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Aug 1, 2016

The Bet Shemesh Effect finds its way to Lakewood

in Lakewood, New Jersey, non-Jewish (or maybe also non-Orthodox) residents of a condomium are upset that ever since the Orthodox Jewish residents became the majority they have not taken the needs and requests of the minority residents into consideration, and they refuse to allow adequate hours for mixed swimming in the complex swimming pool.

The response to requests has been that they need to get used to the fact that it is now a Jewish building and they are the majority.
source: app.com

This is what has come to be known in Israel as the Bet Shemesh effect. Ultra orthodox move in, become a majority and then change the rules and take nobody else's needs into consideration. It is why mayors all over Israel refuse to approve new neighborhoods to be built for haredim

The majority in a democratic society is supposed to protect the rights of the minority. When the orthodox Jews were a minority in this home I would hope the administration was forthcoming and gave reasonable hours for separate swimming for them, and I would hope when the orthodox are the majority they'll give reasonable hours for mixed swimming for the minority.

While the majority of Orthodox Jews might be able to grab all the available hours for themselves and just give a pittance of time for others, it would probably be much wiser and more neighborly to also offer some reasonable hours of swimming to the other residents.


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6 comments:

  1. Strange to call it the Bet Shemesh effect when in Bet Shemesh the main swimming pool still has plenty of mixed swimming hours, a (medal-winning) mixed swimming team, a totally mixed exercise room, and so on...

    ReplyDelete
  2. the bet shemesh effect has nothing to do with swimming specifically, but it is in general when the ultra-orthodox move in to a community that was not previously so and they become a majority and then they start to implement their own desires to the detriment of the people who were there before. it might manifest itself in swimming pools, like in that condo in Lakewood, or it might manifest itself in other ways such as changing who administers the mikvas and the policy used, or maybe in closing streets on Shabbos or maybe tzniyus signs, or all new construction being for ultra-orthodox (or any combination, but not necessarily all of them together)... you know it exists in Israel when every time the housing crisis is discussed in knesset, thye talk about how mayors refuse to build for haredim because they dont want to become like bet shemesh.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love in a wonderful beautufil place called Ramat Beit Shemesh. People get along. Not all the time but the overwhelming majority of the time.

    One can choose to focus on the good or the bad. If you choose the later, you're going to be disappointed anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  4. way to miss the point Josh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And Daniel exactly what is that point?

      Delete
  5. That the post is about a specific situation that exemplifies a wider problem.

    ReplyDelete

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