A few weeks ago I was asked by a friend in Likud to offer my services as a non-partisan ballot member for the upcoming Likud elections. I was a perfect fit since I have never been a Likud member and have never endorsed a candidate in any Likud primary election. So I stepped up and got the job.

I was delighted when I was offered the chairmanship of the Mevaseret Tzion poll, and happily accepted the position. I was proud to be part of the democratic process of an internal primary and expressed that view during an interview on JewishPress.com Managing Editor Yishai Fleisher’s radio show on Galei Yisrael. I told the listeners there would be a fair and free election in Mevaseret Tzion and I would not tolerate any corruption.

The following afternoon I was told that the elections in Mevaseret Tzion’s community center had been cancelled and instead were moved to Jerusalem. I was also informed that I had lost my chairmanship position. I asked a few of my Likud friends what they thought of the situation, and they suggested this was not a coincidence. Some of them asked that I come forward. Instead I agreed to be transferred to the Beit Shemesh branch. I was not totally convinced there was foul play, and I wanted to see this election through.

The Beit Shemesh branch election results were known from the start. The traditional Beit Shemesh Likud voters decided to boycott the election because they felt Prime Minister Netanyahu had turned his back on them. Last minute efforts by Likud’s Beit Shemesh heavyweight Kati Sheetrit to broker a deal between the two sides failed miserably. A group of Likud contractors stood outside the poll center and made sure to send their people home, preventing Netanyahu from a victory in the Beit Shemesh branch.

With an expected turnout of about 20 percent, Moshe Feiglin knew he would be winning Beit Shemesh. The question was by how much. Netanyahu wisely moved three of the four Mateh Yehudah Regional Council polls to the Beit Shemesh location. The move was meant to cushion the hit he was going to take at the seven Beit Shemesh polls.

I arrived at the polling station at 9 a.m. The manager of the location was clueless as to how to set up the ten voting stations and what to do with the fifty or so workers on site. The poll opened at 10:45, 45 minutes late. I spent the day checking voters’ identification and instructing them on how to vote in the three separate Likud elections. Turnout was under 20 percent. My polling station had the second largest turnout with a whopping sixty voters for the chairman election and 62 for the central committee and local branch elections. Our list had close to 300 voters. The results of my polling station were Feiglin 52, Netanyahu 8. Observers from both Feiglin’s and Netanyahu’s camps, along with an external lawyer, verified the results. Overall, Feiglin won over 80 percent of Beit Shemesh’s seven polls, winning 274 votes to Netanyahu’s 60. The final numbers called at 1 a.m. received a consensus from both camps.

I volunteered to work extra hours and filled an additional position of securing the ballots. I was entrusted to sign and verify the results of the seven Beit Shemesh polls, including the three Mateh Yehuda polls at my location. The form transferred possession of the ballots from the three lawyers at the location to me. I supervised the transfer of the ballot boxes onto the truck and accompanied the boxes to the drop-off spot in Petach Tikvah. Along the way I signed for the ballots from the additional Mateh Yehuda polling station and four Modiin polling stations. We dropped off the 15 ballots, and I transferred responsibility on to the industrial factory personnel.

When I saw the Beit Shemesh results posted on the Internet as Feiglin 126, Netanyahu 77, I knew they were wrong. I had verified every ballot result, and the official numbers appeared to be fabricated. I saw Feiglin was planning on appealing the results. I decided to take action and called Shmuel Sackett, a key Feiglin supporter, and offered my testimony as part of the official appeal. Sackett discussed the matter with Feiglin’s right-hand man, Michael Puah, but the two decided against it.

I want to make it clear that I am not a supporter of Moshe Feiglin. I don’t even understand the need to tinker with the results because Netanyahu won by a wide margin nationally in any case. The reason I am coming forward with my story is that I believe in democracy. I believe that every vote should count. I believe that it is unacceptable for me to accept the wages for my 20-hour workday and not speak up. All sixty voters at my polling station have the right to have their vote count. As I told the listeners of Galei Yisrael 1, I won’t tolerate any corruption.

