Haredi dominance of Beit Shemesh 'is only matter of time'
The resemblance between Mea Shearim of days gone by and Ramat Beit Shemesh, one of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, is not accidental.
By Yair Ettinger Tags: Orthodox Jews Jewish World"Hitler and the messiah. The two dominate the walls and souls here," Amos Oz wrote in his book "In the Land of Israel" after visiting the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Geula and Mea Shearim in the fall of 1982. "The battle has been won. Zionism has been pushed away from here, as though it had never existed."
In the next chapter, Oz stops at Beit Shemesh, where he meets a group of young men, "their faces distorted with rage" at Mapai (the precursor of today's Labor party), Shimon Peres and the elites.
Twenty-five years later it seems that the chapter on Mea Shearim could be transposed to a few neighborhoods in Beit Shemesh, a city whose population now reaches 73,000. "Taking part in the profane elections is prohibited," and "Israeli women must dress modestly," declare posters around the city.
Local resident Nati Shauli did not even consider filing a police complaint two weeks ago after his car was vandalized. He and his wife came out of the grocery store in Ramat Beit Shemesh A, a mostly religious neighborhood, to find that their tires had been slashed. Shauli is convinced that whoever is responsible wanted to keep bare-headed women like his wife away from the ultra-Orthodox shopping center.
"Life has become insufferable here," he said in desperation.
A month ago, the neighborhood's national-religious residents held a demonstration vowing not to give in to the "hooligans." But a tour of Beit Shemesh shows that the fanatic element here also has complex and tense relations with the ultra-Orthodox community, which is identified mostly with Agudat Yisrael, Shas and Degel Hatorah.
The resemblance between Mea Shearim of days gone by and Ramat Beit Shemesh, one of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, is not accidental. Some 15 years ago the housing shortage in Jerusalem drove the extreme, anti-Zionist Eda Haredit sect of Jerusalem's Haredi community to seek housing for young couples outside the capital. They chose Ramat Beit Shemesh B. Today these people are even more fanatic than those in Mea Shearim.
These extremists comprise an estimated 2 percent, no more than 15,000 of the Israeli ultra-Orthodox community. They are a minority in Beit Shemesh as well, but wield considerable power and influence.
The fanatics are mostly followers of Rabbi Shaya Rosenberger, a right-wing Satmar Hasid. Another group, a separatist group of Breslav Hasidim led by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Marmelstein, is even more extreme. In recent years these groups have conducted a series of campaigns - posting billboards calling for "modest behavior," introducing sexually segregated bus lines and recently protesting plans to open a state religious school near their neighborhood and opposing the sale of apartments in the neighborhood to people who are not ultra-Orthodox.
Two and a half weeks ago, police officers headed by Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco and Beit Shemesh chief Oz Eliasi secretly met the leaders of the town's Eda Haredit sect. On their way to Rabbi Rosenberger's house the officers passed graffiti blasting Eliasi and branding him "the Nazi" and "evil."
People in the neighborhood described the meeting a "surrender," saying the police were now officially afraid of entering the neighborhood. They said the police had promised the rabbis to refrain from any activity in the neighborhood without the rabbis' prior authorization.
District police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said the meeting was intended to "open channels of communication with the rabbis to restore peace to the neighborhood. Nothing was promised and no prior coordination was agreed on before any police activity."
However the fanatics' energy is mainly directed at the silent ultra-Orthodox majority. People in Ramat Beit Shemesh A say that men harass ultra-Orthodox women merely for walking in the supermarket with wigs, as women from the Gerer Hasidic group do. They hurl insults at other women because they refuse to send their small sons to the part of the bus earmarked for men.
"We operate our own bus lines to preserve our way of life," a Ramat Beit Shemesh B resident said.
Relations between the different ultra-Orthodox groups will be tested next year in the municipal elections. More than a year and a half ago in the Knesset elections, despite the fanatics' attempts to sabotage voting, the political strength of the ultra-Orthodox prevailed. United Torah Judaism received most of the votes, 22.2 percent, in a town that had been a Likud bastion in 1982. Shas came in second with 19.9 percent of the votes, while the Likud, Labor and Kadima lagged far behind.
Agudat Yisrael, Degel Hatorah and Shas are convinced they will obtain a solid majority on the town council, but may not field a mayoral candidate just yet. "It may take another term," a Degel activist said. "But it's clear that the ultra-Orthodox dominance of Beit Shemesh is only a matter of time."
