Increase in Public Shabbos Desecration in Jerusalem

A Haaretz headline proclaims the 'celebration' of the desecration of the Sabbath in Jerusalem. The Landwar Café braced for an influx in customers on its first Shabbos in business. Thousands of people rode bicycles on the new bike path and came to eat at the newly renovated train station that has been transformed into a cultural and culinary complex.

The café's owner had ordered 205 more merchandise and still ran short. He still ran out of lettuce. According to Haaretz,"The kitchen dispatched a worker to hunt down more lettuce, which is no simple feat in Sabbath-observant Jerusalem. It's incredibly rare to see so many people publicly desecrating the Sabbath in Jerusalem, where most businesses shut down at sunset on Friday and streets are quiet until nightfall the following day. Secular Jerusalemites have hailed the new complex at the station as a breakthrough that will revolutionize Saturday's in Israel's capital city. The ultra-Orthodox, however, are threatening to demonstrate until at least some of the activity is stopped."

On Motzaei Shabbos city council member and Agudas Yisroel representative Yochanan Weitzman sent a letter to the othe city coundil members informing them of the new stands that opened that Shabbos in the renovated train station complex.

Weitzman visited the area Shabbos afternoon and reported that a number of new stalls had opened. He also received complaints that hot dogs were being sold at the Zion Square.

Jerusalem municipality chairman of Yahadut Hatorah, Eliezer Rochberger told Bechadrey Charedim ,"the train station complex was renovated for the express purpose of increasing Shabbos desecration in the city. Any step taken to bring about its closure is a step I will support. I just hope that all the charedi and dati representatives in the municipality will cooperate and act to bring about an end to this plague."

According to Haaretz it seems that Rochberger is right on target.

The new complex is seen by some secularists as the perfect place for public Shabbos desecration;" The compound, which opened some two weeks ago, has two marked advantages as far as the capital's secular public is concerned. It is privately owned, so the city's elected Haredi officials can do little to stop its weekend activity, and it's located deep in the city's secular area. If the Haredim want to demonstrate against it on Saturdays they will have to walk a long way from their own neighborhoods, which saps up much of the energy that would be required to assemble and protest."

קישורים:
In Jerusalem, Celebrating the Desecration of the Sabbath

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!