Grapevine: Local language

CONFUSION REIGNS in Jerusalem over the rights of apartment owners who refuse to participate in the urban renewal policy. 

The municipality is currently engaged in an extensive, expensive marketing campaign which inter alia involves full-page advertisements in national and some local newspapers, along with electronic media commercials. It would have been more beneficial to the residents of the capital to earmark some of that money for advertisements in all local Jerusalem publications, including those in foreign languages, to inform apartment owners of their rights. 

This is especially the case when dealing with property developers, some of whom are using scare tactics to persuade reluctant apartment owners to sign pinui binui (evacuate and build) contracts or join in projects for the renewal and enlargement of the apartment complexes in which they live. 

In some cases of pinui binui, there is even no guarantee that residents will be able to return to the apartment in which they currently live. They may be housed on another floor in an apartment in which they have no say over the design. 

For instance, in many religiously observant households, the kitchen has two sinks, sometimes next to each other and sometimes far apart, with one designated for meat pots, pans, crockery, and flatware, and the other for dairy. But the new apartments will often have only one sink. To the religiously observant, a sukkah balcony is also important, but the new design of the building may not take that into account. By contrast, there are areas in nearby Beit Shemesh in which every apartment in a building has a sukkah balcony.

Then there is the problem of apartments built on church land. There has been a lot of anguish in the knowledge that some of these church lands have been sold to private developers willing to purchase apartments for less than their actual value or who can threaten to tear down the apartments in order to build large complexes. There have been media reports that the JNF, which holds long-term leases on church-owned lands for which the time limit is running out, is now seeking an extension. 

Unfortunately, a lot of vital information pertaining to this issue is shrouded in mystery.

The municipality owes it to tax-paying city residents to keep them fully informed about such issues and to do so in several languages. It is difficult enough to understand legal jargon in one’s native language, and much more so in another language.

Billing confusion

■ NOT EVERYONE reads all the blurbs on the bills they receive. What’s important to most people is the sum of money they have to pay. 

Personally, I’m a cash-and-carry person who seldom uses a credit card and who has never had a checkbook in her life. I spend only what I have in my pocket or my purse. When there used to be a post office a block away from my home, it was no big deal to go there to pay my electricity and water bills. 

But since it closed, the nearest post office is the Central Post Office on Jaffa Road, which is over-attended and under-staffed, sometimes requiring over an hour’s wait before one is served. Since my utility bills don’t all arrive at the same time, I have to make two trips there every two months to pay them. Last week, when the water bill arrived, I decided to read the blurb. It stated that the bill is payable at all banks. But at the First International Bank – where there was a half-hour wait because staff kept leaving the counter for five- and 10-minute periods – I was told I couldn’t pay the bill because the Gihon water company’s bar code was incompatible with that of the bank. When I pointed out the blurb, the teller’s response was “You should tell the bank.”

“But I’m talking to you,” I replied. “You are the bank, and you can pass on the information.”

“No, I’m only here to do my job,” he said. 

Readers can guess my response.

Hatzvi Yisrael gets new rabbi

■ MOST SYNAGOGUES in which immigrants comprise a large sector of the congregation have, among their congregants, retired rabbis or ordained rabbis who never formally practiced but have taught at various institutions. The Hatzvi Yisrael congregation in Talbiyeh, for example, has had its fair share of retired or non-practicing rabbis who have stepped up to the plate when the regular rabbi was absent.

During a long period in which the congregation did not have a regular rabbi, Rabbi Gidon Rothstein offered his services, for which he declined to accept payment. He not only delivered the sermon and occasionally led the service but also gave lessons during the week. Blessed with a face that literally radiates happiness and joy, he endeared himself to the congregation. 

Finally, after an intensive search which was narrowed down to three finalists who, individually, spent a Shabbat with the congregation, a vote was taken, and two months ago it was announced that Rabbi Avishai Zruya would be the congregation’s new spiritual leader.

Rabbi Rothstein vacated his front-row seat, which has since become the permanent seat of Rabbi Zruya – with the rest of the row now occupied by members of the new rabbi’s family.

Last Saturday, as a token of appreciation, the congregation’s executive committee hosted a kiddush in Rabbi Rothstein’s honor, and Rabbi Zruya refrained from giving the sermon so that Rothstein could do so instead – in his American accented Hebrew, with translations into English for those who might not understand.

Rothstein spoke of false prophets and influential people who are believed because of who they are and what they represent. It was difficult not to draw a parallel with what is happening in Israel today, and Rothstein appeared to hint at this when he said that a civil war was much more dangerous than fighting an external enemy. This, he insisted, did not mean that people should not have disagreements, but that disputes should not be allowed to escalate into civil war or even family feuds.

Body language is important, and while Rothstein was speaking, Zruya listened intently with his head cocked in Rothstein’s direction. Later, when Rothstein returned to his seat in the second row on the opposite side of the chamber, Zruya rose and crossed the floor to congratulate and thank him.

Prior to the kiddush, Rothstein was presented with a beautiful silver Kiddush cup engraved in Hebrew with the words “The right man at the right time.”

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