A blow to marginalized youth: In the midst of a Bnei Brak City Council meeting, a group of educators, rabbinical emissaries, and building and resident representatives entered to protest against the vending machines.
At the center of the discussion was a proposal for the agenda put forward by city council member Zeev Lipshitz, who highlighted what he called the "alarming gap in the vending machine market" on Ezra and Rav Shach streets in the city.
The council member clarified in his remarks that while the curfew law requires businesses and machines to close by 11 p.m., the automatic drink and food machines are currently used as a 'bypass' that allows activity throughout the night without supervision.
He warned that this is a breach that causes environmental damage to the residents of the area and, especially, devastating spiritual damage to the youth.
Among the speakers were the rabbis of the city's youth frameworks, Rabbi Israel Roth, head of the 'Be'er Israel' youth yeshiva, and Rabbi Eliezer Zilbertsweig, head of the 'Drachei Shlomo' youth yeshiva, alongside resident representative Rabbi Goel Turgeman.
""They are ruining our lives, spoiling our children," shouted one of the speakers.
The hotspot is a growing phenomenon: vending machine-based stores that operate throughout the night. What began as a commercial convenience has become a magnet for marginalized youth and a hotbed of spiritual decline.
In the discussion, the educators presented hard data about good young men, those who were just passing by on their way to prayer or home, and were drawn into the dubious "feeling" that was created around these machines in the wee hours of the night.
The testimonies that poured into the council's table were harsh: residents spoke of a real fear of going out into the street in the evening, of elderly people and widows living nearby and suffering from a mask of abuse, disdain, and harassment from the boys staying there.
""The buildings have become one big dump," said one of the representatives of the buildings next to which the food machines are located. "Dirt and filth in every corner, constant noise, and even leaven left in the place. People are besieged in their homes out of fear at night and residents are afraid to leave their homes.".
On behalf of the educators and rabbis of the area, an unequivocal request was submitted to the municipality: to enforce the bylaws on these places and drastically limit their activities. "Places that do not close after 11 p.m. will not operate even before that," the mayor concluded the discussion.
The council's response was swift and sharp: Council members voted unanimously to immediately increase enforcement and determined that the vending machine market would close every night starting at 11:00 PM.
