My quest for Harry Potter news continues. As I noted in my blog yesterday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out this Shabbat. This presents a problem for our fellow Harry Fanatics in Israel who won’t be able to get the book until the Sabbath is over:
With Israelis already clamoring for “Deathly Hallows,” many bookstores are planning to launch the book on time anyway. That has drawn fire from Orthodox Jewish lawmakers, including Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai, who threatened to fine any store that opens Saturday.
“Israeli law forbids businesses to force their employees to work on the Sabbath, and that applies in this case as well. The minister will fine and prosecute any businesses which violate the law,” said Roei Lachmanovich, a spokesman for Yishai, of the ultra-0rthodox Jewish Shas party. (MORE)
Some Israeli lawmakers don’t want the book to be released in Israel ever:
“We don’t have to be dragged like monkeys after the world with this subculture, and certainly not while violating our holy Sabbath,” Avraham Ravitz of the United Torah Judaism Party said in a statement.
I guess he won’t be seeing the movies, either.
Avraham
Pronounced: AHVR-rah-ham, Origin: Hebrew, Abraham in the Torah, considered the first Jew.
Torah
Pronunced: TORE-uh, Origin: Hebrew, the Five Books of Moses.
