Jerusalem Hotels Tread Line Between New Year's and Shabbat
By TAMAR HAUSMAN
For tourists celebrating the end of the millennium in Jerusalem, they'll
find Christmas and New Year's won't be much more than a hearty Shabbat
dinner behind closed doors.
If this sounds like a let down to party-goers, it is even more so for many
of the city's hotel managers, who have been left calculating their
potential losses, shrugging their shoulders, and following the rules.
This year, both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve fall on Friday night, and
the chief rabbis aren't giving out any Shabbat exemptions. Hotels must
abide by current regulations or lose their kashrut certificates and future
observant clientele.
On a run-of-the-mill Friday night, guests may not rent party rooms; the
only hotel event permitted is Shabbat dinner, during which no music is
allowed and all food must be pre-cooked. This year, for Christmas and New
Year's, the Chief Rabbinate made a concession: Christians can book parties
in closed ballrooms. Jews aren't mentioned specifically, perhaps because
the rabbis assume they won't be looking to celebrate.
The slight easing of regulations on the part of the Chief Rabbinate has
hotel managers in Jerusalem doing contortions as they try to figure out what the new rule means and how far it can be stretched. Some managers interpret the
concession to mean that music and Christmas decorations are permissible in
closed rooms; others believe they are restricted to serving Christian
guests a somewhat fancier Shabbat meal.
According to Jerusalem Hotel Association spokesman Yonatan Harpaz, hotel
managers fear having their kashrut certificates snatched away 'because of a
spoon in the wrong place.' Generally speaking, however, hotel managers are
resigned to the restrictions.
'We didn't intend to do anything grandiose anyway,' said Chen Michaeli,
general manager of Jerusalem's Dan Panorama. 'We're not sure that Jerusalem
is the right place to have these celebrations, first because of the demand
- there just isn't that much - and second because of the religious aspect.
Jerusalem is a religious city. Tel Aviv is the place to do it.'
Like most Jerusalem hotels, the Dan Panorama will try and satisfy guests
with an enhanced menu for the holidays. A handful of Christian groups have
requested party rooms, but none will be allowed to have a band.
Despite their resignation, some hotel managers said they are worried about
the negative image the rabbinate's decision to only allow small, private
parties is giving potentially huge numbers of Christian clientele. The fact
that it took the rabbinate until late October to allow even the closed
parties has already taken its toll.
'Potentially there would have been room for more business,' says Michaeli,
who says that groups generally book three to eight months in advance, and
many were probably deterred by the uncertainty of what would be permitted.
'The damage was done a long time ago,' says Ariel Hotel manager Ezra
Astruc, who has had several cancellations which he attributes to the
lengthy debate over the holidays with the rabbinate. 'I had to say that
nothing was going to go on until something was going on, and by then it was
too late,' he said.
The agreement with the rabbinate was actually reached in August, several
sources say, but the terms weren't formally outlined until October 27.
'It's ridiculous,' Hyatt Hotel general manager Rony Timsit says about the
agreement. 'Nothing has changed. It's just like the regulations for any
Friday night.'
The Hyatt has already had a bout with the rabbinate, when several years ago
the rabbis tried unsuccessfully to close the hotel's Orient Express
nightclub.
Timsit says: 'I know how difficult it can be to do business while trying to
follow the rules.' He still hasn't decided what he is going to do about
Christmas and New Year's.
In response to all the criticism, Rafi Dayan, spokesman for Sephardi Chief
Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, says that 'the hotels can't make exceptions and
still retain their kashrut certificate. This is a Jewish country and for
the hotels' sake it wouldn't be good to bend the rules. We must keep
Shabbat. But we understand the financial issue here and we have done what
we can.'
In truth, many feathers went unruffled.
'We're not celebrating anything,' says Jerusalem's Laromme Hotel room
division manager Leanne Ziderman.
The same goes for the Jerusalem Hilton and the King David hotels. The
Israel Hotel Association and the Tourism Ministry seem pretty content with
the arrangement.
Gilad Nachum, spokesman for the Israel Hotel Association, says the issue
isn't lost business; it's a lack of space.
'We could use one or two more big hotels,' he says. 'I'm sure that every
group from every country who will want to celebrate will be able to.'
Oni Amiel, owner of Amiel Tours, which brings about 100,000 Christian
tourists to Israel annually, says the restrictions haven't hurt his
business.
However, Harpaz of the Jerusalem Hotel Association says he's received
'various remarks by travel agencies expressing concern.'
Harpaz recently spent three weeks in the US and Canada to persuade
Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem for the millennium. He makes a
similar trip every year, but says that this year the rabbinate's
regulations on parties were repeatedly raised.
Despite that, he managed to recruit thousands of trips via travel agents
and clergy, who, he said, 'signed up on the spot.'
Many tour operators are going to try and skirt the rabbis' restrictions by
working with east Jerusalem hotels which don't abide by kashrut
regulations. For example, Santa Claus put the American Colony Hotel into his busy Christmas Eve calendar. 'I [brought] in boxes
upon boxes of decorations from Switzerland and we [had] trees all over
the place,' says general manager Urs Umbricht.
The hotel's New Year's bash will cost $250 a head.
And on the other side of the capital, the Jerusalem International Convention Center opened its doors for a Christian Embassy Christmas Eve prayer service and concert, and will open again on New Year's Eve, when the center is hoping to hold a
special concert. Ninety percent of the center's 27 halls, which can
accommodate up to 10,000 people, were booked for Christmas Eve.
Still, all those people must come with full bellies: No food will be
served.
At the end of a year of heated debate, many hotel managers are secretly
hoping for a change in kashrut regulations.
'The terrible thing is that the image isn't democratic. We're essentially
saying to people that they're not allowed to celebrate their religious
holidays,' says Timsit.
In late October, Yosef Paritzky of Shinui announced he plans to submit a
bill to the Knesset which would create competition between a host of
rabbinates so that hotels and restaurants will be able to chose the type of
kashrut certificate they prefer. Says one hotel manager: 'Wouldn't that be
a blessing?'
Partying the night away in Tel Aviv
In Tel Aviv, Israel's city that never sleeps, Christmas is never big, but
New Year's?
'If we would be allowed to, we would definitely have a party to be talked
about, to be remembered,' says David Cohen, residence manager of the David
Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. 'There is great potential on these
nights that we can't capitalize on. But on the other hand, we wouldn't want
to upset clientele who come during the rest of the year.'
Still, boogiers will find something to do at the Dan Tel Aviv: The hotel
has interpreted the rabbis' rule to mean it's okay to have bands and
Christmas decorations in private party rooms.
Generally speaking, Tel Aviv hotels are less scrupulously watched by the
rabbis and are less concerned about day-after rabbinate patrols.
In any case, tourists in Tel Aviv will have a plethora of options for the
New Year's Eve holiday that Israelis call 'Sylvester.' Champagne will be flowing in private clubs and pubs, and many midnight kisses will be had at the huge bashes planned at the ports in Jaffa and Tel Aviv.
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