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"United Torah Judaism received most of the votes, 22.2 percent, in a town that had been a Likud bastion in 1982." What you meant to say was, "United Torah Judaism received the most votes." You can't get most of the votes unless you're over 50%.
end up controlling the country. It's a simple matter of arithmetics. 1 ortodox family = 10-12 kids 1 normal family = 2.5 kids Democratic process will allow them to have a PM in another 10-15 years.
ever forget that. We must never give a centimeter to the enemies of democracy and pluralism no matter who they are or the cultural significance of their religious title. For starters we can follow the French model and demand all religious preachers (rabbis, imams, the lot) be state trained and state employed guranteeing that they will teach their students respect for the democracy. And we must never forget that these haradei have always been the worst schnorers! they contributed nothing to the foundation of our country because they were religiously opposed to the idea of Jews creating a Jewish country in Israel without the Messiah It is time to make every effort to stop the growth of these throwbacks to the dark ages and make every effort to encourage them to return to with questions so the remainder remains nothing but tourist attraction in jerusalem, pitied because their men support their families by begging those who value work at the Kotel
These people are as dangerous a threat to Israeli democracy as the muslim fantatics who refuse to integrate in Britain are a danger there. I am appalled at the police behaviour. Doesn't anyone remember how the fascists came to power in Germany and Italy? Because nobody had the balls to stand up to their violence! The police must enforce the law, that is the fundamental basics of a strong state! Everytime they fail to enforce the law it weakens the state more than a thousand terrorist attacks by Arabs because it tells ordinary people the law shall no longer be applied equally and this causes a breakdown of society into fear and violence, where, you guessed it, fascists prevail. As Jews we must be categorically opposed to all fascists! Especially the Jewish ones! They disgrace us!!! We as Jews have only thrived in the last 100-years thanks to democratisation in Europe and have thrived in America where there has always been democracy (at least for white skinned people) and we must never..
Jews have had to move many times from neighborhoods in the USA. Not only when it's Blacks or others moving in, but also when groups of Jews, like the Charedim of Boro Park moved in & the Modern Orthodox didn't feel comfortable and moved out. These are things that happen all the time. There is only one way to stop such things: the communities you belong to have more children & will automatically create a counter societal push. In the end, the media is miscasting this whole phenomenon, they like to scream "Charedim, Charedim" like "fire, fire" but that is just hysteria. The truth is that all neighborhoods undergo socio-economic changes, & in this case even religious and cultural changes, & no amount of screaming or grandstanding will change it. The only advice is, if you don't like it, & you see what's going to happen down the line, find a neighborhood that you will be happy in. It's not easy, but that is the only solution. The Charedim are just as wild & pushy as any group of Israelis.
I actually live here in Beit Shemesh. This is NOT a problem of religious vs. secular. The perpretators are a fringe group of a few crazy people who intimidate other religious Jews because they have judged them to be inferior in halachic observance. It says in the article that they intimidate women who wear wigs, who they judge to be wearing clothing that is inapproriate, etc...Residents of BS all know that these people are misguided. Unfortunately the crazies grab all the attention. I invite you to see the beauty in our city, our numerous chesed organizations, refined friendly and helpful residents and the the beauty of the area. BS is one of the most popular aliyah destinations for new olim because of its many outstanding qualities.
The Chillul H' being perpetrated is well known worldwide.
In light of Israelis continuously harping on Lebanon's state within a state, I'm anxious to hear from them about their own state within a state and how they feel about their police force being afraid to enter certain communities.
Until a couple of years ago all the different groups of people lived together peacefully in Beit Shemesh. Beit Shemesh is a traditional kind of place where even the religiously non-observant are religious. Then these zealot hooligans came and started telling us what to do in our town. I didn't ask them to come here. If they don't like it they should go somewhere else.
Hi Irene, thanks for responding. So you think I'm having an easy life in the US? Think again! You're mixing up all sorts of information. You're looking at hooliganism by a small minority of Charedim and their lack of paying taxes. So I agree with you about that. But that still doesn't justify blanket hatred of Charedim by Chilonim (what else to call secular Jews in Hebrew? "Chachamim?) It's not just in Israel that Charedi population growth causes counter-attacks from non-religious Jews and in the US they have support from millions of non-Jews. So this isn't a matter of geography or where one chooses to live (so far Jews live in all sorts of places, same reason Israelis leave Israel, but that's a tangent.) Chiloni Israelis do not study Torah and keep the mitzvot. Until they do, they'll have nothing to stand on against the growth of Charedi families and communities, that for all their faults, and they have many, are based on Torah and Mitzvot with successful Kiruv Rechokim.
