The Truthful Project

Appeared in The Jerusalem Post .  By David S. Levine  Here is a troubling trend facing Shabbat-observant apartment residents in Israel that needs to be solved by rabbinical and engineering technical prowess. The Shabbat Elevator was a practical solution to allow people to go to their beit knesset (synagogue), visiting, and other community activities on Shabbat and holidays when using machinery is usually prohibited. The practicality of Shabbat elevators was self-evident in Israeli cities when the prevailing building height was six (6) to nine (9) floors. Today, it is common to see residential buildings of twenty-plus (20+) stories all over Israel, from Beit Shemesh to Ashkelon to Jerusalem. In fact, Jerusalem recently announced a 40-story project! And this growing trend is only accelerating. (Pun intended.) Tall buildings answer the need for affordable housing in a limited space. Yet there is not enough room for every religious person (or families with religious r...

 A Letter to the Editors of the Jerusalem Post post in reply to my article:   I would like to commend David Levine for his insightful article “ How to fix a broken medical system ” (February 19). The subject of the shortage of health professionals is terribly painful. I have no doubts that Mr. Levine is correct in his analysis. It’s all about money. Although he is very vividly presenting the problem as it appears to the general population, an in-depth study for the Health Ministry has been made by a commission headed by Prof. Ronni Gamzu, recommending the steps needed to fix the grave problems of shortage. Unless the government would implement a system such as the one suggested by Mr. Levine to issue municipal bonds to fund these expensive initiatives, I am afraid that Prof. Gamzu’s recommendations will end up like so many recommendations made by the state comptroller, collecting dust. My big question is, why aren’t we all demonstrating and shouting to our politicia...