The Battle over the Elevator

I’m going to occasionally translate interesting articles that I come across in the Israeli press. The following piece was published in today’s Yediot Ahranot.

THE BATTLE OVER THE ELEVATOR

Secular tenants demand: We doing want a Shabbat Elevator in our building

“Don’t make us stop on ever floor.” This is what one couple living in a high-rise building in Givat Shmuel are demanding. The demand is included in a complaint against their religious neighbours, who every Shabbat and festival turn the building’s two lifts into “Shabbat elevators”. ”The law talks about one lift only,” claimed the couple, who have one baby, and live on the fourth floor of the building.

However, their neighbours refused to accept their request. With the help of a lawyer, the couple yesterday presented their complaint. “Balance is the name of the game, and two [Shabbat] lifts clearly disturb the balance,” reads their complaint. “You can’t force your way of life on the other.”

In the near future the real estate supervisor (the legal body that is authorised for dealing with the problem) will be compelled to discuss the issue, and to proclaim the principle of the debate: If secular people living in a majority-religious building have the right to a regular lift.