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NEWS
Rosh Ha'ayin: City Hall Nixes Mikveh Construction Plan
By L.S. Wasserman
Residents of Rosh Ha'ayin are up in arms following a scandalous municipality decision to cancel plans for the construction of a mikveh in the new Givat Hasela'im neighborhood. The city's Allocations Committee unexpectedly decided to revoke a lot set aside for the mikveh, which was slated to be built by the Ohel Sarah Uve'er Miriam organization. A benefactor from abroad was already found to cover the building costs. Everything was in place and coordinated with municipality officials, including a plan that cost $100,000 to prepare.
Following the decision, the rov of the city, HaRav Azaria Bassis, sent an urgent letter to the Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Housing Minister Ariel Attias, saying they must address the matter of "the cancellation of allocating land for a mikveh in the Givat Hasela'im neighborhood in Rosh Ha'ayin." He wrote that hundreds of families had contacted him with a request to build a mikveh, "yet unfortunately the municipality is not taking their wishes into consideration."
Neighborhood residents are shocked by the decision, wrote HaRav Bassis, "and every effort should be made to undo this decree. How can it be that for years the residents of the neighborhood, which is home to 750 households, have to suffer without even a single mikveh?"
No mikveh has been built in the city's new neighborhoods for 20 years, whereas the population there is several times larger than all of Old Rosh Ha'ayin.
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