A few weeks ago I was asked by a friend in Likud to offer my services as a non-partisan ballot member for the upcoming Likud elections. I was a perfect fit since I have never been a Likud member and I have never endorsed a candidate in any Likud primary election. So I stepped up and got the job.

I was delighted when I was offered the chairmanship of the Mevaseret Tzion poll, and happily accepted the position. I was proud to be part of the democratic process of an internal primary and expressed that view during an interview on [JewishPress.com's Managing Editor] Yishai Fleisher’s radio show on Galei Yisrael. I told the listeners that there would be a fair and free election in Mevaseret Tzion and I would not tolerate any corruption. The following afternoon I was told that the elections in Mevaseret Tzion’s community center were cancelled and instead were moved to Jerusalem. I was also informed that I had lost my chairmanship position. I asked a few of my Likud friends what they thought of the situation, and they suggested that this was not a coincidence. Some of them asked that I come forward. Instead I agreed to be transferred to the Beit Shemesh branch. I was not totally convinced there was foul play, and I wanted to see this election through.

The Beit Shemesh branch election results were known from the start. The traditional Beit Shemesh Likud voters decided to boycott the elections because they felt that Prime Minister Netanyahu had turned his back on them. Last minute efforts by Likud’s Beit Shemesh heavyweight Kati Sheetrit to broker a deal between the two sides failed miserably. A group of Likud contractors stood outside the poll center and made sure to send their people home, preventing Netanyahu from a victory in the Beit Shemesh branch.

With an expected turnout of about 20%, Moshe Feiglin knew he would be winning Beit Shemesh. The question was by how much. Netanyahu wisely moved three of the four Mateh Yehudah Regional Council polls to the Beit Shemesh location. The move was meant to cushion the hit he was going to take at the seven Beit Shemesh polls.

I arrived at the polling station at 9 AM. The manager of the location was clueless as to how to set up the ten voting stations and what to do with the 50 or so workers on site. The poll opened at 10:45, 45 minutes late. I spent the day checking voters’ identification and instructing them on how to vote in the three separate Likud elections. Turnout was under 20%. My polling station had the second largest turnout with a whopping 60 voters for the chairman election and 62 for the central committee and local branch elections. Our list had close to 300 voters. The results of my polling station were Feiglin 52 – Netanyahu 8. Observers from both Feiglin’s and Netanyahu’s camps, along with an external lawyer, verified the results. Overall, Feiglin won over 80% of Beit Shemesh’s seven polls, winning 274 votes to Netanyahu’s 60. The final numbers called at 1 AM received a consensus from both camps.

I volunteered to work extra hours and filled an additional position of securing the ballots. I was entrusted to sign and verify the results of the seven Beit Shemesh polls, including the three Mateh Yehuda polls at my location. The form transferred possession of the ballots from the three lawyers at the location to me. I supervised the transfer of the ballot boxes onto the truck and accompanied the boxes to the drop-off spot in Petah Tikvah. Along the way I signed for the ballots from the additional Mateh Yehuda polling station and four Modiin polling stations. We dropped off the 15 ballots, and I transferred responsibility on to the industrial factory personnel.

When I saw the Beit Shemesh results posted on the internet – Feiglin 126, Netanyahu 77 – I knew they were wrong. I had verified every ballot result, and the official results appeared to be fabricated. I saw that Feiglin was planning on appealing the results. I decided to take action and called Shmuel Sackett, a key Feiglin supporter, and offered my testimony as part of the official appeal. Sackett discussed the matter with Feiglin’s right hand man, Michael Puah, but the two decided against it.

I want to make it clear that I am not a supporter of Moshe Feiglin. I don’t even understand the need to tinker with the results because Netanyahu won by a wide margin nationally in any case. The reason I am coming forward with my story is that I believe in democracy. I believe that every vote should count. I believe that it is unacceptable for me to accept the wages for my 20-hour workday and not speak up. All 60 voters at my polling station have the right to have their vote count. As I told the listeners of Galei Yisrael, I won’t tolerate any corruption.

