Hamas War

Sunday, March 1, 2009

A Little Local Government


I've been getting ready to reprise my role as Chair of the Election Committee. I've been involved in running elections here in Shiloh for over twenty years.


Shiloh is a "community-town," a yishuv. There's a legal interdependence between us. Not "just anybody" can become a member; though in recent years, because there are now private homes to rent, sometimes people move to Shiloh without going through official procedures.


Official procedures means meeting the "absorption committee" and being vetted for economic "reliability," suitable for our general level of religious observance etc. In the days when we came and later when I was on the committee, interested people had to go through a graphology test and a meeting with the rural department of the Jewish Agency. It's easier now, and a community of three hundred isn't the same as the thirty who checked us out. The summer we arrived, 1981, Shiloh more than doubled to over sixty families!


Why am I getting into all this? We're having local elections this week. There are seven people running for the two places out if the five of our "town council" being voted for this year. It has been years since so many people have taken the challenge to run for office. I'm very happy about it, though it is a lot of work.
More after elections.

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