New York - There is a new battle being waged over the future of Jerusalem, but not between the usual Israeli and Palestinian players. According to TIME Magazine, (http://ti.me/TcEpA2) in their cover story out this week entitled “The Battle for Jerusalem,” this time, the warring factions are the ultra-orthodox or “charedi” Jews and the secular Israelis.
TIME author Karl Vick writes, “Since 1967, Jerusalem has become a resolutely Jewish city, so much so that the central question preoccupying residents today is not how it might be divided with Palestinians – for they are widely ignored of late – but rather just how religiously conservative the city can become while remaining a place most Israeli Jews could imagine living.” The article states that the ultra-orthodox have only recently made a “Lazarus-like comeback,” one which “threatens the fabric of Israel, or as they see it, points the way to the nation’s salvation.”
Two Israeli men, one ultra-orthodox and the other secular were followed and interviewed by TIME for their story. Both men live and own apartments in a neighborhood called Kiryat Yovel which is home to about 800,000 people. But it has become less of a home for secular Israelis like Noam Pinchasi and more of a home to charedim like Elhanan Gibli. TIME estimates that approximately 20,000 secular Israelis have moved away from Kiryat Yovel in the past seven years, bringing the total percent of secular Israelis in the area to just 31. Meanwhile, the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, also at 31 percent, is increasing.
“It’s a flight much of Israel is watching with concern bordering on alarm,” TIME writes. “The ultra-orthodox are the fastest growing population in a Jewish state long governed by seculars but lately grappling with just how Jewish it wants to be.”
When Gibli moved in to Kiryat Yovel, he was the first charedi in his building. Now charedim reside in four out of eight apartments. Across Israel, charedim now comprise 10% of the population and 21% of the enrollment in elementary schools. The birthrate of charedim is three to four times more than that of secular Israelis, and demographers estimate that in 20 years, one in five Israelis will be charedi.
TIME references the collapse of Netanyahu’s government coalition and attributes the breakdown to the issue of how to address the “question of what to do about the ultra-Orthodox.” It says the Kadima party left Netanyahu’s coalition when he refused to force religious youth into service in the Israeli military.
In an unabashedly critical paragraph, Vick writes, “Draft avoidance is just one privilege. The ultra-Orthodox, whose hermetic lifestyle may be based on the preoccupation with the next world but whose political clout defines savvy in this one, also enjoys subsidies for child care, education and housing. The community’s power only grows with its numbers. Uncontained, it stands to fundamentally alter Israel’s identity.”
Noam Pinchasi says he is at war with the “blacks” – a reference to ultra-Orthodox Jews – over land in Israel. He and a crew of similar-minded citizens have been arrested for stirring up trouble in charedi neighborhoods by placing posters of nude paintings on the doors of synagogues. Pinchasi said he is sending a message to the charedim, “This is not like Ramot Eshkol, Neve Yaakov, Maalot Dafna,” referring to neighborhoods in Jerusalem which were once identified as secular, but have since become “black.” Pinchasi began his movement after mixed swimming was banned during the day at neighborhood pools, and when charedim set up makeshift synagogues in homes and stores. Pinchasi is also aggrieved that residents of Kiryat Yovel want their own eruv even though there is an eruv that runs around all of Jerusalem.
Charedim are now “conquering neighborhoods designated for others,” according to TIME. When a religious man offered to buy the home of Pinchasi’s neighbor, saying, “We’ll give you a good price because we want you out of here,” Pinchasi told the man, “I have barbeques during Shabbat. Pork. We’re going to play music. We smoke. And we bring prostitutes here.” The religious man bought the house anyway because of the tight housing market. Pinchasi is quick to point out that he is not an atheist, that his family lights shabbos candles and makes kiddush on Friday nights. Yet, he identifies principally as an Israeli and not as a Jew.
“The bookish ultra-Orthodox have their militants, too. . .” writes TIME. “Downtown billboards in Israel no longer feature women; advertisers fear defacement, or worse, boycotts. On public buses, ultra-Orthodx women sit in the back. . .ultra-Orthodox men spit on an 8-year-old girl on her way to school, calling her a “whore” for her long-sleeved clothes, which were not conservative enough for their standards.”
In response to reports that secular Israelis are coordinating efforts to buy property in Kiryat Yovel and re-claim the area, Yitzchak Pindrus, the charedi vice mayor of Jerusalem said, “Be serious. . .This is the reality in Jerusalem. Demography is geography.”
