Beit Shemesh City Councilmen Rabbi Moshe Montag and Rabbi
Eliezer Greenbaum of Degel HaTorah are calling for a joint
campaign against the municipality and the Mayor following
continuing discrimination against the chareidi public.
Rabbi Montag and Rabbi Greenbaum firmly denied various
announcements claiming that they posted an achievement when
the municipality added the paltry sum of NIS 300,000
($70,000) to the chareidi education budget, which only
slightly rectifies the original cut in the chareidi budget
for 2005. The general municipal budget totals NIS 200 million
and the general education budget is 20 times that of the
chareidi education budget, although more children are
enrolled in chareidi schools. "The small amount of funding
added to the cut budget is an act of `mocking the poor.'
Furthermore the cut led to the closure of the Chareidi
Education Department," said Degel HaTorah.
They also say after the elections held over a year ago it was
decided, following consultations with local rabbonim, to try
to turn over a new leaf with the municipality and the Mayor
although the chareidi public supported the other candidate.
This move was intended to avoid harming the public's needs.
However the municipality did not reach out to the chareidi
public, showing derision instead. This led to the recent
decision to launch a staunch campaign against the
municipality's policy.
"When it became clear the municipality was trying to buy us
with small change we decided to put an end to the abuse of
the chareidi public, which comprises 40 percent of city
residents and whose children comprise over 55 percent of the
city's children," say Degel HaTorah representatives. "Now the
Mayor is trying to do the same once again, and is trying to
gain support for the discriminatory policy by handing out
pennies that are an insult to [our] intelligence."
Rabbi Montag and Rabbi Greenbaum, who recently consulted with
the city's rabbonim, said it is unconscionable that while the
Mayor is scheming against the chareidi public, denying its
basic needs and firing the chareidim working at the
municipality (including the Agudas Yisroel representatives)
an Agudas Yisroel representative shows support for the city
budget, which discriminates against the city's entire
chareidi sector. "We have had enough of the Mayor's promises
and without clear proof of a change in his direction and a
real change in his attitude toward the needs of the chareidi
public, we will continue to battle resolutely," they said.
