Golovenzitz buyers decided: only Rab"d will oversee

Light at the end of the tunnel of the complex and complicated saga which has been called by all the 'Golovenzitz compound affair'.

A decisive and overwhelming majority of purchasers of the 'Givat Yerushalayim' union, which belonged to Rabbi Avraham Slonim, voted to oversee the project with excavations by the Eretz Hachaim Association, under the presidency of the Av Beis Din of the Eida Hareidis Hagaon Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch. Thereby they expressed an overwhelming opposition to the intervention of Atra Kadisha.

In addition, the housing activist Rabbi Yitzchak Firer gained the public's trust and was elected to lead the buyers' committee, over the Atra Kadisha representative, Rabbi Meir Grenimann, who applied for candidacy and suffered a great defeat.

The buyers, in whose hearts nests the hope that this will be a landmark and an end to the vacillation they passed so far, held a meeting last night (Wednesday) at Shirat Yerushalayim halls in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Shaul, Jerusalem. Towards seven o'clock, all buyers gathered and came - more than five hundred men, along with a number of isolated factors from the construction company, housing officials and representatives of the organizations for the protection of Jewish graves.

A security company was placed at the scene to maintain order and prevent disruptions, riots and disturbances that may arise by those whose interests are to sabotage the meeting.

Courier of Rab"d: "We'll honor any decision"

The meeting was opened by Rabbi Avraham Nahmani, the messenger of the Rab"d for supervision of the graves, he told the attendees of the clearing of ground made at the Binyan Shalem complex of Degel HaTorah. The next speaker was Rabbi Hillel Yakobson, CEO of Yesodot Tzur building company, who excitedly unfolded the adventures and arduous journey they had passed in recent years:

"We did everything possible and examined each proposal and a solution to speed up construction. We wanted to avoid disputes and tried everything. However, unfortunately, Atra Kadisha violated all agreements with them and retracted tenfold. This evening I am pleased to stand before you at last and bring the issue once and for all to your judgment in order to end this devil's dance. I am your messenger and your representative. Therefore I will honor any decision that will be provided."

He was followed by VP of Yesodot Tzur, Rabbi Moshe Lederman. He was actually present in the area during the work and brought to the audience a detailed review on what happened so far.

"They changed opinions and exchanged agreements and retracted non-stop, we had agreements and they violated them repeatedly," Lederman accused Atra Kadisha, "even the accepted candidate Hagaon Rabbi Eliyahu Posen, was forced to retire from the supervision, after roller pressure and threats he received from them. Chezki Kalmanovitz the brain behind, and the man who runs the organization in practice, said to me: Rabbi Posen we can not interfere in our work. The only thing I expect from him is to bring Aryeh Golovenzitz to the negotiating table, and no more..."

After the speeches, the time came for voting. First, it was necessary to appoint a chairman for the meeting. Both candidates have submitted proposals. R' Yitzhak Firer, one of the most prominent Belz activists, and R' Meir Grenimann, businessman and partner of Kalmanovitz, who represented Atra Kadisha.

In this vote, Firer won 340 votes compared to 80 of Greineman i.e. 75 % vs. 25 %, a most clear and unambiguous majority. Upon learning of the election results, activists of Atra Kadisha, who could not take the insult and the first expression of mistrust announced publicly, tried to disrupt the assembly and blow it up, but the security guards who were present immediately picked up the disrupters of order and they were removed from the room.

Now the assembly continued. The next question was: Who will accompany the excavations? Atra Kadisha or Eretz Hachaim?

Here was a dilemma, which vote will be held, open or discreet. Rabbi Firer's men, who were present and saw how the Atra Kadisha people try to coax and exert pressure on the participants during the meeting, feared an open vote. "If when it comes to the heads, Atra Kadisha won by only 25% , then regarding the critical question who will accompany the excavations, it is clear that if not for a secret ballot, the gap will increase and these few percent will be reduced," they claimed.

"It's a sold game, leave the room"

Before it was decided how to hold the vote, it was necessary to select committee members. Firer's men offered to include representatives of the Atra Kadisha and Eretz Hachaim, so that they will be present at the counting of votes. At one point, when Atra Kadisha understood which way the wind is blowing, and feared greater losses, Greineman declared to his followers: "Friends, leave the room. The game is sold."

It should be noted that in recent days, Atra Kadisha activists worked tirelessly to persuade the buyers in the rightness of their cause and used 'all guns and heavy tools' at their disposal for the purpose . For this they forged signatures and persuaded different rabbis that the deceased found at the Golovenzitz complex, which was widely reported in Behadrey Haredim was 'laid down as usual - as Jews' and not 'his head between his knees'. They hid the explicit testimony of the Rab"d who was at the scene and issued a clear and unambiguous psak halachah on the matter.

Behadrey Haredim learned that during the day before the signing, Harav Posen tried to persuade Harav Boyer and was confident he could convince him of the rightness of the Rab"d. It is not clear if it was not the reach of Atra Kadisha, who are experts in terrorizing and increased pressure on the common sense, or if they forged his signature.

