One of the representatives of the Bnei Torah party in Bnei Brak (known colloquially as "Eitz") has appealed above the heads of the Bnei Brak city council to protest the building of a beis medrash for Orchos Torah, one of the major yeshivas of Bnei Brak which is under the supervision of HaRav Shteinman. After the first stage was approved, Moshe Malachi sent an urgent letter protesting the later stages that are still in planning.
"A scandalous construction which is causing much irreparable damage and which will have long standing repercussions!" With these words, a representative purporting to stand for the Torah public of Bnei Brak appealed to the civil court in his petition, termed "urgent and alarmed", to halt the construction of a new beis medrash for Yeshivas Orchos Torah.
"Ever since there has been a chareidi government in Bnei Brak, there has not been a precedent where a member of the city council conducts himself like one of the last of the Maskilim, a wicked defier of the covenant. ... Is that what he was sent to do? For the sake of Heaven, to be sure, to demolish and uproot all the toil and effort invested over many years for the Torah public of Bnei Brak." These words were painfully and angrily uttered by the Chairman of the Secondary Committee of Planning and Construction of Bnei Brak and deputy mayor, Rabbi Avrohom Rubinstein, in an anguished interview with Yated Ne'eman.
The statement came in reaction to the shameful and unprecedented act of a member of the opposition in the Bnei Brak City Council, Moshe Malachi, who appealed to a civil court in defiance of the Torah. His purpose was to prevent the erection of a Beis Medrash for Yeshivas Orchos Torah in the city. "This first public act carried out by the faction rebelling against our gedolei hador, is an underhanded step aimed at harming our holy yeshivos."
Following the meeting of the Committee of Planning and Construction of Bnei Brak, where the basements of the new Beis Medrash were approved above which the Beis Medrash will be built, the Opposition representative, Moshe Malachi, rushed to send off an urgent letter to the Regional Committee for Planning and Construction, with copies to the Attorney General of the Ministry of Interior and additional bodies, with headlines: "Re: Urgent Request for Your Intervention." The letter elaborated: "The undersigned is a member of the municipal council, a member of the Committee of Planning and Construction of Bnei Brak. I hereby appeal to you in a very urgent matter concerning irresponsible construction which, if carried through, will cause irreparable damage, due [partly] to lack of authority and the silencing of professional bodies in the municipality. I therefore ask for your intervention and request that you transfer this entire matter to the care of the regional council."
In an interview with Rabbi Rubinstein, chairman of the Secondary Committee of Planning and Construction, he stressed: "Everything was done according to law, with legal consultation, in a file that was dealt with several times in the past and which had been laid on the table of the regional council. It was even discussed in preparatory meetings of the committee and everything was done according to the proper parameters and regulations."
Rabbi Rubinstein further expressed his acute pain over this despicable act. "We are shocked by this act, that it should take place in the city of Torah where we try so hard to ease up on Torah institutions to the best of our ability so that the sound of Torah be heard on every street and in every building, as has always been the policy in Bnei Brak. Its mayors from the beginning had this value in mind for the benefit of all circles and sectors - aside from the secular faction which from the start attempted to subvert the growth of Torah in this city. But ever since there has been a chareidi government here, never has a council member behaved in such a manner."
