Chabad - Prof. David Berger's clarification of Village Voice article

Regarding a recent article about Chabad in the Village Voice there was a quote from Prof. Berger which seemed to indicate that he had greatly modified his critique of Chabad. The following is his response to my request for clarification of the Village Voice interview.
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Professor Berger wrote:

Dear Rabbi L. and Rabbi Eidensohn,

I have not chas ve-shalom reversed my position regarding Chabad.

You are welcome to post the following clarification:

The relevant section of the Village Voice article reads as follows:

“Though [Berger] staunchly opposes the movement, he says that there are strong theological underpinnings both to the messianism and even to the ‘seemingly crazy assertion’ that the rebbe really didn't die. ‘Judaism says that in every generation, there is a righteous person that connects the world to the divine energy,’ he explains. ‘If there is no leader, the world would actually cease to exist. So the fact that the rebbe has died and that the world continues to exist is a conundrum to them, and it leads them to believe that the rebbe must not have died. But even people who believe he did die find this to be a challenging question.’ They resolve it, he adds, by opining that we're living in strange times, or that the rebbe is still providing the divine connection from his grave.” Ad kan.

I posted the following comment on the paper’s website.

“I am quoted as saying the following: ‘Judaism says that in every generation, there is a righteous person that connects the world to the divine energy. If there is no leader, the world would actually cease to exist.’ I said this about Lubavitch hasidism, not about Judaism as a whole.” Ad kan.

Let me clarify the point and why I think it is important. The instinctive reaction that Lubavitch messianists (and kal va-chomer those who believe the Rebbe is alive) are meshugoyim is one of the reasons why people fail to deal with this clear and present danger to Judaism seriously. Some of the believers are no doubt crazy, but most—even of the latter variety--are not. For them, it is a given that the world can survive only through the mediation of a physical tzaddik, and since the birth of Chabad this tzaddik must be the Lubavitcher Rebbe of the generation. It is simply unthinkable that it could be anyone else. This is all standard Lubavitch theology.

Thus, it is the people who recognize that the Rebbe died who are forced to resort to what they admit are shinuyei dechikei to the point of saying that the world in our generation is sustained and governed from the Rebbe’s gravesite. To illustrate that people who deny sense perception as a result of faith can be entirely normal, I noted the masses of Catholics who believe that the real body of Jesus is present in a piece of bread.

Once we realize that this un-Jewish belief is deeply rooted in a theology that virtually all Lubavitch hasidim affirm—and once we realize that the belief in the Rebbe’s Messiahship and even divinity are also driven by deeply entrenched elements of Lubavitch theology as well as in statements of the Rebbe himself-- we will be less inclined to dismiss these beliefs as the transient products of the fevered imaginations of a handful of wild-eyed lunatics. At that point, maybe we will stop dismissing all this as an amusing curiosity and actually try to do something to prevent the believers from being recognized as Orthodox rabbis and religious functionaries, a recognition that betrays Judaism and desecrates the memory of kedoshim through the ages who died to preserve the theological boundaries between Judaism and Christianity.

Shavei Israel V - Proselytization as kiruv

Guest Post: Recipients and Publicity's comment to "Shavei Israel III - Proselytizing not kiruv/Findin...":
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Bartley Kulp had written criticizing RaP's analysis:

None of this however is remotely connected with Shalvei yisrael's activities. They work with the "Orthodox" Israeli rabbinate. The reason why they omitted mentioning this in the JPost article is that the subject was irrelevant. The hidden Jews of Poland are not Anusim nor are they a lost tribe. Heck nobody at this point is even discussing immigration for these people. This is an issue of kiruv. What makes Polish Jewry unique as a community is that most of them until recently have been living in fear and suppressing their Jewish identity or they do not relate to it. Many of them are just finding out now that they are Jewish because it was not told to them by their parents. Nonetheless they can probably document their authenticity as well as any Jew from the US who is not Frum.

You also use the term "so called anusim". This is a reflection of ignorance. The anusim have been known about and documented for decades now. In fact there is a rather large concentration of them in the south western United States among the Mexican Ethnics there.

Ethiopian Jewry are also very well documented with rabbanim paskening that they are Jewish or that they are almost sure that they are Jewish. For the life of me I have no idea what is trying to accomplish with his postings.

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Analysing the words of the Shavei Israel article in the Jewish Press.