Michael Fuah, the director-general of Moshe Feiglin’s Jewish Leadership faction in Likud, claimed that there are serious discrepancies in the Likud Primary’s published results.

“There is a serious problem in the results,” he said. “There are places where Moshe won by much more than what they said he did. This election is a matter of scoring points and it makes a big difference if the numbers are. Something improper was done here.’

Fuah cited results in Beit Shemesh, where official Likud results had Feiglin beating Netanyahu 126 to 77, while the Feiglin camp insists he beat Netanyahu 274 to 60. Feiglin’s camp also questioned the results from polling stations in Ma’ale Adumim and Tel Aviv.

A woman looking to hang posters for a lottery in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday suffered light injuries when a crowd of haredi men surrounded her car, punctured her tires and threw stones at her. Police called to the scene arrested three men while the others fled.

Just over a month ago, a similar incident brought international attention to Beit Shemesh as an eight-year-old religious girl was spat on, cursed at and called a whore on her way to school by haredi men who disapproved of her knee-length skirts.

Part of a local conflict over real estate in a neighborhood where haredi and more modern Orthodox communities meet, the incident also sparked fierce debate over the treatment of women in haredi society and its increasing influence on general society. Gender separation on several bus lines used predominantly by haredi passengers also became a cause célèbre, as did the frequent defacement by haredim of posters and advertisements in which women’s faces were visible.

In response to intense media pressure on the subject, thousands of haredim demonstrated in Beit Shemesh, equating the criticism with anti-Semitic decrees and vowing to maintain their religious practices.

This latest incident also comes on the heels of two other major issues involving the haredi community. One is the discussion in the Knesset of the so-called “Tal Law,” allowing haredi yeshiva students to defer their military service while they continue their studies, which is now up for renewal by the Knesset. On Monday, the IDF’s chief of personnel told the Knesset that all citizens, including haredi yeshiva students, should be called upon to serve the country for either military or civil service.

The financial management of yeshivot has also come under scrutiny, with the Finance Ministry negotiating with yeshiva heads to institute reforms and the Education Ministry planning to hire investigators to covertly seek out possible irregularities in institutions receiving government funding.

Yes, it is true. I, a haredi with right-wing political leanings, stood on the same stage with representatives of Yisrael Chofshit, Hitorirut Yerushalayim, and Meretz – three secular and very left wing groups – at the massive rally in Beit Shemesh on the last night of Chanukah. I have received a lot of criticism for doing so but I maintain it was not only the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do to save our city.

I could have focused on the issues that separate me and most other residents of Beit Shemesh from those groups and not worked together with them. However, history has shown that if Jews had not been willing to put aside ideological differences to unite around the things we agree upon, we would not have a state of Israel, we would not have a functional government, and the Jewish people would be doomed for destruction. And Beit Shemesh would be in real trouble.

The Talmud is very clear that just as people’s faces are different, so are their ideologies. God created the Jewish people as twelve tribes, each with its own perspectives and focus. Our challenge is to find a way to put those differences aside and work together to achieve progress and success. How did Agudat Yisrael join together with the vehemently anti-religious communists to sign Israel’s Declaration of Independence? How did the Allies join with the Russians to defeat the Nazis? The answer is simple: necessity. The Nazis needed to be defeated so enemies joined together to do it. The Jews needed a homeland so Jews from all backgrounds united to make it happen.

Residents of Beit Shemesh had two pressing issues on the table as of just a few weeks ago. First, extremists were causing trauma to little girls through their verbal assaults, and police refused to arrest them because “it was just words.” Second, the national government was in cahoots with local authorities to build future neighborhoods for haredim alone. (No one is against construction for haredim. The issue is not building for the rest of the city’s many other populations as well). These were real threats to our city’s present and future.

