Be'er Sheva Mayor: 'Hide our Tefilin? What's wrong with us?'

 

Mayor of Be'er Sheva, Rubik Danilovich, responded with surprise and sorrow to requests to remove Tefilin stands from public areas.

The stands are a common sight in Israel, consisting of seveal pairs of Tefilin on a small table to allow any who need to do so to fulfill the daily commandment to don Tefilin. The stands frequently include prayer books and occasionally a charity box to donate to their upkeep. They are maintained most notably but not exclusively by the Chabad movement.

Mayor Danilovich related how a woman said "Mayor, you know there's Tefilin on the guard's table at the public school?' He replied, "So what?" The woman claimed "He's forcing the kids to wear Tefilin."

"I asked her: Excuse me, has Tefilin become something in the Jewish state that we need to hide? To conceal? It's absolutely fine if you are less religious and your lifestyle is secular, do you want me to order the school guard to hide the Tefilin?"

"There is no place to fear or shy away from Jewish symbols in a Jewish state. If a child wants to lay Tefilin, let him do it; what's happened to us? Why are we here in this Jewish state? What have we forgotten? You don't have to be a religious Jew, there's a certain value that connects all of us even if you're not a man who wears a kippah, do we want to be just another Western country without any common moral foundation among us? Judaism connects us all, a Jewish state first and foremost," he concluded.