Haredi singers' investigation: "Unnecessary drama. No panic"

The investigation of the Tax Authority against Israel's Haredi music industry - has become the talk of the last day among the artists in the sector. Many of them tried to figure out what happened, who the major participants are, and whether the conduct of the industry will change in the wake of the investigation?

A large part of the participants so far are artists represented by producers Yochai Kfir and Israel Lubin.

Until two years ago, they two had a joint office which represented many singers who appear every evening at weddings and events. But following a personal conflict they split. Today Kfir and Lubin individually represent a long line of artists.

An industry producer says to Behadrey Haredim: "There is unnecessary drama, there's no panic. This entails 20 letters sent to families in order to receive information about certain people which the Authority began investigating their portfolios a long time ago. There is no attempt here to explore an entire industry."

"In our country it costs a lot of money to prove you're righteous"

Producer Yochai Kfir notes that the drama is small to non-existing and the affair will soon end. "Until a year ago we heard about the arrests and investigations of Israeli singers. Now came the turn of the haredi artists," he says in a conversation with Behadrey Haredim, and does not exclude the possibility of informers: "We have estimates and speculation about the people who were looking to harm different artists or us, but now we need to look for material solutions."

Kfir explains that a singer or player who is interrogated is harmed over tax evasion or different reports even if he is completely pure. "It does not matter if you are righteous or not. In our country it costs a lot of money to prove that you are righteous. Then you get into a long process that will cost you thousands of dollars and therefore one needs to solve it."

"How does such an investigation take place?" We ask Kfir, and he replies: "The authorities have a tendency to produce conflicts with people related to the investigation, so that one would knock the other. It might be the case that some detainees have bought the bluff and failed in their words. There's nothing to do. They are human beings."

And the Haredi media coverage of the case?

"More dramatic than it really is."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!