We had to do something to turn the tide. As a result of our partnering with secular and left-wing groups to organize a nationally televised rally, both issues were brought to the national agenda. Now, because of our efforts, the police have committed to arrest anyone who merely screams at a girl. The national government now wants to work with us to build future neighborhoods for all populations. If I and other rally organizers are labeled “foolish” or “naïve” for joining in a coalition that helped bring about this success, I wear those appellations with pride.

Religious extremism in Israel needs to be dealt with – now. All Jews must unite to remove this threat to our country’s future. We must proactively work to transform Israel in this realm before we can reach our full potential. Along with the negative e-mails and messages I have been receiving for my activism these past few weeks, I have been touched by the outpouring of support from both moderate haredim and secular Israelis who have thanked me for taking on this challenge and doing what is right. So those who are closed-minded and not willing to join forces with other groups can remain at home while complaining about our problems. The rest of us will join together to save your country.

I must add one more point. I have been stunned at the venom with which people have written about these “left wing” and “anti-religious” groups. Have those critics ever taken the time to actually talk to representatives of these groups? Yes, I disagree with these groups about many fundamental ideas but sitting with them during the planning of the demonstration taught me so much.

I was always told these groups were “anti-religion” and posed the greatest danger to Orthodox Jews being able to continuing worshiping God in Israel. But in sitting and talking to them, it became clear that this was simply not the case.

First of all, many of them are the nicest young people I have ever come across. They sincerely wish to make Israel a better country. But beyond that, even on the level of ideology, their very liberalism actually dictates that no one be told what to do and that everyone be able to worship as he or she chooses.

They are not out to stop the religious from observing Shabbat, kashrut, etc. They simply want us to back off and not tell them what to do – a reasonable request. The proof of all this is what was said or not said during the rally. There was not one anti-haredi or anti-religious sentiment expressed.

When the disproportion of terrorist acts committed by Muslims – and the resulting hordes cheering the carnage on the Arab street – lead clear-minded observers to conclude that jihadism is the dominant strain in the Islamic world, we are accused of painting with an unfairly broad brush, discounting the silent (and invisible) majority of Muslims who oppose violence and crave peace.

I am ashamed at how fitting the comparison is to the current behavior of certain haredim in Beit Shemesh and parts of Jerusalem. Harassing women, terrorizing schoolgirls, assaulting police officers and journalists, vandalizing property—the so-called Sikrikim seem to have styled themselves after the Iranian vice squads. It matters not whether the perpetrators of these acts constitute 5 percent or 25 percent of the haredi community. Because all we hear from the background is a deafening silence.

There have been no public statements or rallies to oppose this outrageous behavior by those who claim to speak for them. In fact, the only rallies by haredim have been to protest the way they are being victimized by the media and Israeli authorities – including a huge rally last week in Meah Shearim featuring men in yellow “Jude” stars and children dressed in concentration camp uniforms. A handful of haredi rabbis have spoken out against the Sikrikim, but most have not, choosing to reserve their public pronouncements for other matters.

This can only lead one to conclude that a large number of haredim agree with the viewpoints espoused by the activists – even if they do not condone their tactics. They share the worldview that, as one man interviewed at the aforementioned rally was quoted as saying, “there’s only one Jewish way.” If you are not like us, you cannot profess to be frum, to love God and fear Him, to deserve basic human dignity.

Such an exclusionary – dare I say hateful – way of thinking is totally antithetical to Torah and many of its most foundational teachings: “V’ahavta l’rayacha kamocha” (Love your fellow man as yourself); “V’halachta b’drachav” (And you shall walk in His ways); “D’racheha darchei noam v’chol nesivoseha shalom” ([The Torah’s] ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace); “Derech eretz kadma laTorah” (Human decency comes before Torah). . . .

