Bnei Brak has been roiled after Mishnat Yosef, a popular consumer cooperative with dozens of pickup and distribution points nationwide, was forced to shut two major locations in the city within one week. The latest closure came Sunday morning at the corner of Sokolov and Alharizi streets, after an earlier shutdown at the long-running distribution point in the Supers complex.
An audio recording circulated in the “Beit Hashem” community says Rabbi David Schreiber, one of the rabbis of a nearby community, was among those who pressed Mishnat Yosef’s management over the issue. In the recording, Schreiber said the main complaints to the organization and to a rabbinical court were not about noise, dirt or parking, but about modesty concerns. He said, “Operating the distribution as it is being run near the kollel creates serious modesty problems,” and added that after consulting local rabbis, demands were passed to the fund’s management.
Schreiber said the management ultimately chose to close the site after the requests were not implemented to the rabbis’ satisfaction. He also stressed that he had no complaints against the local station operators and thanked them for years of helping neighborhood residents.
His remarks sparked a heated debate in a Mishnat Yosef customer group that includes station operators, customers and activists connected to the network. Some participants warned that Schreiber’s influence in the city could threaten more Bnei Brak branches, while others criticized the stated reason for the closure. Mishnat Yosef’s internal messaging said that when residents object and no agreed solution is found, a distribution point is closed until a suitable arrangement is found for the neighborhood and its demands.
