Placing a stage in Dizengoff Square – it was not requested and the municipality did not permit the placement of a stage at the event. 2. Violation of a condition in the permit regarding the ‘prohibition of gender segregation by physical means’ which was a condition for the event to take place,” the letter continued.

The letter explained that Rosh Yehudi’s leadership can present their case as to why their Sukkot event permit should not be revoked during a meeting with municipal authorities.

Notably, the Tel Aviv municipality did not interfere when Muslim worshippers in the southern part of the city, Jaffa, enforced gender segregation in public spaces during the Islamic Ramadan holiday.

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Mayoral candidate equates Jewish outreach organization with Christian missionaries, claims Chabad is damaging the secular character of Tel Aviv.

By World Israel News Staff

An attorney running for mayor of Tel Aviv slammed emissaries from the world-famous Chabad movement for offering to help teenage Jewish boys pray, categorizing them as “extremist messianics” and charging that they are threatening the character of the secular city.

Reuven Lediansky, who recently served as deputy mayor of the city, reposted a video of a secular woman berating a Chabad emissary for manning a booth on a city street where men and teenage boys can wrap tefillin (phylacteries) and pray.

“[Incumbent Tel Aviv Mayor] Ron Huldai is abandoning our children to Chabad missionaries!” wrote Lediansky on his Facebook page.

“This stops with me! Our children are off-limits for the missionaries! A Chabad agent… set up [the prayer station] with the goal of putting tefillin on minors. Good job to the mother lioness who confronted the Chabadnik!”

The Chabad member depicted in the clip sent a warning letter to Lediansky via his attorney, Amir Shmeterling HaLevi, demanding that the post be removed, lest he face a libel lawsuit.

Shmeterling HaLevi said his client felt “publicly shamed” and “bullied” by Lediansky, who was improperly using his platform as a public representative “to hurt and insult” religiously observant Israelis.

“In the State of Israel, placing tefillin on Jews over the age of 13, without coercion, is not a criminal offense and certainly not defined as ‘missionary’” activity, Shmeterling HaLevi wrote in an open letter published by the Yeshiva World news outlet.

But the letter only triggered Lediansky to ramp up his anti-religious rhetoric.

“Threats of a lawsuit will not move me! I will continue to protect our children from messianic and missionary elements!” Lediansky wrote.

“Neither Chabad nor the messianic groups will control the public space… there will be no religionization in Tel Aviv-Yafo and certainly not religious coercion!”

Lediansky added that he will fight “against the extremists and messianics who want to damage the character of our city! Only under my leadership will Tel Aviv continue to be secular and liberal.”

A bus ad touting Lediansky for mayor describes him as “your secular warrior.” Addressing Religious Zionism ministers, the ad reads, “[Public Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich, Tel Aviv is off-limits!”

Notably, Lediansky has never spoken out against actual missionaries who attempt to convert Israeli Jews to Christianity, including in Tel Aviv.

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Be a Mensch Foundation works to bridge the wide secular-religious divide in Israel through youth dialog.

By Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c

Many organizations work to defuse tensions and promote understanding between Israel’s 74% Jewish majority and 21% minority Arab population.

But few address the big divide between secular Jews and the 13% minority of ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jews.

A poll published in February by Hebrew University’s aChord Social Psychology for Social Change Center revealed that nearly 37% of secular Israelis between 16 and 18 hold negative stereotypes of ultra-Orthodox Israelis. (In contrast, about 20% hold negative stereotypes of Arabs.)

While 23% of the secular youth expressed hatred toward haredi Jews, only 7% of haredi Jews expressed hatred toward secular Jews. And more than 70% of respondents from both groups said they want relations between them to improve.

Hard feelings often arise from the fact that most haredi Israelis do not serve in the military or National Service, as most secular and centrist Orthodox Israelis do. The COVID epidemic only heightened the animosity, with each group pointing to examples of the other violating public-health guidelines.

But the underlying problem is that it is easier to hate or fear “the other” if you have never had a conversation with them and you only see that they dress and behave differently.

The Be a Mensch Foundation is working with the Ministry of Education to give secular high school and post-high school students a rare chance to get acquainted with ultra-Orthodox citizens.

The goal of these weekly encounters isn’t to change anybody’s religious views or practices, only to strengthen understanding and unity.

Tolerance, respect, consideration

“Unity is our country’s saving grace and is the battle cry of the moment,” says Dr. Moshe Kaplan, founder and CEO of Be a Mensch Foundation.

“Advancing unity is what we must do to make our nation internally stronger to face the internal and external challenges ahead.”

Mensch, Yiddish for “man,” popularly is used to describe a good, kind person.

Kaplan, an American émigré physician, set up the foundation in 2012 with a board that includes three Israeli Nobel Prize laureates, Israeli basketball legend and statesman Tal Brody, Israeli diplomat Michael Oren, and former US Senator Joe Lieberman.

“What we can all agree on is everyone should be a mensch regardless of politics and religion,” says Kaplan.

“We’re teaching tolerance, respect and consideration. We take a long-term approach and develop relationships to get rid of stereotypes. Participants see that we all swim together or sink together. Basically, we’re teaching love.”

Be A Mensch tapped haredi educational consultant and curriculum developer Yehuda Shine as its strategic adviser for the unity project more than three years ago.

In 1997, Shine founded Equality Now, a non-political social movement promoting tolerance, solidarity, equality and social justice among tens of thousands of secular, religious and haredi Israelis.

“Yehuda was meeting with many secular groups for years, bringing a message of mutual love,” says Kaplan. “He trained haredi facilitators to run our sessions.”

Managing the high school unity project is Moshe Shacor, formerly head of the Ministry of Education’s Tzavta (togetherness) program for pre-military academies and high schools.

‘Curiosity burning within us’

With approval from the Ministry of Education, Be a Mensch brings its encounter facilitators to elite secular high schools, pre-military academies and Hashomer Hatza’ir Scouting groups.

“To date, our activities have been limited to a few cities such as Beit
Shemesh, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Herzliya,” says Kaplan.

“We’re expanding all the time – we are in 26 schools now, mostly in the Greater Tel Aviv area. But there are a half-million teens in the demographic we intend to reach.”

Liat Netzer, head of research in the education department at aChord, tells ISRAEL21c that if the secular youth are primed to approach these encounters with a sense of curiosity and hopefulness, the meetings can be an important path to promoting tolerance.

“Hate is not the opposite of love, but in many ways the opposite of hope,” she says.

“If you think your relationship cannot change, there is no hope. So you need to bring different kinds of haredim with different perspectives to show the secular that haredim are not as homogenous as they might expect; they are diverse and variable. It is important to create curiosity and let the kids ask questions to help them think more hopefully.”

Indeed, an evaluation statement from a Hashomer Hatza’ir Scout included a reference to curiosity.

“I remember when we first sat down to talk, how our eyes explored each other. We were dressed so very differently, but we both had curiosity burning within us,” the teenager wrote.

“The session was meaningful and interesting … amazing, intriguing and significant. I began to sympathize with some of the many things I disliked before the meetings and I really hope to continue to meet and create a way of learning and working together.”

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