State-Funded Haredi Kotel Rabbi Apologizes For Zoo Tour On Holocaust Memorial Day

One day after Israel’s Channel 10 News reported that the haredi state-funded Rabbi of the Western Wall and other Holy Sites Shmuel Rabinowitz received a private tour for himself and his extended family at a zoo on Holocaust Memorial Day, Channel 10 reported that Rabinowitz and his family had made the private and arguably illegal zoo outing a yearly event.

Above: Rabbi of the Western Wall and other Holy Sites Shmuel Rabinowitz

State-Funded Haredi Kotel Rabbi Apologizes For Zoo Tour On Holocaust Memorial Day
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

One day after Israel’s Channel 10 News reported that the haredi state-funded Rabbi of the Western Wall and other Holy Sites Shmuel Rabinowitz received a private tour for himself and his extended family at a zoo on Holocaust Memorial Day, Channel 10 reported that Rabinowitz and his family had made the private and arguably illegal zoo outing a yearly event.

Rabinowitz and his large extended family visited the Biblical Zoo on Holocaust Memorial Day for several years, getting a private guided tour and run of the grounds while the zoo was official closed on the day of mourning.

The zoo's administration claimed it gave Rabinowitz and his family the special private tours because Rabinowitz had “helped the zoo quite a bit” – mostly in getting haredi school groups to visit the zoo.

Rabinowitz holding a happy family outing on a somber day when most public celebration is banned by law and most entertainment venues are closed angered and shocked many Israelis. Israel has the largest population of Holocaust survivors and their descendants in the world.

Facing intense criticism, yesterday Rabinowitz apologized.

"Indeed this showed a lack of sensitivity. I apologize for it and regret it. I pray that in the future such failure won't fall on my shoulders," Rabinowitz reportedly said.

Rabinowitz comes from a Chabad hasidic family but is now more closely affiliated with the non-hasidic Ashkenazi haredi stream of the haredi community. Rabinowitz’s father, who once headed a state rabbinic court in Jerusalem, and several other close family members are under serious criminal investigation for public corruption.

A secular lawmaker Rabinowitz or senior state bureaucrat who behaved as Rabinowitz did on Holocaust Memorial Day would likely be removed from his position of authority. Additionally, state employees in a position of public trust like Rabinowitz by law are not allowed to take special favors from corporations, companies or individuals.

There is no indication that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to hold Rabinowitz to that standard or to enforce the law (if it does indeed apply to Rabinowitz), and Netanyahu and Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett have been completely silent on the issue.

Netanyahu needs haredi political parties to back him if his current government falls and after the next election in order to retain power.

Bennett needs Rabinowitz’s cooperation and help to make his unilateral “solution” to the Women of the Wall Kotel crisis stick.

Related Post:

Haredi Kotel Rabbi Holds Outing For His Extended Family At Zoo On Holocaust Memorial Day.

Comments

[ah-pee-chorus]

+++ I pray that in the future such failure won't fall on my shoulders," Rabinowitz reportedly said.++++

I'm not sure if the sentence structure is the same as his words in hebrew, but if so it's a classic passive tense. He didn't actively fail as a rabbi, human being and state employee, the failure "fell on his shoulders".

[Yosef ben Matitya]

I dislike the man and those who appointed him. But I don't understand what is he guilty of? Should we expect him to fast? Sit on the floor and read dirges all day long? Besides, why is the zoo open if it's that grave a sin to visit on that day?

[Yosef ben Matitya]

After a more careful reading, I realise the zoo was closed.