A beis knesses will be set up at Kibbutz Merchavia following an
all-out war that raged for two years, due to avarice and fear at
kibbutzim and other communities where a thirst for ruchniyus
has surfaced in recent years. The Merchavia Communal Association voted
by a majority to accept the demand by dozens of residents in the
kibbutz expansion area to build a shul. The Communal Association did
not capitulate entirely, insisting that it be built outside the
longstanding kibbutz, in the expansion area.
Veteran Kibbutz Merchavia members were "alarmed" two years ago to
discover that 100 of the expansion area residents (a housing
development on what was kibbutz land but sold to the general public)
contacted the local committee to file a request to allocate a
permanent space for prayers on Shabbos and holidays. Kibbutz members
tried every possible means to block the move.
One month after the kibbutz celebrated its 80th anniversary, a debate
began to rage, drawing media attention. At a special meeting of the
joint council of the kibbutz and the adjacent neighborhood, the
members were informed that some residents wanted to pray and build a
beis knesses. Harsh remarks against the plan were hurled at the
meeting, and eventually the committee board decided to hold a series
of discussions to be followed by a vote.
Over time it came to light again and again that the residents' basic
Yiddishkeit needs perturbed the kibbutz members on the board, who
suggested they go to the existing beis knesses at nearby Moshav
Merchavia, or to one of the botei knesses in Afula.
"I'm concerned this is a first step that will be followed by others:
closing the factory on Shabbat, closing roads, building a mikveh,"
said one of the most outspoken opponents, former Mapam MK Amira
Sartani.
The residents, some in their 60s, said the distance would place an
imposition on them.