Bartley: It was an article in the Brooklyn based Jewish Press , not the Israeli Jerusalem Post (same initials tho, so that is confusing).

Anyhow, the Jewish Press article about "hidden Jews" in Poland described and hence revealed some very disturbing aspects and activities of Shavei Israel. Reading plain English, just look at the terminology and what it said:

"Twenty-two young Poles who recently discovered their Jewish roots"

What "roots" are they talking about? Mother or grandmother was Jewish? Father or grandfather? All of the above? Some of the above? None of the above? Which? After all according to Shavei Israel's website they prepare people for conversions so is that what they have done, or will do, or are doing to this batch of newly-minted "hidden Polish Jews" as well as to others? How far and how wide will this effort be? Will it impact the demographics of Israel if unchecked? It may, given that Michael Freund served Benjamin Netanyahu, is thus linked to the Israeli Zionist governmental establishment and is highly skilled with an MBA from Columbia and a BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and huge resources behind him, and lots of good-will from wannabe and soon to be Jews.

"a number of the participants have decided to remain in Israel and continue their studies"

What studies? For conversion? Not for conversion? Since Shavei Israel's website mentions classes for supposed Anusim to convert what were the classes for the "hidden Poles" about? So are these newly discovered former "hidden Poles" like any Anusim who must convert regardless of their claims of "Jewish" lineage? Or are the "hidden Poles" real Halachick Jews? Or are they just gentiles curious about Judaism?

This is not a game. The Shavei Israel website makes it clear how serious they take themselves and the need for Halachic conversions, but from the JP press release/article about "hidden Polish Jews" there is no indication and convergence with the geirut activities taking place at Shavei Israel world headquarters.

"ensure that the younger generation of Polish Jews"

By what standard can we believe that they are truly Halachically "Jews"? especially if we read the rest of what is written in the same piece.

"Currently, there are approximately 4,000 Jews registered as living in Poland"

What does it mean they are "registered"? Who are they "registered" with and who relies on it and what standards are being used here to define being a Jew? Do self-declarations by any Pole (the so-called "Jews by choice") who wants to claim being a Jew count? Is any proof required to be "registered" as Jew in Poland? If so what kind of proof from Jewish sources? Would the Israeli Chief Rabbinate accept these 4,000 Polish Jews as actually being Halachicaly acceptable Jews? And it gets worse...

"experts suggest there may be tens of thousands of other Jews in Poland who to this day are either hiding their identities or are simply unaware of their family heritage."

Wow! If they are hiding does Shavei Israel need to go searching for them? And what does "family heritage" mean? How much family connection must their be to qualify here for having a "family heritage" of being Jewish? What is the official definition of "heritage" from Shavei Israel's point of view? If they did not think this through, then either they were guilty of being simplistic or they are guilty of trying to pull the wool over discerning readers' eyes.

"some Polish Jews chose to sever all connection with Judaism and to hide it from their children and grandchildren, who are now beginning to discover the truth."

Ok, but it does not explain the exact relationships between and lineage of the children and grandchildren. Today's Polish youth are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of people who lived (and died) in World War II and the Holocaust. Who is Shavei Israel's main target audience? Is this going to be like what happened in the former USSR where anyone with a connection to a Jewish person was able to be brought to Israel resulting in over 300,000 Russian gentiles coming over to Israel with the help of the Israeli authorities? And now that that that well has run dry are the avowedly Zionistic leaders of Shavei israel going to ignite the same thing in Poland, as well as all over Europe or anywhere in the world, so that the tidal wave of non-Halachic Jews who are gentiles who came from the former Soviet Union will be dwarfed by an even larger Tsunami flood of similar non-Jewish gentiles who will utterly destroy what is left of the Jewish character of Israel with their quasi half baked ideas and notions of Torah true Judaism, if at all?

Eizehu chacham, haro'eh et hanolad, and are the leaders of Shavei Israel doing this and wise enough to realize the serious and flawed implications of their well-intentioned efforts to encourage "hidden Jews" -- itself a highly misleading and ambiguous term -- to come over to Israel where they could well become the new majority (after all their are many people who that many nations are the descendants of the Ten Lost tribes!) and if they were to double or triple or more the numbers of the 300,000+ non_Jewish Russians in Israel? What has happened to "once bitten, twice shy" among Jews, or is it like the old saying goes, "a nation that does not remember its history is destined (doomed) to repeat it"!?

