A new storybook by author and educator Haim Walder is causing a stir: The name of the book, 'Chalmer - Stories and Pictures from the Mea Shearim Neighborhood,' which was launched ahead of 'Book Week', is drawing angry responses from former Jerusalemites, who claim that the chosen nickname is "insulting" and that it is a derogatory term towards Jerusalemites.
On the program "Eight to Ten" by broadcaster Mordechai Lavie, which airs on the radio station "Kol Brama" hosted by Mordechai Lavie, the author Chaim Walder and Meir Hirshman, formerly publisher of the newspaper "Bekhila" and currently a commentator on Kol Brama, clashed over the title of the book.
Hirshman, originally from Jerusalem and now a resident of Beitar Illit, attacked the book's title, claiming that it belittles the people of Jerusalem and that it is a derogatory name. According to him, "The birth of this nickname is derogatory. To do a book with the name 'Chalmer', I think it is completely excessive.".
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Author Walder, on the other hand, defended the book's title, claiming: "Three people came to me with this statement, and none of them were Chalmers at all. These are people who were once Jerusalemites and became modern." According to him, the real Chalmers are not offended by the nickname.
Listen to the confrontation between Meir Hirschman and Chaim Walder in a high-quality voice:
An advertisement for the new book appears in the Yated Ne'eman newspaper, distributed this morning (Tuesday), but the name "Chalmer" has been censored from the book's cover. According to Walder, this was done with his consent. "Two residents of Bnei Brak whose parents were Chalmers and who are already modern and saw themselves as victims, asked me to remove the book's name - from the advertisement, not from the book - and I agreed to the request willingly.
""Chalmers doesn't have a problem with it. Moderns do, former Chalmers," Walder tells Haredim10.
""I never dreamed that the name Chalmer would make such a buzz," he adds.
The ad with the censor Betad Neeman:
