"The situation is serious. Mikvehs may close"

While the southern settlements are unfolding in war, the city of Elad is at a war of another kind - the religious services.

A few days ago the city's rabbis convened an emergency meeting to discuss attacks the religious services and especially the Mikveh budget cuts - which led to the dismissal of six cleaning workers. At the end of the meeting it was decided to call the mayor, Yitzchak Eidan to give a response to difficult questions.

Last week, another meeting was held in the office of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Grossman, with the city's rabbis and communities. For the first time since the crisis began, Eidan came to present his position.

Hgrm"m Paksher, Vizhnitz Rabbi in Elad, welcomed Eidan with a cynical blessing of 'congratulations' on his mayoral election. The Rabbi explained that it was the first time he came to meet the city's rabbis - since he was elected four years ago.

The Mayor was confronted with documents presented by the rabbis, who raised serious allegations against him, and tried to claim that the City Treasurer, Amnon Maximov, generated the cuts. Rabbis summoned Maximov to a meeting, but Eidan chose to leave.
"There is enough where to cut," said the rabbis. "The council heads must solve the problem in a different way and not hurt the religious services, we are not the ones who need to give the solutions to the municipality where to cut, but obviously it all depends on the priorities of the people who lead the municipality." One of the rabbis suggested that city workers will clean the offices themselves, and with the money left will clean the Mikveh's in the city.

At the end of the meeting, community rabbis signed a strong letter and first of its kind since the beginning of the struggle. "We express our grief and protest the violation of religious affairs in our city," the rabbis wrote. "We can no longer remain silent against the major faults caused in the city and the desecration of Hashem's name as a result of this."

"When you talk to the council heads, they act innocent and say that everything is fine and there are no problems, when in fact, we see time and time again that things are not fine at all, but, on the contrary, even now they said everything is supposedly arranged whilst at the same time, it was announced to the company responsible for cleaning will cut working hours, with the result that some employees were laid off, and again we come to this grave situation, where the Mikveh's may soon be closed."

The rabbis conclude: "We hereby call to the mayor and council members to convene an urgent plenary session as soon as possible and find a way to cut other budgets, and return the Mikveh budget completely. Also, the mayor and city council members should know that all issues related to matters of religion can act and make decisions only after consultation with and approval of the rabbis."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!