"In other cases involving Jewish children adopted by Catholic families or institutions during the Holocaust, the adoptees or their descendants have begun to uncover their Jewish roots."

Again the talk of "Jewish roots" but this time in the context of people who are actively Catholic so that this means they need to go into the Catholic Church's domains and Christian communities. Is this to promote a new wave of "Anusim"? It may then have the corollary that maybe Shavei Israel will launch programs to "bring back" Messianic Jews, Hebrew Christians and Jews for Jesus who would be no less than deserving than the Jews openly and willingly lost within the bowels and jaws of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland and elsewhere. By the way, if you know your Catholic history in regards to baptised Jews the Catholic hierarchy does not allow them to return to Judaism and they fight it with all their might. So Shavei Israel might even ignite a religious holy war over this. Anything is possible in these crazy time.

So if all this is very weird and not in keeping with what Shavei Israel claims on its high falutin website with its bows to the religious establishment while it pursues quite a different dangerous missionary and proselytising agenda for its own self-created goals, making their efforts very questionable for those concerned about Orthodox Judaism being watered down in all sorts of weird ways.

To sum up for now, this is very far from any form of real Kiruv. While the Shavei Israel rabbis and staff may be going through the motions of kiruv and using its parlance and modus operandi, what they are doing is more in sync with Reform Judaism's "keruv" to gentiles and gentile spouses of its members in order to help raise the number of "Jews" and bring them back to an illusory home.

At some time or another this entire effort is going to get the same shaft that Rabbi Drukman got from the Israeli Supreme Rabbinical Courts (and he at least was doing ONLY conversions only via Batei Din, with none of this hokey outreach to "hidden Jews"), and the ultimatum, warning and Publicity that was given to the Recipients of a warning letter from the BADATS to many rabbis not to support and get involved with the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) efforts to reach out to the gentile spouses of Jews, also being a twisted application and practice of the original Kiruv credo and work.

Oh how the times they are a changin'...

Shavei Israel IV - Targets non-Jews for conversion

Shavei Israel's proselytizes those who are not halachic Jews but are non-Jews of either patrilinear descent or are interested in Judaism (not in conversion) or have a vague sense of belonging to the Jewish people. The halachic sources they rely on (Rav Kalisher & Rav Uzeil) are far from the overwhelmingly accepted mainstream positions. The following is taken from their website FAQ:

In some cases, their Jewish origin can be proven though the existence of documents or objects that were handed through the generations in the family. Another way to research their roots is through finding the source of the family name. The problem is that these are not final proofs for a number of reasons: Firstly, because of the fact that any family name was the name of a Jew does not prove that it was only a Jewish name. In addition to this, even if it was a Jewish family name, without a genealogy that can cover several generations, one cannot say with certainty anything about a family’s Jewish heritage. But there is a third method: In many cases, the traditions that were passed down through the generations have produced in a person clear and incontestable belonging. Sometimes, this very feeling of belonging becomes the strongest drive for returning to the Jewish people.

What is the Halachah’s attitude on this subject?

Our modern arbiters of Halachah, such as Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer, Rabbi Benzion Uzziel, expressed their opinion on this important topic for our generation. The Halachic response is clear and simple: A person’s religion is according to his mother. If the mother is not Jewish, the son is not Jewish. Nobody argues on this point. Anyway, what is to be our attitude to such an offspring? Is he like the other nations? Does he have a unique status? Is it a Mitzvah to bring him closer to Judaism or to distance him?

Rabbi Kalischer wrote important reasons on this topic: A child whose father is Jewish but his mother is not, we must open the door before him in order for him to return and to bring him into the covenant of Avraham our forefather at the proper time. When he grows up he can act in accordance with his father’s will and to immerse in a ritual bath. If he is not circumcised, we shall distance him with both hands from the Jewish people and not observe the verse: Do not distance to the lost ones. It is the father’s responsibility because he is of the “holy seed”, so if it is possible to save this root from the impurity that it is, to free it from its prison and return him to holiness, this is a worthy thing to do.”

In some of his Halachic responsa, Rabbi Uzziel innovated the concept of “holy seed” to apply to the son of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. In his opinion, it is a mitzvah to bring him into the fold of the Jewish people for his father’s sake and for the sake of the entire Jewish people. According to his words, it is a mitzvah to accept his request to convert in order not “to distance the lost ones.”