Why has the haredi leadership taken such a passive stance on this cancer metastasizing in their midst? It pains me to say this, but their silence – and that of their followers – is not surprising. The most consistent, persistent message that the extremely right-wing religious leaders send out to their followers, at least publicly, is not ahavas Yisrael, achdus, or continuous introspection. Instead, it is “Banned!” “Treif!” or “Anyone who does [X]or uses [Y] is not worthy of respect.” Whether it’s the Internet, digital cameras, smartphones, music (even by frum artists), public transportation, clothing that offers a hint of femininity, or stores with any percentage of non-mehadrin inventory, the circle of exclusion is forever expanding.

As a result, more and more people – regardless of whether they are indeed shomrei mitzvos and yarei Shamayim – fall outside the parameters of toleration. Holiness equated with quarantine will naturally give rise to disdain for anyone perceived to be “less than.” And so, I believe, this “cheirem culture” has created a monster: a society where it is seen as acceptable to lash out – physically, verbally, or otherwise – at fellow Jews.

What about the rising wave of anti-haredi – and indeed, anti-religious – sentiment in Israel, which has also given way to incidents of real harassment? Of course it is wrong. Completely indefensible. There is no excuse for attacking others (physically or verbally) who have not lifted a hand (literally or figuratively) against you, just because you find their lifestyle, or that of others who look like them, unpalatable.

But for the haredi community to cry victim – without in the same breath disavowing the actions of those who claim to represent their values – is nothing more than a red herring. The anti-haredi incidents are a backlash, and there would be no backlash had no women been heckled out of their seats on a bus and no little girls terrorized as they tried to make their way to school.

There surely are many haredim, whether in Beit Shemesh, Beitar, or even Meah Shearim, who abhor what is happening. But according to Chazal, silence is tantamount to acquiescence. So silent majorities are no bulwark at all – they are simply passive enablers of a grave chillul Hashem.

Ziona Greenwald is a full-time mother who has worked as a court attorney and magazine editor. She currently does freelance writing and editing from her home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

BEIT SHEMESH- In an effort to prevent future conflicts between religious factions in the embattled city of Beit Shemesh, which has made headlines in recent weeks due to a sometimes violent running fight over the location of a religious Zionist girls’ school, the Tov party, which represents English speaking members of the Ultra-Orthodox community, has issued a call for the municipality to establish a “Rabbinical committee” to engage in preemptive dialogue regarding controversial issues.

Eli Friedman, who holds the party’s one seat on the municipal council, issued an ultimatum to Beit Shemesh Mayor Rabbi Moshe Abutbol, stating in a letter plastered around the city on broadsheets that unless such a committee is formed, he will be “forced to abandon the municipal coalition and serve the entire Beit Shemesh community from the side of the opposition.”

Tov, widely known to residents as “the moderate haredi” party, only holds one seat in council, making its defection to the opposition less of a substantive threat than a symbolic gesture of disapproval.

“Out of a desire to increase love and friendship between the various communities here in Beit Shemesh, we turn to you with a request to establish a rabbinical committee that will be comprised of [rabbis] from all the religious and haredi communities as well from the old city and from the new,” the letter read.

According to Friedman, the proposed council’s role will be to “sit and work out every public issue that might ignite the fire before it actually happens, with the objective to resolve it and provide a solution, to arrive at a common ground from the perspective of ‘talmidei chachomim [Torah scholars] increase peace in the world’, and in order to prevent the recurrence of violent acts and thuggery that cause chilul Hashem [desecration of the name of God] and give a bad name to the entire haredi community in the city and around the country.”

Recent protests outside the Orot Banot school, during which schoolgirls have been verbally attacked and spat upon for alleged immodest dress, are not “the first and only time a chilul Hashem has been caused by the extremist residents of Beit Shemesh,” Friedman explained.

Taking responsibility on behalf of the Ultra-Orthodox community, the party leader wrote that “it is obvious that unless steps are taken against this evil phenomenon we will not be able to say ‘our hands did not spill the blood.’”

