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24 Sivan 5772 - June 14, 2012 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
After 13 Years of Delay — the Construction of the Lev L'Achim Torah Center in Rechovot is Being Renewed

By Yechiel Sever

A feeling of joy and satisfaction was felt amongst thousands of families of the baalei teshuva community in Rechovot and the residents of the city in general with the news that the construction of the Lev L'Achim center was being resumed after 13 years of procrastination.

The spacious building of 2,000 meters being built in the hub of the Oshiyot neighborhood and designed to house a shul, beis medrash, auditorium, a center for students and a seminary for girls, a library and rooms for various activities, is expected to draw many hundreds of participants from Rechovot throughout the year.

The resumption of construction brings to an end a painful chapter which began thirteen years ago, when Rav Tzvi Schwartz, chairman of the Lev L'Achim branch in Rechovot and member of the national administration, undertook to erect a spacious center for its many-branched activities. Besides housing a kollel, Halichos Chaim, where several dozens of avreichim from the baal teshuva kehilla there, it will serve as a central base, enabling as well an expansion of Lev L'Achim's blessed activities.

While the building was going up, the High Court issued an order to halt the work on what was then a skeleton structure, despite the fact that all the necessary permits had already been approved, resulting in considerable financial losses, besides forcing the organization to continue operating its manifold activities for hundreds of participants in locations spread throughout the city under very cramped and difficult conditions.

After an extended runaround with the Israeli legal setup, a ruling was finally issued a year and a half ago nullifying the stop-order which finally opened the way for renewing the construction of the new center.

The court ruling, written by Judge Prokacia and signed also by judges Edmund Levi and Salim Guvran, set a legal precedent establishing that "secular citizens may not prevent the establishment of a chareidi community center which is a need for the religious residents." This court ruling evoked many shock waves, while Ha'aretz even published an article under the title: "The secularists in Rechovot suffered a hard blow."

 

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