MK Smotrich Rubinstein: 'Eliminating the 'Zvia' school - an act that will not be done'"

December 7, 2020   

This morning (Monday), the chairman of the National Union, MK Bezalel Smotrich, addressed Bnei Brak Mayor Avraham Rubenstein and called on him to reverse the decision to close the 'Zvia' academy in the city of Torah and Hasidism. What is a “shared car price list”? How will the prices be displayed in the price list? All the details Chat or phone: Why don't 'Maccabi' members have to run to the emergency room for everything?  The Ulpana was established in the city 70 years ago. The full letter: To Rabbi Avraham Rubinstein, Mayor of Bnei Brak, Greetings, the subject: Your decision to close the Tzvia Ulpan in the city. I was astonished to hear of your intention to remove the Tzvia Ulpan from the city. With all due respect - this is an act that will not be done! This is an Ulpana that was founded seventy years ago (in 1911), served the city with great loyalty, provided an educational response to its daughters, the city's residents, and raised many generations of daughters - dear women, for Torah, fear, science and giving. The Ulpana, which has over three hundred students, without the evil eye, is known for its immense charitable activities, carried out for all segments of the city's population, and for its educational achievements - Torah and its excellent studies. This special educational institution, which is the Zionist-religious high school, almost the last, in Bnei Brak - brings great honor to your city. There is no need to remind you that three years ago, the Ulpana was exiled by you, from its old residence - where it had been located for about 70 years - in the city center, to its current location, at 10 Rabbi Elimelech Neufeld Street, in the Kiryat Herzog neighborhood, and this solely on the basis of your promise that "within a short period of time, the municipality will build a new school for the Ulpana." "A new and modern campus, in a more suitable place in the city" - we responded positively to your request at the time, and agreed, together with the network's management and the parents' representatives, to carry out the temporary transition. It is unthinkable that today, with a laconic message to the network, you intend to violate the two commitments that are the basis of the agreement and expel the Ulpana completely from the city. You will not be glorified on this path. I am indeed familiar with your claim that the Ulpana is being closed because today a large part of its students are not residents of the city. With all due respect, you know that this excuse does not hold water. Bnei Brak is full, thank God, of yeshivas in which many of the students do not live in the city and come to its magnificent institutions from other cities and towns. You know very well that you would not have thought of closing a magnificent educational institution if it were an ultra-Orthodox institution. The abuse of the Ulpana is only because it is religious Zionist and not ultra-Orthodox, and I do not intend to agree with that. You, like the residents of your city, know and are well acquainted with my love and commitment to the Haredi community and its needs in every position I hold, and my efforts as Minister of Transportation for the benefit of the Haredi community in general and for the benefit of Bnei Brak and its residents in particular. I am saddened that you choose to act differently and are treated unfairly against a magnificent educational institution simply because it belongs to religious Zionism. I am confident that the residents of your city disavow this conduct of yours and are just as pained by it as I am. I call on you to reconsider, prevent disagreement and division between the communities, and spare us the necessity of engaging in a determined struggle for the continued existence of the Ulpana. With great respect, MK Bezalel Smotrich"