The Tov party, he continued, has “given in many times in the past in the name of peace and unity in Beit Shemesh” but can no longer “be quiet and give in, as we are witness to the horrible results of what is happening in front of our eyes, and their influence on all the haredi communities across Israel.”

“The goal of TOV is to mend tears, and not to deepen them, our interest is also to glorify the name of our city and not to distance different groups of residents from it.”

The Municipality has thus far declined to respond to requests for comment from The Jewish Press.

Speaking with The Jewish Press, party activist and Anglo department head Mendy Newman stated that, in his estimation, it is important that “there be a non-political venue for dialogue between the various [communities] in the city with the goal of resolving religious tensions before they flare up.”

“It is not enough to deal with issues as they arise,” he said, “but rather the city government must take positive steps to increase dialogue and unity between all residents of the city in an effort to avoid future problems.”

The Mayor, together with Rabbi Shmuel Pappenheim, a local Ultra-Orthodox activist affiliated with the anti-Zionist Edah Haredit umbrella organization, have held several meetings between the local zealots, known as the Sicarii, and leaders of the religious-Zionist community in the past, but these meetings were ultimately unsuccessful.

Advocating a system of preventative dialogue, rather than holding talks after matters have spilled over into the streets, Newman told The Jewish Press that the proposed forum “could be very helpful in preventing religious conflicts and forging common ground on issues.”

However, despite the blow to the Mayor’s prestige that would result in the Tov party’s defection, Mayor Abutbol has so far declined to respond to the ultimatum.

While “we have not received any response from the Mayor to our idea,” Newman stated, “we have only heard positive responses from various [rabbis] throughout the city,” though he declined to cite which rabbis have signed on to the initiative.

Rabbi Yaakov Haber, another local American Ultra-Orthodox leader and the Rabbi of the  Kehillas Shivtei Yeshurun synagogue in Ramat Beit Shemesh, has also publicly sought a solution to the issue of the “chillul Hashem” that Orthodox Jews believe the recent conflict to have caused.

According to locals, the Rabbi recently held a town hall meeting in which residents were encouraged to offer suggestions regarding ways in which to increase unity between the various sectors in the city.

It was a hot sunny day in Ramat Beit Shemesh. I, Yonah Rossman had just gone two the local grocery to buy some simple things amongst them a large amount of seltzer making my bags rather heavy. The grocery store is situated at the top a big hill as like many other communities in Israel it is built on a hilltop. As such my walk down to the bottom of the hill was going to be a rather annoying one particularly painful for my fingers. But what can I do? I have to get my things to the bottom of the hill. I could tremp I thought, but surely no one would want me to come in their car with all my bags of much needed water, and after all it was not so far down. So I started to walk and my fingers started to numb. It was quite painful. I continued walking a whole of thirty seconds though, and behold there it was a car, or should I say minivan. I looked at it, it looked at me, and behold it was driven by a person, a woman who lived in the community. Want a ride? She asked. Do I? I did. I hopped in the front seat buckled up with several bags at my side. A minute later she pulled up by the curb and let me off. It was only my second day or so In the Ramat Beit Shemesh community when I realized where it was to that I really had arrived.

It wasn’t the first act of kindness I had seen or experienced and it certainly was not the last. The fact that people stopped to pick up Yeshiva students or others to take them to where they needed to go I realized was a given in the minds of residents in Ramat Beit Shemesh and it happens all the time. Why not help someone in need? On one such occasion I hitched a ride to “Big” the large supermarket in Beit Shemesh. A friend of mine happened to have bough a pair of headphones but his parents sent him a pair right after. He wanted to return them at the electronic store. Unfortunately to his disappointment once they were opened they were un-returnable. They were expensive to. We were ready to leave the store in disappointment when a man looked at him, asked him about his situation and genuinely felt his frustration. So he bought them off of my friend even though he clearly did not need headphones, this however I do not think my friend realized. The man was a stranger but to us, but to him a Jew walking by who was even slightly not happy was not a stranger at all.

