Some hundred community rabbonim, heads of kollelim, chief rabbis of cities, moshavim and neighborhoods participated in a protest gathering in response to the dastardly acts perpetrated by hoodlums employed by the religious council forcibly imposed upon the city by the Ministry for Religious services. Vehement protests were voiced and a mass enlistment of encouragement was registered by all the district rabbis from near and far in support of the rabbonim of Hadera who were attacked, brutally manhandled and aggressively abused by these hired ruffians.
The protest rally, the likes of which Hadera has never seen before, took place in the Rambam shul in the city, where a stream of rabbis from congregations, heads of kollelim, city chief rabbis and rabbonim from all settlements throughout the Sharon and northern areas of the country, converged in full force, both to protest the desecration of kvod haTorah, as well as to strengthen the victims themselves and demonstrate their full backing. The protest was equally against those government bodies which arbitrarily appoint and employ whomever they wish, in total defiance of the city chief rabbis themselves. The speakers all called for a restoration of the full powers of authority of the district rabbis on the part of the government for all the religious councils, and a strengthening of arms of the rabbis themselves.
"It were better to abolish the religious councils altogether," they unanimously declared.
Rav Ben Zion Nordman, member of the Hadera city council, chaired the historic assembly in which a multitude of rabbis demonstrated that they would not stand idly by in the face of the low-down, shameful attack on the part of the chairman of the religious council and his deputy, who were appointed through political favoritism in a deal connived with Shas against Rosh Yeshivas Knesses Yitzchok and other rabbis of the city.
The speakers at the rally stressed that all of the rabbinical figures who attended gave their full backing and support while expressing their appreciation and esteem for the way they have been handling the city's religious affairs for the past forty years.