The event is a Thursday night Hannukah kumzitz in honor of Shabbat Hannukah in the Sport Center of RBS. The City of Bet Shemesh invites the residents of Bet Shemesh and Bnei Hayeshivot to the event, and a special gift will be distributed to Bnei Yehivot. Speakers will include a rosh yeshiva (Rav Gavriel Yosef Levi) and a city councilman (Shmuel Greenberg) and singing will be lead by Avreimi Rot and Dudu Kalish with choirs and a band. The event is Thursday night of Hannukah from 7pm until 11pm (doors open at 6:30pm), entry is free but no kids due to limited space available.
Interestingly, the sign is signed off by two city councilmen who are named as Rav Chaim Zamora and Rav Shlomo Brilant (both from UTJ), and the mayor, Aliza Bloch, who is left unnamed.
The fact that her picture has been left off a sign published by the Iryah for an event sponsored by the Iryah is somewhat understandable, despite it being strange, and she has already explained it away on a number of occasions, especially after the mayoral elections in which she posted signs in haredi areas without her image. Leaving her name off when every other person involved is named is just strange and demeaning, as if she does not deserve to exist.
The other interesting part about this is that while I would think such an event, targeting primarily the Bnei Yeshivot, would be open to men only, or at least with strict separate seating, the sign announces the invitation to the residents of Bet Shemesh and the Bnei Yeshivot, with no distinction of gender and no notice of separate seating. Historically that is unusual. I would suspect that they did this out of fear of the event being cancelled, as a number of similar events around the country recently were after protests were filed with the courts for discriminating on the public dime. If so, those court cases accomplished what they set out to do.
On the other hand, this event could easily be explained as a religious event that qualifies for such gender separation, as it is billed as a shabbos hannukah event praising God for the miracles and honoring Shabbos and those who study about the holiness of Shabbos - the courts did say events that are religious in nature could qualify for exceptions.
So, with the event not being separate seating or men only, just go enjoy! Party on!
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