It was not only in cars and in supermarkets of people of the Beit Shemesh area that I got to witness what great people I was amongst it was also in their houses. I was walking one day and a woman came out of her house with her little child and asked me and my friends if we could help her with something. We happily agreed. What was it she wanted? Well, there was a huge spider or so she thought crawling around her kitchen; she wanted us to catch it and kindly remove it from the house. We tried. We really did. We wrestled it with a broom. But it appeared more like a scorpion and got away to under the oven. We had failed our mission. So the woman thanked us for her efforts and decided to wait for her husband to come home and save her. That however was not how I learned what kind of community Iwas in, although she did offer us to come by whenever we wanted. It was through the countless invites to different houses for shabbos meals. On Rosh Hashana I ate at four different peoples houses who were all very welcoming – and made great food. I actually found out that one of the people who I ate at used to be my siblings teacher in the US, and many who live here, in Beit Shemesh not only speak English but also come from the same place that I lived and went to school, Monsey and Teaneck and other familiar places.

On one particularly showing occasion I was walking on one of the streets maybe 45 minutes before Shabbos. I saw in front of me a gathering in the middle of the street. As I got closer and tried to figure out what the buzz was all about. I heard little snippets of people’s conversations until I realized what was going on. A child with some sort of mental issue went missing and random strangers were being given assignments to find him. Once I realized the situation I took down the phone number of the man in charge and went to gathered some guys to find him. People of all different walks of Judaism, knowing the risk of a missing child unified for his safety. Minutes later he was in his parents hands.

Sometimes it takes sorrow, pain, or fear to unite a community. The sorrow after the loss of a leader like at the levaya of Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the pain of loss, or the terrible fear of a missing child. Sometimes people are not united when these things lack. Sometimes that is true, but not always. This I learned in this last experience I share with you. Simchat Torah, 5771 – my first of the three regalim in Israel. Not everything was as it ussually is in the states but some things were – slight variations of the tfilla, and other such things. There was however one difference, it was in Israel – one of gods great gifts to the Jewish people. We davened, Shma Shmoneh esraei and then we started hakafot. During the hakafot though, we didn’t just sing and dance as a Yeshiva or as a minyan, that just wasn’t enough. We left the building onto the street (obviously being emty of cars as you rarely see one on Shabbos in Ramat Beit Shemesh) and then we went back inside. Not into our minyan but one near by. We joined another minyan and danced with them, for a while hand in hand with there children on our shoulders. The next day we joined hakafot with a different shul and celebrated the torah with the community around us. It was an experience of achdut you get in few places.

It’s not just the achdut or the reality of Simcha that can be fealt here, in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The Torah here is real. I don’t mean just in the post high school Yeshiva students and Daf Yomi shiurim for those who work. The little children really know Torah. They know Tanach they. They recite Mishnayot beal Peh. Most of all though, they Live Torah.

Now anyone who is reading this surely has read many things in the media about Beit Shemesh, Ramat Beit Shemesh. One may even think after reading the news I am talking about a different Beit Shemesh than the one in the media. Well I have to admit that is partially true as I live in Ramat Beit Shemesh Alephand most of the tension does not happen here, most of the tension does not happen in most of the places at all. Am I lying to you? Can it be that Beit Shemesh is a great place? Yes. It can be and it is. I stand at the bus stop and I see people live there life. People get on people get off. I have yet to see someone spit on another. Does that mean it doesn’t happen? No, certainly not. Does that mean that there arn’t issues? Not at all. But every place has issues. Monsey, Teaneck, Yerushalayim, Kansas, and even Canada. No place is perfect, and issues need to be dealt with. I am not evaluating the issues at hand, its not for me to do. But I am saying that Beit Shemesh and Ramat Beit Shemesh is not a chaotic pandemonium – at least not most of it. So this is why when I was standing on line a the central bus station in Yerushalayim this past week when someone asked me “How’s Beit Shemesh these day? I told him: “It’s great – mostly, it has problems like everywhere even so its doing great.”