Moshe Montag a city counselor from the Degel HaTorah party, swims with half naked women but wants modesty in Beit Shemesh

Groiser Tzaddik Moshe Montag in Eilat 

Gender equality advocates in Bet Shemesh are up in arms with charges of hypocrisy over images of a local ultra-orthodox politician lounging near scantily clad women in Eilat that are being circulated on social networks.

The photos of Moshe Montag -a city counselor from the Degel HaTorah party close and a senior member of the administration of Shas Mayor Moshe Abutbul- were posted on Facebook Tuesday night and immediately generated an uproar among opponents of the municipality’s policies regarding controversial modesty signs hung by extremists around the Bet Shemesh.

Mixed gender swimming is considered unseemly by the ultra-orthodox.

“I’m not surprised- we’ve known all along that this has nothing to do with real modesty or Jewish and its all been about corrupt power and control and capitulating to extremist elements in the name of politics,” said activist Nili Philip.

The photos of such a prominent ultra-orthodox figure with women who do not meet his community’s modesty norms was especially galling to Philip given recent events in the city.


Moshe Mantag goes for a dip in an Eilat pool frequented by non-religious men and women. he is the one in the pool with the bald head

In January she and several other women won a lawsuit against the municipality for its failure to remove prominent signs put up in central locations in the city warning women to dress modestly and not to linger in certain places.

According to the court’s ruling “the municipality and the mayor chose not to take any steps to enforce the authority and obligations incumbent upon them to remove the signs... they absolved themselves from this obligation.”

The municipality countered by stating that it had repeatedly taken the signs down but that they were replaced on each occasion, adding that taking the signs down had led to riots.

“Unfortunately the court did not manage to understand the complicated reality in Beit Shemesh which we are dealing with, and did not accept the claim of the municipality that concern for the public safety and the harm to the fabric of the delicate relations between different population groups in Beit Shemesh outweighed the immediate and repeated need to remove the signs,” the municipality stated at the time.

Asked about the photos, Montag’s office manager Benzion Rockov said that he did not understand what the point was of even discussing the topic.

“Are you serious” he queried. “Do you really think that you can use pictures of a private individual to defame a person?…These are pictures that also the media in Bet Shemesh understands that they can’t use. Only you think that you are smarter than everyone. Do what you think, on your responsibility, and don’t say you didn’t know.”

The use of religion in Bet Shemesh politics also played a role in stoking anger over the images, with local residents taking to Facebook to vent their feelings, with one local complaining about what he saw as the “obsessive nature of the modesty regime in the city, backed by Rabbonim [rabbis]” as well as “the sanctimonious election campaign which [Montag] headed with the Mayor.”

During the 2013 mayoral race, the ultra-orthodox community distributed campaign advertisements claiming that “evildoers” seeking to “uproot the Torah” were intent on taking over the city” and stating that voting for the ultra-orthodox incumbents would be a “sanctification of God’s name.”

According to Rabbi Dov Lipman, a former Yesh Atid legislator who has been active in combating religious extremism in Bet Shemesh, the problem is not related in any way to Montag’s choice of swim partners.

“How dare he act as part of the political establishment in Bet Shemesh which has worked to prevent the construction of an outdoor pool in the city, a culture hall in the city, a movie theater in the city, and more, all in the name of ‘representing the will of the gedolei Torah [great Torah scholars].’ My issue is with the hypocrisy, not with his own personal lifestyle and I have seen that hypocrisy throughout the haredi political establishment,” Lipman told the Post.

"I believe that the private activities of a public figure which go against the policies and lifestyle which he forces on the citizens he leads is very relevant and is important for the public to know." Weighing in on the issue, Rabbi Uri Regev of the Hiddush religious equality NGO commented that the “ Sages of Old observed [that] it’s not the truly faithful that pose a threat, but the hypocrites.”

“Montag, who is part of a fundamentalist leadership circle in the anti-women war zones of Bet Shemesh, may have shown his true colors in the permissive environs of Eilat. It's high time that greater openness towards human nature be practiced in Bet Shemesh, rather than women being denied their their rightful, equal positions in the public sphere.”

However, not everyone believed that the issue was worthy of public attention, with city opposition councilman Moshe Sheetrit (Likud) stating that he did not think that “it’s any business of mine what a council member does in his own time.”

The issue received no coverage in the ultra-orthodox media aside from one tweet by journalist Israel Cohen of the Kikar HaShabbat news website. He later deleted the tweet with an apology.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report

Beit Shemesh politicians present plan to divide city in half, FINALLY!

Finally! They are coming "tzim seichal" ...(they are finally getting smart).   The Non-Chareidim work their tuchess' off, place their children in the IDF, pay taxes and they have absolutely no say in governing their own city! This is asinine! It gets worse, the Chareidim throw stones on the their Non-Charidie neighbors that are in the army, and spit on their little girls on the way to school!
I would also erect a huge wall dividing the city.
Read the following Jerusalem Post Report!

Eight members of the City Council in Beit Shemesh have drawn up preliminary proposals to divide the community between its haredi and non-haredi neighborhoods and create two municipal authorities.

Beit Shemesh resident and Yesh Atid MK Rabbi Dov Lipman presented the proposals to Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday.

Beit Shemesh has been a center of intercommunal fighting between haredi and non-haredi residents in recent years as the two communities have clashed over the allocation of municipal resources, the expansion of the city, and a general cultural confrontation.

Local elections in the city in October 2013, won by incumbent mayor Moshe Abutbul of Shas, were found by the courts to have been unduly perverted by haredi activists. Repeat elections were held in March in which Abutbul prevailed by a narrow margin.

