Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Charedi World

9 Tammuz 5760 - July 12, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Sponsored by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Produced and housed by
Jencom

News
Budgetary Delay Prevents Solution to Tumas Kohanim Problem In Ramat Beit Shemesh

by Betzalel Kahn

The Ministry of Housing and Construction is delaying the allocation of hundreds of thousands of shekels needed to solve the problem of tumas kohanim at the entrance to Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Quite some time ago, the Federation for the Prevention of Desecration of Graves discovered a Jewish burial cave under Nachal Kishon Street, near the entrance to Ramat Beit Shemesh. The Federation warned that kohanim are forbidden to pass over that section of the road, located at the left turn into Nachal Kishon Street. Kohanim must travel by alternate longer routes to avoid becoming tomei.

Requests that the Ministry of Construction and Housing solve the problem have so far fallen upon deaf ears.

Signs warning kohanim not to traverse this route were removed, apparently by secular and national-religious residents seeking to obliterate any indication that the neighborhood is chareidi and religious, even though 50 percent of its residents are chareidi. This has caused many kohanim to transgress unwittingly.

The spokesman of the Ministry of Housing and Construction, Kobi Bleich, said that half-a-million shekels are needed to solve the problem. "Because these additional expenses were not taken into consideration when the initial budget was formulated, a committee to investigate the matter will soon be convened. At the end of the procedural process, the required funds will be transferred to the pertinent agencies."


All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.