BICOM

Israeli celebrations of the traditional Lag B’Omer festival over the weekend were marred by a series of dangerous fires as the country experienced an unseasonal heat wave.

The Lag B’Omer festival marks a series of events in Jewish history and is traditionally celebrated by lighting and gathering around bonfires. However, a combination of the celebrations and extremely hot conditions on Saturday and Sunday led to fire crews battling over six hundred fires throughout the country. Israel Fire Services Commissioner, Shahar Ayalon, said yesterday, “Over the last 24 hours our workload increased tenfold compared to a usual day.” One of the wildfires, near the central city of Beit Shemesh destroyed around five hundred acres of brush, leading to home evacuations in the area. Additional large fires were reported in Rosh Ha’ayin, Jerusalem, Haifa and elsewhere.

The celebrations also raised debate over the need to reform the Israeli school calendar with children granted a two-day Lag B’Omer holiday while the vast majority of parents remained at work. It is reflective of a large imbalance in annual vacation time, with Israeli children typically receiving 92 days of school holiday, compared to just ten in many Israeli workplaces. Chairwoman of the Knesset Committee for the Status of Women, Yesh Atid MK Aliza Lavie, commented last week that it “puts parents in an impossible situation” where they are often forced to pay for expensive childcare or child-friendly activities.

Yesterday, Education Minister Shai Piron said that his ministry is examining the possibility of re-structuring the school calendar including the possibility of ending classes on Fridays in order to align schools more closely with the Sunday – Thursday five day week. He cautioned though that “something here is begging to be changed. But these changes can’t be done rashly.”