Friday, June 8, 2012

Shabbat Auctions

When walking past an auction board in our 'frum' neighbourhoods and seeing that it will take place on a Shabbat, one often hears murmurings accusing the estate agent of 'anti-semitism'.

We strongly disagree and suggest it just shows a lack of professionalism on part of the agency who after all these years haven't caught on that by having a Saturday auction they are missing out on the possible bids of Orthodox Jews. If vendors and agents want more buyers at auctions, Saturday is the wrong day to have them.

By the way when they place their advertisements in the AJN, you'd expect that the staff member handling the call should have enough 'seichel' to enlighten the agency about this most vital issue.

This 'krenk' is noticeable in both Melbourne a Sydney. The above auction notice was placed in this week's Sydney edition.

Pull up your socks, estate agents and the Jewish News.

PS: We realise that there are possible solutions to overcome this Halachically. However to do it in a 100% Kosher (and legal) way is not so simple. There is no reason why Orthodox Jews deserve this extra headache.

4 comments:

  1. 2 such shabbos auctions coming up off glen eira rd
    Elizabeth st and st georfes rd

    I think it is the usual offender Biggin and Scott

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know about this one. We live in Australia, and Saturday is the day for these types of things. I don't think you can expect estate agents to suddenly remember the feelings of a minority group and thus feel empowered to hold an auction on another day.

    A house hunting shomer shabbat yid will simply pursue other means. (My understanding is that while many auctions do occur on Saturday, many also occur during the week in the evenings).

    As far as our neighborhoods being 'frum.' Well, they may be home to a number of frum families, but our neighborhoods are a far cry from the 'frum' neighborhoods in Israel or America. You can't compare Bondi to say, Mea shearim or Boro Park.

    If your issue is with potentially promoting chillul shabbat though, right on! But it goes back to a comment I made regarding the
    advertisement for a treif establishment next to one for the KA. Why should we expect anything less?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think it is a bad business decision by vendors and agents to ignore the possibility of shomrei shabbos buyers in these areas.

    You must be from Sydney as here in Melb we don't have night auctions but we have hundreds od Sunday auctions and not only in Jewish areas.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You can get a non-Jew to bid for you. Very simple, stop whinging.

    ReplyDelete

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