Ultra-Orthodox protest businesses open on Sabbath
The ultra-Orthodox sector is rallying thousands of consumers in its battle against businesses that operate on Saturdays.
Dudi Weissman is one of probably very few businessmen who have been severely impacted by the ultra-Orthodox boycott on businesses that open on the Sabbath. In 2006, Weissman purchased the AM:PM chain of 24/7 convenience stores in Israel and refused to close it on the Sabbath. The ultra-Orthodox rabbinical Committee for the Sanctity of the Sabbath warned him that if he continued desecrating the Sabbath — keeping the stores open on Saturdays — the ultra-Orthodox would avoid not only the convenience stores, but also his supermarket chain, Shefa Shuk, which targets the ultra-Orthodox sector and does close on Saturdays. However, Weissman did not give in to what he deemed "religious coercion."
Soon enough, Weissman was sustaining huge losses, and branches of the Shefa Shuk supermarket chain started closing one after the other. He then reopened the chain under a new name — Zol BeShefa — but the ultra-Orthodox community steered clear of these stores, too. Thus, after years of major losses, while insisting on keeping the chain and refusing to cave to ultra-Orthodox pressure, Weissman gave up and sold the chain.