Atra Kadisha were not satisfied with the announcement, and they urged their loyal supporters to leave and not participate in the vote. Anyone who was potentially debating underwent tremendous pressure and threats, until he was forced to follow the whims of the activists.

About sixty people abandoned the 'plenum'. Some willingly, and some forcedly. "Obviously, without a doubt , that if these would honor the rules of democracy and allow each person to vote according to conscience, then even this amount of people, was significantly reduced," said the committee of purchasers.

The Rab"d's approach won

The vote was secret in the end. 96 % voted for Eretz Hachaim. Others were empty envelopes. Apparently of people who were torn between the desire to move forward with housing, and not offending the Gab"d Eida Hareidis, who gives a boost to Atra Kadisha.

"This vote basically said 'No' to Atra Kadisha. The buyers separated between their great personal appreciation to the Gab"d and support to Atra Kadisha. They do not believe that these can provide the solutions, according to their way of conduct throughout the period," said the heads of the buyers' committee.

They further added that in the primaries took place here in fact, the approach of the Rab"d and not of Atra Kadisha - won a clear victory, when buyers have internalized that only through him and under his supervision the excavations will end soon and they will soon see the apartments rising up on the surface.

The Rab"d himself did not take any active nor passive part in this assembly. When asked if he would like to send a letter to the event, he said that it is not his role: "I'm not part of the story. I was asked to express an opinion on the halachic issue only and that's it. I trust Rabbi Avraham Nachmani and Rabbi Zalman Koren and they are my trustees of supervision of the excavations. In any area that is not congruent to the halachic plane, I'm not going to intervene."

Customers of all types: from Guk to Dushinsky

One should note that the purchasers could be identified from all sectors of the Hasidic and Yerushalmi public: Gur, Belz, Slonim, Toldos Aharon, Toldos Avraham Yitzhak, Dushinsky, Masmidim, Ohel Sara and more. The Yerushalmid asked their rabbis before the conference if they would be able to vote and they agreed.

Meanwhile, Hagaon Harav Mendel Shafran, Dayan of the Beis Din of Harav Landau, Av Beis Din of Bnei Brak, will head the rabbis committee overseeing the project, and shall decide any question that will be created during construction, until completed.

R' Yanky Palei, chairman of Eretz Hachaim, tells Behadrey Haredim that upon leaving the hall, he was verbally and almost physically attacked by Atra Kadisha. He managed to escape from their hands, only thanks to security guards who shielded him and paved his way out unharmed.

"You should have seen the affection and the hug I received from purchasers during the assembly. That was compensation for the humiliation, curses and insults I received from a handful of activists of Atra Kadisha over the demonstrations," he says with satisfaction.

Palei refers to the claims made against him, why he did not disseminate the image of the dead lying between his knees, for which the Rab"d ruled that this is a cemetery of gentiles.

"All the rabbis who saw the picture, including Rabbi Posen, made it clear at once that can clearly see that the status of the above is not laid down as usual. But know I know the perverse ways of Atra Kadisha and if I would publish the picture, they would do Photo Shop on it and fake it as usual and come with this fiction to rabbis to move their support to Atra Kadisha. This I wanted to avoid."

He promises, however, that now, after the buyers have spoken, clear letters will be published about it, along with authentic photographs, letters from the Rab"d, rabbis Koren and Nahman, a Haredi orthopedist, an anthropologist and the Israel Antiquities Authority, who will bring to the public the real version. "These letters will prove that Atra Kadisha are not just a bunch of liars and crooks, but to try to entrap Gedolei Yisroel, innocent and righteous rabbis and do not despise any way to do it. They have no problem that these rabbis will become a mockery, provided that they will accomplish their plot", he throws at them sharply.

"There is no doubt that people of Atra Kadisha will try to set more obstacles and to disrupt the decisions made last night, and in fact the entire building through the courts. They will make life difficult for buyers who did not agree to subject themselves to the authority of charlatans."

"The representative of the Gab"d criticized in Hapeles the dismissal of avreichim'

Not only the Litvaks threaten to dismiss avreichim who did not listen to Gedolei Torah in the last elections. One avreich (name withheld) who was among the buyers and is learning in a kollel of the Gab"d in Jerusalem, was asked by the Gab"d for whom he voted in the elections during the meeting. When he 'confessed' that he voted for Rabbi Firer and for supervision of Eretz Hachaim under the Rab"d, the kollel management ordered the avreich to leave the kollel and informed him of his expulsion from its ranks.

"This behavior is very surprising," the board buyers wonders, "Rabbi Avraham Froelich, a representative of the Gab"D for Meiron published a letter this weekend in 'Hapeles', in which he criticized the removal of avreichim from kollels following the elections. "It is not worthy to take disciplinary action against Lomdei Torah and to remove them from yeshivos and kollelim, just because that listened to their rabbis," said Froelich. I wonder what his reaction would be in light of the above story.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!