Let me first state that I am an 'Edah Haredit' follower. Now, let me correct two things: 1) Your translation "Israeli women must dress modestly," is incorrect. It talks about "Bnos Yisroel" - meaning *Jewish* women, not *Israeli* women. How stupid. 2) Why do you write about the elections? You claim we harass 'moderate' ultra-Orthodox (ie, Agudists, Degel, Shas) - yet at the end of the article you equate us with them. 3) We don't vote in the elections; we boycot them. That includes municipal elections. (Though some Satmarers do vote in the municipal elections.) I am not denying the truth of what you said. However, please spend some more time doing proper research. The acts you describe are most likely perpetrated by so-called 'Neturei Karta' fringe extremists, followers of Moshe Hirsch, who was a 'minister' in Arafat's cabinet. We, the 'Edah Haredit', are NOT affiliated with these idiots who call themselves 'Neturei Karta' (and they are not - they stole that name from the real NK).
Same scenario in the Jewish Qt. of the Old City. If these ultra Orthodox who according to the article are the majority, were so oppossed to these violent judeo wahabis, then they could easily put them under harem and forbid anyone to have contact or do business with them. They have not. These terrorist movements always start with a small group that succeeds in intimidating the larger population and from there it grows. Though these groups like the Satmar mazy be annti-zionist, they are not Neturei Karta, and would probably carrying out acts of violence against those who support giving up land for peace. Beit Shemesh must prepare to have secular residents driven out, kall womens head shaved or snooded, wigs will be pulled off and burnt in communal bonfires, male children will travel only with fathers, female with mothers behind the bus mechitza. Others will follow and this ilk will be elected to municipal office and Beit Shemesh will become a complete wahabi stronghold.
Dear Sim, since you do not live in Israel, I assume you prefer the good life in the USA and therefore do not really know the true situation here. Be that as it may, why can people not live and let live? Maybe if the Charedim would use a gentler and calmer way of bringing the non-frum jews back to frumkeit. By the way, chiloni is a very derogatory word and as a Jew you should know not to insult people. I was on a bus that was attacked by this mob and a yound girl sitting next to me said to me if this is how the frum Jews behave, why should I continue my studies to become frum? If they want Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet to be chareidi, I have no problem with that, but then they must sort out their own bus service, electricity, water, garbage collection etc (which by the way is subsidised by the WORKING people in Beit Shemesh).
Don't worry, MK Meir Porush has already sewn up the next Mayoral election in Beit Shemesh. He will be running a Sephardic candidate in partnership with his friends from Shas. In Beitar Shas secured a committment from Porush to disband the neighborhood Residency Screening Committee so that their constituents could move in to the city. These are the exact people Satmar and Breslav want to keep out of Ramat Beit Shemesh. And who did Porush back in Beitar? The Breslaver Rubinstein. Fun times ahead, watch this space!
...since for two thousand years Jews kept the Torah in the galut dreaming of returning to Jerusalem and Zion, and now that Torah Jews (such as Charedim) have made it to the finish line and are finally living and thriving in Zion and Jerusalem, they should be praised for upholding, validating and sanctifying the blood sweat and tears that the Jewish people went through in order to come and live in peace and harmony in the Jewish homeland. It's a disgrace that secular chiloni Jews think that there's something wrong here, they are not thinking "Jewish" if they think that having Charedi Jews move into Jewish neighborhoods, in the Jewish homeland, is problematic. Let the Charedi march go forth, they'll win, and a word of advice to the Charedi-bashers and haters, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, the Charedim have many Kiruv Jewish Torah outreach programs designed to meet your needs which is bound to bridge the gaps and will help you feel better and more accepting. Remember: Ahavat Yisrael
The Orthodox have already close to a majority of primary school students. Don't worry almost all of them are going to vote. It's a matter of time...
-Aren't the two antithetical? what did the writer mean?
Or the entire group will be branded, as is happening now. They will choose and will be judged accordingly.
Strange that in a democratic country the police abdicate law and order for political reasons. You meet with their rabbis but do not attempt to arrest the law breakers. If you arrest the law breakers, they riot. Start enforcing the law, or build a solid wall to separate the communities. Beit Shemesh needs a mayor who has the guts to tell the police to do their job and start arresting anyone who breaks the law. Start prosecuting the owner of the billboards if they are violating any law.