A Letter to my Charedi Co-Residents

Dear Charedi Co-Resident of Beit Shemesh,

No doubt you are deeply upset about the victory of Dr. Aliza Bloch over Moshe Abutbul in the elections. I remember what it's like to suffer the disappointment of one's candidate losing, in two elections. It's painful, and you have my sympathies. Fortunately, I have some good news to share with you, which should improve your mood.

You were told by the rabbonim to vote for Abutbul, because he would work for the benefit of the charedi community. The implication - often explicitly stated - was that Aliza Bloch would be working for the benefit of the non-charedi community, and against the interests of the charedi community. But that's not what she plans to do. Contrary to what you've been told, her desire is to work for the benefit of everyone.

Now, you're probably thinking, Why should I believe that? Well, first of all, you can listen to what she's actually been saying all along - and not in order to get charedi votes. You can learn about how in general, the approach of the dati-leumi community is to focus on the larger Jewish community, not just their own community.

Furthermore, you'll see how much paranoia and baseless fearmongering has been spread in order to avoid losing political power. They said that Aliza Bloch will have buses running on Shabbos and treif food being sold - you'll see that that won't happen. They said that Aliza Bloch will "destroy Torah" - I don't even know what that was supposed to mean, but I can assure you that she won't be destroying anything. I've seen people claim that when Aliza spoke about tearing down the mechitzot, this shows that she means to remove the mechitzos between men and women in shul! Actually, she was (very obviously) speaking about removing the walls of division between different sectors of society, and the fact that some people think otherwise speaks volumes about the ridiculous paranoia that the charedi political and rabbinic leadership created around her.

There's one fear that you might have which I can't help you with. If you fear that under Bloch's leadership, Beit Shemesh will slow down or cease its transformation into a primarily or solely charedi city, then your fears are probably correct. Still, you might find that it's not so terrible to share your city with Jews of other religious ideologies. You may find that it enables the city to prosper and improve in all kinds of ways.

So, relax. Think about all the thousands of charedim who voted for Aliza Bloch - they are intelligent people who did so for good reasons. Have some bitachon, and look with an open mind at how the city develops. Who knows, maybe in just under five years' time, when the askonim start with the next political campaign for mayor, you'll recall how off-base they were with their claims about this one.