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5 Iyar 5760 - May 10, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Public Shabbos Desecration in Rechovot

by B. Rabinowitz

The preparations made by the Rechovot municipality the Independence day took place on the afternoon of Shabbos Kodesh (rosh chodesh Iyar) by scores of employees of a private firm commissioned by the Rechovot municipality.

The building of the stage, organizing the amplifier systems and erecting a crane for the lighting went ahead full force in the Maccabi compound where Independence Day celebrations are supposed to take place. The venerable Shoneh Halochos synagogue and the Beis Medrash Halichos Chaim where many avreichim study and daven mincha are located directly opposite the Maccabi compound.

With the end of Shabbos, irate residents who had seen the Shabbos desecration in the city's main street contacted the Chief Rabbi, HaRav Simcha HaKohen Kook, as well as the representatives of the city's religious sector, and told them how shocked they were over the extensive Shabbos desecration perpetrated by the municipality, half of whose members are religious. They then asked the representatives' help in preventing Shabbos desecration by the municipality and its mayor, which stem from a lack of consideration for the religious sector and contempt for its sensitivities, especially since there were three entire weekdays after Shabbos in which to complete the work.

HaRav Kook reacted very angrily over the trampling of Shabbos in a city with such a religious character as Rechovot.

This past Sunday (2 Iyar), the head of the religious council sent a sharp letter to the city's mayor complaining about the Shabbos desecration.

Rabbi Stauber, one of the religious municipal representatives, said that a man called him and warned of the likelihood of Shabbos desecration. The man's wife, who has a part in the ceremony, was asked to arrive for rehearsals 25 minutes after Shabbos was over. This caused him to suspect that the stage would be erected on Shabbos itself. Rabbi Stauber then called the municipality's coordinator of the event, who promised that no preparations would take place on Shabbos. This promise turned out to be merely a ruse in order to prevent the intervention of higher-ranking officials in the municipality.


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