CANCELLED: Steinmetz-MBD Concert in Haifa Struck Down by Court

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Following a petition of the Women’s Lobby, the Haifa District Court decided to call off the planned Mordechai Ben David and Motti Steinmetz concert scheduled for men only tomorrow in Haifa.

Judge Avraham Elyakim ordered the cancellation today, explaining that “it was a performance for men only.” Thus, since the concert arrangers wanted to use public funds for the event, it could not proceed if only men were permitted to attend.

The judge stated in his decision that “this judgment does not express a position on how to regular other events. There is also no impediment to events for the chareidi public, and it would be beneficial for the Haifa municipality to learn the municipal guidelines and act accordingly.”

READ THE FULL COURT RULING HERE.

Knesset Member Uri Maklev of Yahadut Hatorah commented on the cancellation of the event, saying, “The chareidi Orthodox public is being persecuted by various parties and organizations. The court today gives legitimacy to these hate organizations. Hypocrisy cries out to heaven when they say live and let live, but then, with condescension and tyranny, they repeatedly intervene… They take an entire public and discredit them, denying elementary rights, pushing them into a corner with false narratives. This will not succeed. It is part of a slanderous campaign against the chareidi public… These things will not break our resolve or change our outlook and behavior. We will not sing our songs underground.”

Judge Elyakim also criticized the petitioners for the way the submitted their petition. He told the women’s lobby that ” you filed the petition so late and without proper information.” The judge added: “Mordechai Ben David came especially from the US for this. Does that not matter for you?”

The petition states that the performance is expected to take place on Wednesday, 8/28, while signs for the event state that the performance will take place on Monday, 8/26.

“Beyond the fact that you made a major mistake, it raises some fundamental difficulty with the timeliness of the deadline,” Judge Ron Shapiro said last week, especially as it came during the Court’s summer recess.

Justice Elyakim clarified that the petition filed addresses the separation of men and women and exclusion, while the issue at hand is actually the financing of the event by the municipality and not intervening in events for the chareidi community.

The judge hinted that he changed his mind after reading the response submitted by Attorney Weinstein, the representative of Mordechai Ben David and Motti Steinmetz. Weinstein noted that since the beginning of 2019, the Haifa Municipality has held about 800 different events.

However, he said, “I will not allow public funds to fund events if women are excluded.”

READ THE FULL COURT RULING HERE.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}


19 COMMENTS

  1. Can you imagine the outrage you would see online if this event wasn’t canceled by the Israeli Courts but rather by Rabbonim who felt it was assur to attend?

  2. fascinating: it’s ok for courts to force secular rules on the public while at the same time disallowing voluntary adherence to religious rules?

      • No one is forcing secularism on anyone.
        They are saying that they can’t take a handout from the city to run their event.
        If they want to use their own funds they can do whatever they want.

        • But at the same time secularists can take a handout from the city to run their secularist event? If no-one could take city money then you have a point. But when one group can and another group can’t, that is de facto forcing secularism. It is the logical equivalent of saying that because golf clubs are secular and are mixed men-and-women they are allowed a tax exempt status for private donations given to their upkeep, but synagogue donations are not allowed such tax exempt status because they segregate men from women.

          And don’t argue that a “private” event on “private” property institution (synagogue) is different. In Israel, nearly everything is government owned and government funded. Even most “private” houses are technically more like a “lease” from the government rather than owned outright in the sense that they are owned outright in the USA.

  3. It’s ALL YOUR FAULT. You’ve allowed non-elected anti-Torah radical leftist judges to run the SO-CALLED DEMOCRATIC (HA! HA! HA!) country for 80 years and now you’r complaining? As long as your apathy will continue these G-d hater judges will do whatever they want.

    • Huh?

      Who allowed non-elected anti-Torah radical leftist judges to run the country for 80 years?

      If I’m not apathetic about these non-elected anti-Torah radical leftist judges will they go away?

      Was the mass Tefilah gathering twenty years ago of a half a million a people in Yerushalayim to protest the Isreali Supreme Court a bunch of apathy?

  4. This is how a secular government works. They will not use public funds for events that dont fit their liberal agenda. No one should be surprised by this.

  5. קדש עצמך במותר לך היא מצווה על האדם להתקדש”
    ולפרוש מדברים ותאוות מיותרים, אף שלא נאסרו בציווי התורה בפירוש. מצווה זו לרבים מהראשונים הינה מצווה מדאורייתא יש אומרים כי היא מצוות עשה הנלמדת מהפסוק “קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי ה״

  6. Lets be clear, these public event funds are for both chariedem and chilonim, so just as the chiloni events are totally unfit for the chariedim and don’t benefit them at all,and its understood that the chariedim can’t demand that they make a different kind of event that is more chariedi. Then when the chariedim are making an event they should be allowed to make it how they please. (Now it’s one thing if it’s chariedi women filing the complaint but it isn’t, however even if it was chariedi women complaining i’m sure there are other “women only” events for chariedi women which would balance it out as follws instead of 2 mixed events there is one for men and one for women)

    • Your point is well taken and I agree, but you and I are not running Medinat Yisrael.

      The bottom line is that public funds can only be distributed to events that are accessible to everyone. Not “preferred by everyone” or “acceptable to everyone’s religious preferences”. That’s the law on the books. Your interpretation would be nice, but it is not the law of land, for better or worse.

      Any anti-Chareidi sentiment here perhaps can be traced back to the actual law – not the judge.

  7. Lets be clear, these public event funds are for both chariedem and chilonim, so just as the chiloni events are totally unfit for the chariedim and don’t benefit them at all,and its understood that the chariedim can’t demand that they make a different kind of event that is more chariedi. Then when the chariedim are making an event they should be allowed to make it how they please. (Now it’s one thing if it’s chariedi women filing the complaint but it isn’t, however even if it was chariedi women complaining i’m sure there are other “women only” events for chariedi women which would balance it out as follws instead of 2 mixed events there is one for men and one for women)

  8. My previous comment is in response to the person identified as “Not buying (that) this is anti chareidi”
    I just wanted to denote that an “unconscious secular bias” is also deserving of outrage, condemnation, and contempt.

  9. you do realize that these women have no interest in attending an MBD concert. these are the same women who want to ‘daven’ at the kosel despite the fact that they dont really believe in davening. it’s not only the USA that’s upside down; the whole world is cockeyed

  10. You can’t take money from the country and then expect them to follow your rules.
    Let’s remember that Israel is golus no less than NYC.

  11. Why are the Arabs not stopped by the Supreme Court when they run separate seating events. Because the tzionim hate Religious Jews more than they hate Arabs. The Arabs don’t have to go to the army,build homes without permits and marry multiple wives and do what they want. I’m glad I live in America.

  12. Seriously a Zionism issue. Not even half of the retarded laws passed by the most disgraceful&dumb Israeli court would ever fly in the US
    The Satmar Rebbe understood it well, and every year the situation gets worse

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