According to eight of the nine members of the opposition within the Beit Shemesh municipal council who now advocate splitting the city, Abutbul and his administration has refused to bring them into the coalition.

Shortly after the vote, Eli Cohen, who lost the mayoral election to Abutbul, along with leaders of the other non-haredi parties, presented a document setting out the basis on which they would agree to join Abutbul’s coalition.

The document stipulated that plans for the expansion of the city be revised to ensure construction for the non-haredi sector, requested that neighborhood administrations be established and given their own budgets, and that the administration for the Old Beit Shemesh district be entrusted to a non-haredi representative.

In addition, they requested a cultural center, sports center and library whose construction has suffered from extensive delays be completed along with other municipal amenities but did not make any demands for administrative portfolios, the party leaders emphasized.

Cohen and other non-haredi leaders argue that their requests have been ignored and Abutbul has not worked to include them in running the city.

“We wanted to build a model for cooperation in this city, but it hasn’t happened,” Cohen told The Jerusalem Post.

We weren’t the ones to build a separation wall in a school, it was the municipal administration, and it was the municipal administration which refused to include the opposition in the running of the city.

“We have set principles for cooperation, but they have been rejected. There is no option now but to divide the city, because there is a complete chasm in the perspective of how to run the city. The haredim are building a haredi city without care for the city’s diverse and multi-cultural nature.”

Lipman, who came to public prominence campaigning against the haredi municipal administration, said basic services have not been provided to the city’s non-haredi community for years, and mentioned the failure to build the cultural center, library, soccer field or city swimming pool, as well as the designation of “tens of thousands of housing units” for the haredi population.

“As a resident of the city and one of the leaders in the battle against religious extremism in the city, I have come to the sad conclusion that the only way to save the city is to think out of the box,” he said. “Given the direction which the city leadership has chosen, coexistence is not a possibility, and separate municipalities is the only way to insure that the city survives and that all residents have all of their needs met.”

A request for comment from Abutbul’s spokesman was not received by press time.

Frum Soldiers from Beit Shemesh Will Now Wear Civilian Clothes when leaving their houses because of the Frum Animals that Attack Them!

This story should make frum Jews, cry!

Frum Soldiers will now wear civilian clothes when they leave or return to their homes in Beit Shemesh, from their prospective  military bases, because "Shomrei Torah U'mitzvos People" are attacking them physically.

The 6 million Kedoshim that got murdered in the Holocaust, are turning in their graves.  They would have embraced,  kissed and hugged these soldiers!

I can never forget the feeling, when on my first trip to Israel in the 1970's,  I walked down the stairs of the airplane, and there on the tarmac, stood Israeli Soldiers with rifles protecting the passengers disembarking. I was just a teenager, and my eyes were filled with tears. "Wow! A Jewish Soldier! For the first time in 2,000 years, we have Jewish soldiers!"

Where are our Torah leaders? Where? Why is it ok to beat up a soldier?
Where did they get the "heter" to beat another Jew, who is actually there to protect them?
 Didn't Moshe Raabeinu call the Jew who just lifted his hand to strike another Jew, but didn't actually hit him, a RASHA?

Do the bastards that beat these soldiers ever give any thought about that Yiddish Neshama that they are beating? Doesn't that soldier have a mother, a father, a brother,sister, a wife or even a child, that will now hurt?

I say, if you have the compulsion to beat another Jew, be he a Yeshivishe guy or a Soldier, move to Ramalla!

IDF officials have come to the realization that for Zealots living in Beit Shemesh, seeing a black yarmulke and olive green attire is a red flag, one that leads to attacks against frum soldiers in too many cases. Therefore IDF officials have given an order permitting Beit Shemesh residents to travel to and from their homes in civilian garb. The new directive, which applies to soldiers and officers alike, was issued a number of months ago. According to the Walla News report soldiers change their clothing in the central bus station to avoid being seen in Beit Shemesh in uniform, a reality that has provoked acts of violence against them. A number of soldiers and officers submitted requests, seeking to travel to and from their home community in civilian clothing. The report quotes the Beit Shemesh soldiers saying that by and large they live in peace in the community but the small number of zealots is unwilling to accept seeing a frum person in an IDF uniform.

Ancient Samson seal found in Beit Shemesh Israel

Another ancient find this time in Beit Shemesh, Israel, confirms the ancientand historical Jewish fighter known as Samson.

Tel Aviv University researchers recently found a seal, which measures 15 millimeters or about half an inch in diameter, representing a human figure with a lion at the archaeological site of Beit Shemesh, located between the biblical Cities of Zorah and Eshtaol, where Samson was born, flourished and finally buried, according to the  Bible Books of Judges.

The scene recorded on the label, the period of time, and location of the discovery point to a likely reference to the story of Samson, the legendary character whose heroic adventures included a famous victory in the fight hand-to-leg with a lion.

area during that period of that time.

While the label does not reveal when the stories of Samson were originally written, or clarify whether Samson was historical or legendary, the finding does help to "anchor the story in an archaeological environment," said Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz of TAU's Department of Archaeology andAncient Near Eastern Civilizations. Prof. Bunimovitz co-directed the excavation along with Beit Shemesh Dr. Zvi Lederman. "If we are right and what we see on the label is a representation of a man meeting a lion, which proves that the legend of Samson already existed in the Beit Shemesh 

We can date this seal with fair precision," Bunimovitz adds.

The right place, right time stamp was discovered with other findings on the floor of a house excavated by archaeologists dated to the 12th century BCE. Geographically, politically and culturally, the legends surrounding Samson set out in this time period, also known as the period of the judges, before the establishment of kingship in ancient Israel.