Hundreds of residents of the Kiryat Herzog section of Bnei
Brak demonstrated on Genichovski Street and in the center of
the Kerem Yisroel neighborhood last Friday night. The
demonstrators demanded the closure of the street to traffic
on Shabbosim.
After mincha of erev Shabbos, all of the
congregants of the shul, led by neighborhood rabbonim went
out into the street to recite Kabolas Shabbos and to
express the objection of the residents of the neighborhood to
the fact that the main street of an area whose occupants are
all Torah observant, is open on Shabbos.
At the very beginning of the demonstration, newspaper
photographers arrived on the scene and tried to provoke
violence between the demonstrators and the secular residents.
But the residents were called upon not to react and they
acted with restraint.
After davening the throng broke out into singing and
dancing in honor of Shabbos, drawing the policemen into the
circle.
Throughout Shabbos, secular residents of the area drove back
and forth throughout the neighborhood's streets in
recreational vehicles, calling out abusive slogans and
shouting: "Stop religious coercion." Policemen stationed in
vans in the neighborhood did not even try to stop the wild
drivers. One driver even got out of his car and hit City
Council member Rabbi Yitzchok Braverman, after learning that
he was one of the organizers of the demonstration.
Neighborhood residents announced that they would hold an
authorized demonstration this coming Shabbos, to be attended
by thousands of Bnei Brak residents, led by the city's
rabbonim.
At the end of the week, the neighborhood rabbonim sent a
letter to the mayor of the city, Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz,
demanding that Genichovski Street be closed to traffic on
Shabbos and holidays. In the letter, they stated: "As is
known, the first part of Genichovski Street is totally
populated by Shabbos observers. In addition, the street is in
the heart of an area occupied by chareidi residents. As a
result, during Shabbos the street is filled with children and
people, and cars passing through undermine the Shabbos
atmosphere and endanger lives, especially those of children.
We therefore appeal to the Bnei Brak Municipality to close
this part of the street to traffic on Shabbos. May we not
reach a point at which we will have to say, `our hands did
not spill this blood.' "
In their letter, the rabbonim stress that as long as that
part of the street is not closed to traffic on Shabbos, the
residents will daven on Shabbos kodesh in the
street. The letter is signed by all of the neighborhood's
rabbonim.