What can I do in order to return to Judaism?

In general, the return process includes several preparatory steps. On the one hand there is an intellectual preparation that includes, in the main, studying. In order to become part of the Jewish people, it is very important to reclaim the lost memory, to know its history, customs and thought. Furthermore, it is very important that this knowledge break through the barrier of theory, become a way of life, that the traditions and customs become part of everyone’s daily life. These two aspects can be completed by self-learning, through reading and studying or with the assistance of a teacher, instructor or rabbi. On the other hand, there is an additional requirement of integrating into communal life. Judaism was always characterized by its social life. Therefore, there is the highest importance for meeting within a Jewish context. In this aspect, the best decision is to approach the closest local community.

In summation, coming closer to the Jewish people has a tripartite dimension: Knowledge, emotion and Jewish experience. These three fundamentals are the secret of returning to the Jewish people.

Sexual Identity - Transgender Professor at YU

Recipients and Publicity forwarded from New York Post:

Yeshiva University torn by transgender challenge.

A Yeshiva University professor left two years ago as a man - and returned last week as a woman.

Literature Professor Joy Ladin, formerly known as Jay Ladin, 47, showed up for her first day of school sporting pink lipstick, a tight purple shirt and a flirty black skirt. She cheerfully strutted through the doors of the Midtown campus' main building, where she oversees the writing center.

Many at the Jewish university are horrified by the presence of the transgender professor. Some fear the news could cut alumni donations.

Ladin and the school won't comment on the situation, but some rabbis are shocked that she's still a member of the faculty.

"He's not a woman. He's a male with enlarged breasts," said Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a senior dean at Yeshiva's rabbinical school and a professor of biology and medical ethics. "He's a person who represents a kind of amorality which runs counter to everything Yeshiva University stands for. There is just no leeway in Jewish law for a transsexual.

"There is no niche where he can hide out as a female without being in massive violation of Torah law, Torah ethics and Torah morality."

Even if not in spirit, Ladin remains part male.

Although she's taking progesterone and estrogen to grow breasts and feminize her appearance, she retains the most prominent part of her manhood, according to the prologue of her unfinished memoir, "Inside Out: Confessions of a Woman Caught in the Act of Becoming." [...]

Ladin's wife filed for divorce and custody of their three kids and moved out of their Amherst, Mass., house, according to friends.

Although some rabbis are outraged by Ladin's return, many students are celebrating. [...]

Shayndi Raice Sigall, 26, of the Upper East Side, took Ladin's class in 2004 and said her return would offer students a unique learning experience.

"There are transgender people all over the world, and this is a wonderful opportunity for the school to show students firsthand how you can respect and learn from someone who might be different from you," Sigall said.

The transgender community is also thrilled with the surprising decision. [...]

Shavei Israel III - Proselytizing not kiruv/Finding Jews that don't exist

Guest Post: Recipients and Publicity's comment to "Shavei Israel II - Exploiting Law of Return Loopho...":

For once I agree with Jersey Girl's attitude here. [See JPost article she forwarded]

But Bartley, while I admit that my post was somewhat far-reaching, it does make a very good point, that in spite of Shavei Israel's posturing and to be blunt, MANIPULATION of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's requirements for conversions, if you just take a hard cold look at what Shavei Israel is up to, and the JP article was a good example, they are searching high and low for ANY people with the remotest connections to the Jewish people, and they will work with people that halacha is clear are pure gentiles, meshumadim and outright Christians who do not have have a Jewish mother, for a few generations, and may even have been Catholics for a long time and in fact don't even want to "come back" to the Jewish people and Zion so that to get involved in "kiruv-like" activities to haul these people in that is a very controversial, and probably Halachically forbidden, activity.

Your contention that Shavei Israel is no different than a kiruv operation is wrong because they are working with the goal to reach people who THEY know will often times be gentiles and will require conversions, which is not and should not be the classical definition of "kiruv" which means reaching out to non-observant Jews and trying to mekarev them.

If you had read what I have written in some earlier posts about Kiruv that Dr. Eidensohn kindly published, you will see that what Shavei Israel is doing is like the current Reform Judaism effort of "Keruv" to non-Jews and to non-Jewish partners of Jews in the hope of bringing into the Jewish people and not even trying to convert them. This is the Achilles heel of the EJF/R. Leib Tropper/Tom Kaplan effort in spite of its counter-claims, and that is that in effect Shavei Israel, the Reform movement and even EJF are promoting a kind of evangelical Judaism that seeks to proselytize people into becoming Jews when they are neither asking for it nor need it.

