A dramatic and highly unusual scene at a Pesach fair held at the Haifa Port Terminal has sparked attention online: A young chareidi man arrived with his family and purchased every item of chametz—including all the beer and pizzas being sold at the event—and then demanded that they be publicly destroyed.
According to a report published by Walla, the man paid a staggering 83,200 shekels to the bar operators, insisted they sign a declaration pledging not to sell chametz during the Yom Tov, and personally supervised as dozens of beer kegs were emptied and the pizzas were thrown away and incinerated.
Many secular Jews who were at the fair expressed anger over what happened. Assaf Danieli, 43, of Ramat Meir, was attending the event with his family and said he was caught off guard: “When we returned from sailing, the bartender refused to sell me wine because they were busy spilling out the beer. He told me that something crazy happened, pointed at a chareidi guy, and said that he bought all the beer, some 30 kegs, and demanded that they spill it out.”
Clearly frustrated, Danieli continued, “In principle, I think it’s stunning that someone is investing nearly a hundred thousand shekels to save me from my own free will, when that money could actually save people for real. After all, anyone who wanted to drink beer and eat pizza did so a short distance away.”
The organizers behind the event declined to offer a detailed explanation. “This is a totally private event,” said event organizer Asaf Ben-David. Both the Haifa Municipality and Haifa Port emphasized that they were not affiliated with the fair.
Tempo Beer Industries, the company behind Goldstar Beer—which appeared to be a sponsor of the fair—also distanced itself. “Goldstar Beer provides an annual sponsorship to the Haifa Terminal, which hosted the spring fair this year. We have no control over the Terminal’s events, and this was not a sponsorship for the aforementioned event. If we had been aware of the event ahead of time, we would have worked for the removal of Goldstar from the invitation as a sponsor.”
{Matzav.com Israel}