The Frum Dollar: Haredi Buying Power Not to be Underestimated December 12, 2006

In the wake of El Al airlines finally, baruch Hashem, declaring that they “have no intentions” of flying on the Sabbath, the Jerusalem Post today printed an article analyzing the new status of Orthodox buying power in Israel and the effect this can have on the corporate landscape.

Unlike other distinct populations in Israel’s fractured society, such as Arabs and Russians, the ultra-Orthodox have aggressively demanded - and often gotten - what they wanted.

El Al is not the only firm to reckon with haredi buying power. Pelephone, Partner, Cellcom and MIRS, the four cellular phone companies, all acquiesced to the rabbis’ calls to clean up their act: No access to Internet or erotic, X-rated phone calls. Bezek plans to do the same under Shas Communications Minister Ariel Atias.

In the past six months alone, Egged, Israel’s largest bus company with 70% of the market, has added 11 new intercity bus lines for a total of 25 that segregate men and women.

The Sano company bent over backwards to prove to haredi rabbis that none of its paper manufacturing plants work on Shabbat, and Israel Electric Company recently announced that it would soon produce “kosher” electricity - electricity that is produce without the desecration of Shabbat.

Ken yirbu!

The El Al declaration was not a total victory, however: El Al refused to sign a legally binding document which would preclude any future Sabbath desecration from taking place. (I think that the religious public should not only request, but demand this. Previous Sabbath desecration by El Al was to save lives, and no rabbi would have a problem with that. Leisure trips? On the one airline with a Star of David on its wing? Ha’yitochen?/Is it possible?)

The secular Israeli has many alternatives from which to choose. Numerous airlines fly in and out of the airport on Shabbat, and indeed, the religious could also patronize those airlines. But for something to be “Jewish”, it should be accessible and usable by all Jews. While there is nothing which proscribes the secular Jew from eating pork, a pork-laden meal is not usable by his religious counterpart. By establishing guidelines which bring Israeli culture more in line with Judaism, it makes Israel more into what it calls itself: the homeland for Jews.

Even if they wear black hats.