A group of prominent activists have gathered the signatures
of hundreds of bnei Torah on a petition calling upon
Bank Hamizrachi to withdraw its intention to operate an ATM
on Shabbos.
Bank Hamizrachi's plan to operate automatic banking services
on Shabbos starting this month was reported a number of weeks
ago in Yated Ne'eman. Bank Hamizrachi has always
closed its money machines on Shabbos. Its first ATM to open
on Shabbos is in the Savyonim mall. The new bank
administration, headed by Victor Medina, is evidently trying
to expand the bank's circle of secular clients.
The article also stated that the Tsomet Institute approved
the operating of the ATMs on Shabbos. According to the bank's
Deputy Marketing Director, Avi Nota, "Tsomet determined that
is possible to operate an automatic teller machine on Shabbos
because it does not involve the use of manpower."
The purpose of the petition is to effect a massive withdrawal
of the banks' clients in the event that the bank does not
respect the feelings of its Shabbos observers.
The appeal to the Shabbos observant clients of the bank
notes, "We have recently learned that Bank Hamizrachi plans
to breach the wall of Shabbos by operating ATMs on that
sacred day while offending the sensitivities of its thousands
of Torah-observant clients. Since we hope we are able to
avert this in advance by sending a sharp letter of protest
which will be transferred to all those involved in the
affair, the bank's clients are asked to sign this statement
for the sake of the honor of Shabbos kodsheinu."
This announcement was circulated in chareidi centers.
Attached to it was the article which appeared in Yated
Ne'eman as well as a copy of the statement which will be
sent to the administration of Bank Hamizrachi. The statement
reads: "We, the undersigned, clients of the bank, hereby
protest the serious breach in the sanctity of Shabbos which
you are about to effect at the bank's branch at the Savyonim
mall by the operation of the ATM on Shabbosim. We, your loyal
clients, joined the bank because it is administered in a
religious spirit and respects the values of religion and
Shabbos, and especially because none of its devices or
banking services function on Shabbos. We therefore ask you to
continue to preserve the bank's tradition and not to cause us
to protest and to take measures (such as leaving it) which
will incur losses to the bank."
Until now, hundreds of avreichim from the large
chareidi centers in the country have signed the statement.
Protest organizers note that the large response of bnei
Torah to the effort delineates the fact that many of the
bank's clients want the bank to consider their feelings and
preserve the bank's status quo, which has been in effect for
many years.
"Every client must make an effort, either by writing a
personal letter or through a personal appeal to the
administration in his particular branch or even to the clerks
he encounters, to demand that they display minimal
consideration to their many clients and immediately halt all
efforts to breach the wall of Shabbos," say petition
organizers.
The article which appeared in Yated Ne'eman a few
weeks ago quoted the reaction of Reuven Alder, senior deputy
director of Bank Hamizrachi. He said that the bank fully
observes all of the values of religion and Shabbos. "No
employee of the bank works on Shabbos or holidays. The bank
continues to preserve its religious character. We have no
intention of offending our religious and chareidi
clients."
