Despite its image of insularity, recently a modicum of change has occurred in Jerusalem’s haredi community.
Haredim have generally solved their problems by looking inward, but some are beginning to recognize they need help from outside professionals. Cases of child abuse, family violence and pedophilia are now more frequently dealt with by the city’s social services, police and courts and not only by the community’s rabbis.
Many haredi women are joining the workforce after receiving vocational training and not subsisting solely on the handouts their husbands collect as yeshiva students. Haredi websites abound, catering to the community’s needs, but also opening it to the outside world.
And until recently, almost all haredi young men took advantage of an exemption from military service based on the presumption they’re engrossed in Torah study. It’s a source of tremendous resentment toward haredim by the general Israeli public. Several years ago, the Defence Ministry, the army and some rabbis came together to form a new military unit that allows young haredi men who’ve left Torah study to enlist without compromising their religious way of life. No women serve in this unit and its soldiers get glatt kosher food. The initial pilot project was deemed a success, and the unit was recently upgraded to a full-fledged battalion, named Netzer Yehuda, tasked with containing terrorism and unrest in the Jenin district of the West Bank. One-third of its soldiers are haredi, and some 2,500 men have joined its ranks.
Despite these positive signs, some things never change. Nary a year goes by without often-violent protests by haredim. Pretexts have included the possibility of finding ancient Jewish graves in planned road extensions, Shabbat traffic on roads adjacent to haredi neighbourhoods, a store selling chametz on Pesach and the gay pride parade.
In June, Jerusalem’s newly elected secular mayor’s decision to open a municipal parking lot situated near the Old City, and not far from Mea Shearim, on Saturdays sparked protests. The move addressed the genuine need of thousands of tourists and Israelis who flock to the city every Shabbat.
More recently, rioting ensued after police, acting on information from doctors at Hadassah Medical Center, detained a pregnant haredi mother of four suspected of having starved one of her children, a three-year-old, who’s now in serious condition at Hadassah. The mother, who refused to co-operate with police, apparently suffers from “Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy” a psychiatric disorder that causes sufferers to abuse others, usually children, to draw attention or sympathy to themselves.
In both cases, the haredim responded violently. Men lay before vehicles entering the parking lot. Stones and dirtied diapers were thrown at passing vehicles. Intersections were blocked. Police officers were called Nazis. They and municipal employees were attacked. Doctors and social workers were harassed and threatened. Traffic lights were destroyed and hundreds of communal garbage bins were torched.
The police officer in charge of the haredi mother’s investigation likened the actions of some of her associates to those of underworld criminal gangs. His comments echoed apprehensions that not enough is being done to enforce the rule of law among haredim.
According to the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies (JIIS), at the end of 2007, there were 150,000 haredim living in Jerusalem, comprising 30 per cent of its Jews. Ever-growing, the haredi community makes continued inroads into previously non-haredi neighbourhoods, changing the city’s demographics. If it weren’t for young haredim moving to places such as Betar Illit and Modiin Illit (both just over the Green Line in the West Bank) or Ramat Bet Shemesh in search of cheaper housing, their numbers in Jerusalem would be more dramatic. And if U.S. President Barack Obama gets his way and building in all Israeli West Bank settlements is frozen, that drama might yet unfold. JIIS projects that without internal migration, by 2020, 41 per cent of Jerusalem’s Jews will be haredim.
So is there a future for a pluralistic Jerusalem? I can’t say for certain, but as long as enough like-minded people are willing to actively strive for it, there’s hope. That endeavour can be multi-faceted and include counter-demonstrations, solid educational institutions, industry and a vibrant cultural milieu.
During the latest spate of haredi rioting, thousands enjoyed 10 fabulous days of cinema at the 26th Jerusalem International Film Festival. It was our expression of what this city is also about.