Kiryat Yovel Administrator: Choke Chareidi Jews Out Of Neighborhood

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Yechiel Levi, chief administrator of Kiryat Yovel’s Yovelim Community Center, infuriated chareidi and secular politicians by commenting on Army Radio that he hoped to “choke” chareidi Jews out of his Yerushalayim neighborhood.

“What is the idea? To strangle them so that they leave the neighborhood,” he said. “When you strangle, they leave, when you make it difficult, they’re not enthusiastic to live here. This is what works nowadays.

“If the directorate wants to screen films so much because this is the cultural need of the secular population, why do it in the same area where there are a lot of chareidim and where the neighborhood rov lives?” he asked.

“To show that we need not be concerned where we do things,” he answered.

Mayor Nir Barkat called for his immediate dismissal, saying, “We cannot let such serious statements of a publicly funded municipal employee pass unnoticed.”

Levi quickly handed in his resignation together with a letter apologizing for uttering words that created such a negative impression. He insisted that his words were taken out of context. Chadrei Chareidim discovered that his resignation was contingent on not losing any pension benefits and that he had been promised in advance an equivalent position in another communal center after the storm quieted.

Meanwhile, a team appointed by chareidi MKs to examine the Shabbos status quo of Yerushalayim, which was supposed to finish its investigation last week, asked for a thirty-six day extension. It was ordered to complete the investigation by March 15. The municipality’s chareidi Degel Hatorah councilmen decided that they will refuse to discuss city budgetary issues related to education, welfare, culture and suchlike until a Shabbos agreement is sealed.

At the same time, the controversy between the Treasury and Barkat which led to a strike of Yerushalayim’s municipal workers last month was resolved. The Treasury agreed to transfer $190 million to the city. This was less than Barkat’s original demand for $217 million but more than the Treasury’s initial offer of $135 million.

{Matzav.com Israel News}


1 COMMENT

  1. Comments such as this one are more appropriate for the month of Av than for Adar, just as a reminder of the sinas chinam which brought about the churban bayis.

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