Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis signed a document Wednesday morning calling for a boycott
of El Al airlines, but in the meantime it is being kept in the safe of the The Committee for the Sanctity of Shabbat and will not be distributed within haredi neighborhoods in order to leave the door open for negotiations with the airline’s executives.
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Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, head of the Lithuanian sect, and present Gerrer Rebbe Yaakov Aryeh Alter spoke Wednesday morning and agreed on the leaflet’s wording.
After signing the document Rabbi Alter faxed it to Rabbi Elyashiv’s home in Jerusalem; from there the document was transferred by fax to the Bnei Brak home of Rabbi Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman of United Torah Judaism, who added his signature as well.
'Stop El Al flights on Shabbat'
Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of The Committee for the Sanctity of Shabbat told Ynet that, “the great Torah scholars asked not to distribute the document, put it in a safe and call on El Al to provide answers that would satisfy them."
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef issued a statement calling for El Al to accept the ultra-Orthodox leaders’ demand that the airline cease its Shabbat flights.
“Everything must be done to stop the El Al flights,” he said.
El Al told Ynet in response, “At this stage the company is maintaining its policy of not flying on Shabbat.”
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