Jerusalem’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi has written to Culture Minister Miri Regev asking her to cancel subsequent yr’s Eurovision tune contest, the Kikar Hashabat web site reported Monday.
Rabbi Aryeh Stern wrote that he understood that the competitors would happen on a Saturday evening and would due to this fact contain desecration of Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.
“I decided to ask you in advance to do everything to prevent this disgrace,” wrote Stern.
“In my opinion, I think that it is better that the State of Israel gives up the right to host the show if it will involve the desecration of Shabbat.”
Netta Barzilai after successful the ultimate of the 63rd version of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 on the Altice Arena in Lisbon, on May 12, 2018. (AFP/ Francisco LEONG)
Stern concluded by saying “it will be a great act of sanctifying God’s name if everybody knows that the state is giving up something important due to the sanctity of Shabbat.”
In response, the Culture Ministry informed Stern that Regev was not overseeing the Eurovision, and mentioned he ought to direct his grievance to the “relevant authorities.”
In May, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who heads the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, despatched a letter to Regev, Communications Minister Ayoub Kara and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, asking them to stop any desecration of Shabbat in the course of the contest and the occasions surrounding it.
Since the victory of Israel’s Netta Barzilai on this yr’s contest final month, Regev has vowed that subsequent yr’s occasion shall be hosted in Jerusalem, or is not going to happen in Israel in any respect.
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev arrives to the weekly cupboard assembly on the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on June 10, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
However, a senior Finance Ministry official on Sunday informed the Haaretz every day that the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds is the one web site in Israel that meets the entire Eurovision’s manufacturing necessities.
A young will quickly be printed to host the occasion, and the Ynet information web site reported Sunday that the cities of Eilat and Haifa will supply themselves as venues for the competitors, together with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The European organizers of the tune contest final week formally named Israel because the host of the occasion, and mentioned that they had kicked off preparations for the competitors with representatives from Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan.
The announcement put an finish to uncertainty over whether or not Israel would comply with the custom of internet hosting after successful the earlier yr. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the competition, was reportedly involved about it being politicized by Israeli ministers and about a authorities initiative to break up Kan into two separate our bodies, which might make Israel ineligible to host Eurovision.