Acting mayor tours neighborhood
Photo: David A.
Petah Tikva: Ethiopians get their own synagogue
Dispute between municipality and residents comes to an end, local community to finally have place to pray in its own way
A dispute between residents of the Petah Tikva Municipality and residents of the city's Yoseftal neighborhood regarding the location of a new synagogue for the local Ethiopian community has come to an end, and the project will be launched soon.
Following the protests, senior municipality officials and Acting Mayor Uriel Boso toured the neighborhood accompanied by Shlomi Ivgi, the neighborhood committee's chairman. Together, they located an available field to the satisfaction of all parties.
Several groups of residents objected to the original plan to build the synagogue near the Golda High School, claiming that the municipality had promised to erect a garden and playground in the area.
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Boso later met with representatives of the Ethiopian community, who he said expressed their satisfaction with the solution, noting that the suggested field was preferable to that included in the original plan.
"The synagogue and a religious club for Ethiopian immigrants in Yoseftal, which was agreed upon in my meeting with Minister of Religious Affairs Yitzhak Cohen, is only the first stage in a broader plan for the establishment of a number of synagogues in the city for the Ethiopian community," said Boso.
"This synagogue will serve hundreds of the community's families living in the neighborhood and in the nearby Tkuma neighborhood. I hope the new synagogue will constitute another layer which will help remove existing feelings of frustration, deprivation and alienation, and replace them with feelings of pride and unity for a vital community successfully integrated into the city."
