Outcry Over Bnei Brak Officials’ ‘Retreat’ in Nazareth Costing an Estimated Half a Million Shekels
City council members and senior officials from Bnei Brak went yesterday, Wednesday, for training days at a luxury hotel in Nazareth. The estimated cost is about half a million shekels, at a time when the municipality is running a deficit. Residents are furious: “How do they think they can afford this?” (Kikar Bnei Brak). Photo: Courtesy of the photographer.
A political and public סערה is shaking Bnei Brak: City council members and senior officials from Bnei Brak left yesterday, Wednesday, for days of vacation and training in Nazareth. The move, which received broad attention among city residents, sparked a wave of harsh criticism and serious questions among residents who are wondering about the timing and the budgetary waste.
The Bnei Brak Municipality quickly tried to deflect the criticism and firmly rejected the claims that this was a “vacation.” According to them, it was only a professional training program. “This is a standard procedure in every municipality,” sources in the municipality said, “and what is allowed in every municipality is allowed in Bnei Brak as well.”
Half a million shekels at the height of the deficit
Behind the attempts to calm the situation, troubling figures are being revealed. Sources in the municipality estimate that the training in Nazareth will cost about half a million shekels. This enormous sum is expected to weigh heavily on the municipal coffers, which are going through one of the most difficult periods in their history and are showing a cumulative deficit of tens of millions of shekels, a figure that in the past almost immediately led to the appointment of a government-appointed committee.
Many residents are wondering how the city administration can allow itself to spend such a huge amount on internal study days, when this comes directly at the expense of services to residents and investment in the city’s neglected infrastructure. The timing of the training, during a period in which the municipality is dealing with severe budgetary challenges, is causing great astonishment among the public.
The halachic excuse, funding from the Jewish Agency
To justify the expense, Bnei Brak Municipality presented an excuse that funding had been obtained from external sources, including the organization Nekuda and the Joint Distribution Committee, operating through the Jewish Agency. What is interesting, and raises serious questions, is how the Lithuanian representatives in the Bnei Brak Municipality ignored the instruction of Rabbi Dov Lando, who ruled not to take budgets from national institutions, yet here it is suddenly permitted.
One resident even asked Kikar HaShabbat: “Is there one law for the senior officials of Bnei Brak Municipality and another for ordinary people? The apparent double standard is drawing sharp criticism among residents who carefully follow the instructions of the leading rabbis in every area of life, so how is it that here they did not heed the instruction of Rabbi Dov Lando?”
The opposition stayed home
Beyond the budgetary and halachic concerns, it turns out that unlike what is customary in other local authorities, where all council members are invited to study days, in Bnei Brak they chose to “forget” the opposition members. Council members Shlomo Elboim and Yaakov Wider were not invited to take part in the training in Nazareth and stayed home to follow developments from afar.
This raises another question: if this is indeed a professional training essential to the functioning of the municipality, why were not all council members invited? Is this a training program, or a political move intended to exclude the opposition? Either way, the officials’ “training vacation” continues to stir up the city.
Residents, who are forced to deal with poor municipal services and neglected infrastructure, are expressing deep frustration over the heavy expenditure. All that remains for residents is to hope that those officials will indeed rest, gather strength, and return to work for the city and its residents with renewed energy, and above all, that they will apply the lessons they learned for the benefit of public service.
Kikar HaShabbat contacted the Bnei Brak Municipality for an official response, but unfortunately the reply was: “No comment.”
