live here...kind of like the old restrictive covenants in real estate contracts that were used to keep Jews Blacks etc. out of neighborhoods in the U.S.

I thought they meant the roads were going to be closed on Shabbat and so getting to places around that dreary and horrible little town might be more difficult for those without cars. I can't imagine why one would actually want to live there though.

Acceptance committees are okay for small, secular communities because they are all left-wing, exclusive snobs; but acceptance committees for hareidim are discrimination!

I don't care and I'm not going to live there, but I always see it as crazy when people say, "it's against the law" and people believe it just because it's repeated enough.

...believe me....wouldn't want to live there....

The Haredim are at each other's throat otherwise. Obviously, any exclusion of an Israeli citizen from any area in Israel ought to be banned by law. I think it is illegal right now, but maybe the law should be strengthened to make cases like Yeshuot Moshe impossible indefinitely. Plus, by law, a lishkat hagius should be established in the neighborhood.

you get such statements.

if an anus like you moved here! Why don't you keep your asinine comments to your self? As for the hara-dim moving here. There goes the neighborhood! Let them move to their allies in jenin, it is even cheaper there.

Actually downtown Afula has improved lately and there's been tremendous construction going on, both residential and commercial. Now let's see what to do about Haredim coming to put a damper on it all...tradition is wonderful if it means just observing Shabbat, but not clothing and all the rest of that hogwash ....let's not forget temperatures rise to the 40's in that neck of the woods...

hope this doesn't turn into a 'gang war' between the Hasidic groups...

It seems you really enjoy using this new word you've learned as you've used it quite a bit recently. I'm sorry, Mr. White, but Afula is an awful place and a poor excuse for a town (I would only give a lower rating to Tiberias). Wave after wave of US archaeologists (well over 2.000 people by now) that have worked at Tel Megiddo over the years can attest to this fact. We thankfully live on a wonderful nearby kibbutz while we are in the area and we prefer to go to Yoqne'am over Afula whenever possible. Sadly one can only rent cars in Afula as there is no car rental in Yoqne'am. No one I know actually likes going to Afula, I'm afraid.

So stay in Tel Aviv. It sounds about your "hipster" speed. You'd probably love the Tachanat Mercazit Yashana there. Make you feel right at home.

I am no hipster, sir. I would just like it if Afula were more like Nazareth and less like a dump, that's all. Tel Aviv is a nice place, but my digs are up here and one cannot simply move a tel (so we're stuck with the surrounding towns). Anything we can't get on our kibbutz has to be gotten from either Yoqne'am or Afula. I hope that with the introduction of that new railroad some time in the future, it might be turned into a more presentable "town" like those on the coast. Also, from the Merkazit thing, I'm not sure if you're insinuating that I'm a hipster or that I'm a Sudanese fellow. I'll admit that Afula isn't as bad as the area around HaHagana Station.

When you point a finger...expect fingers to be pointed at you. If you deem Afula a dreary and horrible town, that doesn't say much in favour of you. It reflects a problem with yourself. Some people have fun wherever they go and focus on what there is and not 'what there isn't' Hetzi kos ha maleya, ol' boy

Sir, I'm merely voicing the opinions of several thousand people. We have many people from not just the US, but also Israel, Canada, Singapore, and other paces and the opinion doesn't vary on Afula; it's quite amazing actually. Many of them can have fun anywhere, even in Khaifa and Nazareth, but not in Tiberias or Afula. It's a pretty good sampling of people.

A 'racial filter' to keep out more modern Haredim? Since when are more modern or more Sepharic Haredim a different race? Is Rabbi Uri Regev really a rabbi who thinks modern Haredim are a different race from other Haredim?