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29 Kislev 5763 - December 4, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Thousands Protest Shabbos Desecration in Kfar Saba
by A. Cohen

Thousands of Kfar Saba residents participated in a demonstration and mass tefilloh on Shabbos Vayeishev in the city square, located near the Arim Shopping Mall, to protest the mall's new policy of opening on Shabbos.

Led by the city's rabbonim, neighborhood rabbonim and rabbonim of botei knesses, thousands of protesters came to rouse rachamei Shomayim over the alarming chilul Shabbos, which represents a major breach that threatens to seriously harm the Shabbos throughout Eretz Hakodesh.

Over thirty thousand people gathered at 11:00 a.m. on Shabbos morning for a mass tefillas Musaf led by educator Rav Tzvi Weingarten, known to the entire population of Kfar Saba as a teacher and a tutor for bar mitzvah preparation. Afterwards Rav Ben Tzion Kramer, rov of the downtown area, recited two chapters of Tehillim together with the entire assemblage, followed by verses of kabolas ol malchus Shomayim led by Rav Shmuel Avrech, rov of the Yemenite community in Kfar Saba. To conclude the event children recited Shir Hayichud, with thousands of voices repeating each line.

Some 25 Meretz and Shinui activists gathered nearby, trying to disrupt the tefilloh. They held signs reading, "We come to drive away the darkness" [Banu choshech legaresh -- an old anti-religious slogan], "Israel will not be another Iran" and "To each his own shopping" [Ish bekinyato yichiyeh, a sick pun on Ish be'emunaso yichiyeh]. Despite attempts their to lure the public into debates, their provocations proved ineffective as the large assembly dispersed with exemplary orderliness.

During the course of the day, (non-Jewish) Labor and Welfare Ministry inspectors arrived at the mall to issue store owners heavy fines for Shabbos desecration.

Among the participants at the protest were Deputy Mayor Attorney Yaakov Ochayoun (Likud) and Deputy Mayor Amiram Miller (Labor), who promised to employ every available means to close the mall on Shabbos. Ochayoun said he had looked into the possibility of rescinding the mall's right to use public areas for children's rides.

Local merchants--currently rebuilding the Chamber of Commerce in order to launch widespread public protest against the opening of the mall on Shabbos--were also present at the demonstration. The opening of the mall puts competitive pressure on all the other merchants in the area to also open on Shabbos in order not to lose their business.

Meanwhile neighborhood residents are organizing protest activities against the mall, claiming that since it began to operate on Shabbos their day of rest has turned into a day of suffering due to the surrounding noise and bustle.

MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, chairman of the House Committee, and MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman, chairman of the powerful Knesset Finance Committee, told the Vaadah Lemaan HaShabbat BeKfar Saba and Vaad Ha'askanim that they would do everything in their power to have the mall closed on Shabbos.

 

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