a new coffee shop has opened up in Modiin and has immediately caused a ruckus on Facebook. All because of its schedule. Caffit Modiin has opened its doors, but only for 6 days a week.
Upon announcement of its schedule with the location being closed on Shabbos, some Modiin residents flooded the Facebook page of the coffee shop (see mainly the section of customer reviews) with complaints about it not being open on Shabbos, suggesting the haredim and religious are taking over, calling it the end of zionism, and just plain-old kvetching..
I get that some people might be disappointed about not having anything to do on Shabbos, not even be able to go to the new coffee shop, but it is basically just a commercial decision, rather than a Zionistic decision. In Modiin, where I guess it is legal and acceptable at a municipal level to operate a business on Shabbos, it still has to make sense from a business perspective.
The management of the coffee shop has decided that by staying closed on Shabbos they will gain more business on the other 6 days, from the religious people, than the amount of business they would have on Shabbos, considering the loss of the religious people who then will not patronize the shop during the week. It is dollars and cents. That too is Zionism, and yishuv haaretz - running a profitable business, so that people can enjoy their lives in Israel a little bit better..
The national pastime is kvetching, and the pros are going at it full-blast on the Caffit page. But it is a business decision, and nothing more. It is not like in Jerusalem, where there is always political pressure and Haredi askanim fighting such decisions. In Jerusalem one can fight it as an issue of haredim taking over, of zionism, etc. In Modiin it is just business.
Religion Magazine
