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9 Shevat 5765 - January 19, 2005 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Degel HaTorah Councilmen Call for Battle Against Beit Shemesh Mayor

By Betzalel Kahn

Beit Shemesh City Councilmen Rabbi Moshe Montag and Rabbi Eliezer Greenbaum of Degel HaTorah are calling for a joint campaign against the municipality and the Mayor following continuing discrimination against the chareidi public.

Rabbi Montag and Rabbi Greenbaum firmly denied various announcements claiming that they posted an achievement when the municipality added the paltry sum of NIS 300,000 ($70,000) to the chareidi education budget, which only slightly rectifies the original cut in the chareidi budget for 2005. The general municipal budget totals NIS 200 million and the general education budget is 20 times that of the chareidi education budget, although more children are enrolled in chareidi schools. "The small amount of funding added to the cut budget is an act of `mocking the poor.' Furthermore the cut led to the closure of the Chareidi Education Department," said Degel HaTorah.

They also say after the elections held over a year ago it was decided, following consultations with local rabbonim, to try to turn over a new leaf with the municipality and the Mayor although the chareidi public supported the other candidate. This move was intended to avoid harming the public's needs. However the municipality did not reach out to the chareidi public, showing derision instead. This led to the recent decision to launch a staunch campaign against the municipality's policy.

"When it became clear the municipality was trying to buy us with small change we decided to put an end to the abuse of the chareidi public, which comprises 40 percent of city residents and whose children comprise over 55 percent of the city's children," say Degel HaTorah representatives. "Now the Mayor is trying to do the same once again, and is trying to gain support for the discriminatory policy by handing out pennies that are an insult to [our] intelligence."

Rabbi Montag and Rabbi Greenbaum, who recently consulted with the city's rabbonim, said it is unconscionable that while the Mayor is scheming against the chareidi public, denying its basic needs and firing the chareidim working at the municipality (including the Agudas Yisroel representatives) an Agudas Yisroel representative shows support for the city budget, which discriminates against the city's entire chareidi sector. "We have had enough of the Mayor's promises and without clear proof of a change in his direction and a real change in his attitude toward the needs of the chareidi public, we will continue to battle resolutely," they said.

 

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