Tel Aviv hotels are antagonistic and callous to the needs of religious families, the head of the Tel Aviv Religious Council said Sunday after receiving the latest in a wave of complaints.
Carlton and Hilton hotels in Tel Aviv.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
"Religious families are being forced to leave their rooms before the end of Shabbat," said council chairman Eldad Mizrahi. "It's religious coercion, plain and simple."
Mizrahi said he had received numerous complaints from religious people who had stayed at hotels in the city. According to the complaints, hotels force religious people to check out before sundown on Saturdays. As part of the process of checking out the guests are forced to handle electric appliances, which is prohibited according to Orthodox Jewish law.
The most recent complaint was sent by Varda Kimchi of Jerusalem who celebrated the wedding of her nephew Hananyah to Einat at a major Tel Aviv hotel this past Shabbat.
"We did not receive our rooms until 4 in the afternoon on Friday, at which time we were told that we would have to check out no later than 5 p.m. the following day.
"But Shabbat is not over until 7:30 p.m. It was too late to look for another hotel so we were forced to sign a document saying that we agreed to check out.
"We tried to explain to the manager that our religion does not permit us to remove certain things from the room. We even wrote a stipulation on the document we signed. We hoped that the management would show understanding.
"But we were disappointed. They forced us to leave the room on Saturday at 5 p.m. They did not give us the option of paying a little bit more to stay on. All they said was that if we did not leave the room we would be fined," Kimchi said.
Tel Aviv Hotel Association head Eli Ziv said the city's hotels were not anti-religious, they were simply trying to maximize profits.
"Israel has been blessed with a large influx of non-Jewish tourism, especially in Tel Aviv," he said. "So it is not uncommon for tourists to check in at a hotel on Saturday afternoon.
"During the summer season hotels are working at a capacity of more than 85 percent so every room counts. Religious guests should not assume that the hotel will allow them to stay until after sundown."
Rabbi Micha Halevi, who is responsible for kashrut supervision in Tel Aviv's hotels, said the Rabbinate considered rescinding kashrut certificates from hotels that kicked religious guests out before the end of Shabbat. But they ruled it out.
"We have a responsibility to provide guests with kosher food regardless of the hotel's policies," he said. "But we are trying to get the Hotel Association to institute more transparent rules so that religious guests know in advance that they will forced to leave the hotel early and that they will be given the option of paying more to stay a few extra hours."
