Tel Aviv Shops Resist Shabbat Closing Law
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Many Tel Aviv grocery stores stayed open on the Sabbath even though Israel’s interior minister rejected an amendment to a municipal statute that would have allowed their opening.
Municipal inspectors handed out fines on Saturday of slightly more than $200 to the businesses that remained open despite an Israeli law that makes it illegal to open retail businesses on the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown Friday and ends after sunset Saturday.
Employees at the large Tiv Tam grocery store wore T- shirts with the slogan “Tel Aviv does not keep Shabbat” while they worked on Saturday.
Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar late last month rejected the amendment that would have allowed some stores to stay open on the Sabbath and holidays.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
