Dozens of restaurants to stay open illegally on Tisha B’Av, some to protest overhaul
Many cite a desire to fight what they see as increasing religious coercion, whereas others are flouting the law to mitigate decreasing profit margins amid inflation
Cnaan Lidor is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter
Several prominent restaurant owners said they plan to keep their businesses open illegally on Wednesday evening, the start of Tisha B’Av, a Jewish day of national mourning, to protest the judicial overhaul.
Many enterprises have routinely ignored the 1997 law, and its 2002 amendment, requiring them to close shop Wednesday night until the following morning at 5 a.m. for Tisha B’Av, when observant Jews fast the entirety of the day in mourning of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and then of its replacement in 70 CE.
Rarely, however, have restaurant owners advertised their actions in advance, as they have this year, as an act of protest. The decision, one chef said, was connected to the judicial overhaul that is being led by the right-wing Likud party and its five religious coalition parties.
Sharon Cohen, the owner of Shila, a Tel Aviv fish and seafood restaurant with a devoted clientele, intends to keep it open for the first time on the evening of Tisha B’Av since it opened 18 years ago, to protest what he views as religious coercion being advanced as part of the judicial overhaul.
“I’m an atheist, but we closed down on Tisha B’Av as a sign of respect to religious people,” Cohen, 47, told The Times of Israel Wednesday. “But they don’t reciprocate this respect, the pact is broken, so I no longer see any reason to close shop and give up a business day.”
The judicial overhaul is dismantling institutions that are meant to safeguard against religious coercion, Cohen said.
“We want a new social contract. We will not be trampled on by these fundamentalists,” he added. Some of the staff at Shila disagree with the decision and would like to see the place close for Tisha B’Av, Cohen noted.
“Those who have issues with it have said so and we discussed it. But the restaurant will stay open,” he said.
Yuval Ben Neriah, chef and co-owner of Tel Aviv’s Taizu restaurant, said he “urges patrons to show up [on Tisha B’Av] and show their protest that way,” the Calcalist newspaper reported.
Itzik Hengal, owner of the Pastel restaurant in Tel Aviv, noted in an interview with Calcalist that the business is situated near the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court and the Tel Aviv Museum.
“Out of respect for those institutions, which represent the spirit of freedom and creativity and are guardians of justice and democracy, I feel a deep commitment to uphold freedom and liberal values and allow anyone who wants to go out tonight to come over,” he said.
Avivit Priel, the chef at the Ouzeria restaurant in Tel Aviv, told Time Out that she decided to close the restaurant on Tisha B’Av evening because of requests to do so by her staff, but that now she is “regretting this decision.”
Haaretz listed more than 40 restaurants, most of them in Tel Aviv, whose owners said they would stay open on Tisha B’Av.
Haim Cohen, a celebrity chef and owner of the Yaffo Tel Aviv restaurant, initially said he’d keep the retaurant open but later walked the decision back.
Cohen had told Calcalist that he would keep the restaurant open, “not as an act of protest” but to mitigate decreasing profit margins amid inflation. The government has faced criticism that it is focused on its contentious package of laws to dramatically weaken the judiciary, while failing to fight the nation’s increasing economic problems.
“Restaurant owners need to work every minute that they can stay open. That’s where I stand,” he said.
Cohen objected to the notion that staying open on Tisha B’Av is an attempt at provocation. “It’s self-defense. Asking me why I’m provoking the religious public is like asking a victim of domestic violence why she’s trying to fight back,” he said.
Cohen, who also operates the Knesset’s cafeteria, later said he’d reconsidered and would close down as “This evening is important to many, and I respect that.”
The law prescribes fines of up to NIS 2,600 (about $700) for businesses that are found to be in violation of the prohibition on staying open on Tisha B’Av.
While the decision by restaurants to stay open was decried by the right-wing Channel 14 news and Israel National News, Time Out magazine celebrated the opening of restaurants in Tel Aviv as proof that “the liberal public is still alive.”
Referring to warnings by opponents to the overhaul that as Jews mourn the destruction of the two ancient Temples as a consequence of internal feuding and intolerance, the third incarnation of the Jewish national home is under threat, the magazine urged readers to “go out, eat and deal with the destruction of the third temple rather than some antiquated one, in times where laws are passed to limit the freedom enjoyed by liberals in Israel.”
