The Kiryat Yovel Community Administration and some of its
secular residents are trying to prevent the operation of a
swimming pool in Kiryat Yovel that would serve the chareidi
community and its needs. Several years ago the Taylor pool
did operate during the summers under the same conditions,
closing on Shabbos and offering only separate-sex swimming.
Opponents of the pool are resorting to all sorts of means and
have even enlisted the local, secular papers on their behalf.
Last week the Kiryat Yovel Community Administration sent a
letter to the entrepreneur who is seeking to operate the
pool. In the letter, they threaten to take action if the pool
operators do not withdraw their plans. The letter reads: "We,
residents of the western neighborhoods of the city and the
Community Administration of Kiryat Yovel, notify you that
every attempt on your part to open the Taylor swimming pool
for women and men separately and to close it on Shabbos and
holidays will be met with an uncompromising battle. We will
not enable you to use the Kiryat Yovel pool in a manner which
does not benefit its residents."
The Community Administration and Kiryat Yovel secular
residents who are fighting against the separate pool have
gone so far as to form a special committee to coordinate
their plans. Religious and chareidi residents of Kiryat Yovel
and nearby Bayit Vegan said: "This opposition stems from anti-
religious motives. It is a disgrace that those who speak
about freedom and civil rights do not enable others to
actualize their rights only because they are religious. We
will not be intimidated by threats and we will come en masse
to the pool the moment it opens. Threats won't help anyone.
We also live here, and we have the right for a separate
swimming pool where Shabbos is not desecrated."
They added that in the present situation, in which the
Community Administration takes a one-sided stance and
represents only secular residents of the neighborhood, they
have no choice but to set up a separate Community
Administration to represent their needs.
The operators of the separate-swimming pool have made it
clear that they will not yield to threats and pressures.
The initiators announced that the moment the pool opens they
will provide door-to-door transportation for Bayit Vegan
residents throughout the hours that the pool is open.