Reminder - anonymous comments rejected

Islamic Anti-semitism - A sourcebook

Arutz Sheva reports:[...]

In his book, " The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History", author Dr. Andrew G. Bostom describes what it was like living as a Jew under Moslem rule. Quoting from Islamic sources and historical records, this 700+ page book provides a plethora of unaltered and complete historical accounts on how Islamic governments treated Christians, Jews, and other 'infidels'.

Bostom was inspired to focus on the Jewish aspect of history living under the thumb of Islam during research for another book on the Islamic treatment of non-Muslims. When he came across a quote by Sufi jurist Sirhindi (d. 1621): "Whenever a Jew is killed, it is for the benefit of Islam," he began researching and recording Jewish experiences under Muslim rule on a scholarly level.

In his August 31 interview on Israel National Radio's Tamar Yonah Show, he shared the dramatic account of a young Moroccan Jewess in her teens who lived in the 1800's, named Sol Hachuel. Falsely accused on charges of "apostasy" from Islam, she was offered riches and special rights if she embraced Islam - or prison, torture and death if she did not. Sol Hachuel chose to be imprisoned, starved, tortured and then decapitated in the town square rather than give up her Judaism. "I was born a Jew, and I shall die a Jew," she boldly stated to the Islamic court, according to Bostom's accounts.

On the show, Bostom read her historic speech that inspired the Fez Jewish community to remain committed to their Judaism despite the hardships of constant false charges, unfair heavy taxes, violence and murder.

Hear Hachuel's riveting last words to her executioner and her people

Listen Now or Download the interview.

Shavei Israel II - Exploiting Law of Return Loophole

Guest Post: Recipients and Publicity's comment to "Shavei Israel - Proselytizing or discovering Jews?...":

Exploiting the loophole in Israel's Law of Return for not having "giyur kehalacha" in it.

It was interesting that in the article about the Polish "hidden Jews" published in the latest Jewish Press, which is really just a press release from Shavei Israel that the JP, as is their style, has published, there is not a single word about Halacha and geirus. Not even the broader generalized terminology of "Jewish law" and "conversions" yet when one clicks on to the Shavei Israel website there are many links about that all the work they do is in accordance with the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and that they facilitate real conversions.

This is often the two-facedness, in other words hypocrisy (often self-created) of many Israeli governmental, kiruv and outreach type organizations. To win friends and influence people -- and of course to set the ground for major fund raising appeals with the unsuspecting Jewish public being softened up by these kind of media campaigns, and after all, Michael Freund head of Shavei Israel is described on their website as "Deputy Director of Communications & Policy Planning in the Prime Minister's Office under Benjamin Netanyahu" so he knows the whole PR game and how even press releases that pose as "articles' can be used as self-created "endorsementa" allowing for outright proselytising.

When the Holocaust destroyed Europe's Jewish centers, the survivors who came to Israel were all Halachik Jews. When Arab nationalism and antisemitism made life in Islamic lands impossible for Jews forcing them to come to Israel, they were 100% Halachic Jews. But then funny things started to happen. The fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of antisemitism brought forth people who wanted to take advantage of the well-established Israeli state. Everyone knew that the Jews of the USSR had non-Jewish relatives. The State of Israel and its secular elites, in a an ongoing fit and manifestation of POST-Zionism allowed the forbidden by opening the gates to people who should have been denied entry for the simplest of reasons, they did not qualify by the standards of Israel's own key 1950 Law of Return that could and should have easily excluded questionably Jewish Russians, Poles, Chinese, Indians and whatnot because they did not meet even Ben Gurion's original criteria for Israeli citizenship based on core classical Jewish identity.

The fatal loophole in the law that was compromised, was that the Law of Return, while talking of Jewish matrilineal descent, did not have in it the qualifying proviso of "giyur kehalacha" a "convert according to Halacha"!

And so the crack was opened and began a flood-gate. In poured the Russians, Falashas, so-called "Anusim", and now Shavei Israel and others like them take further advantage in the name of "Zionism" and "Judaism" and on their website even "conversion" but it will not be long before even these games will be dropped and anyone who thinks they are "Jewish" will decide they have the "right" to immigrate to Israel.

For the record, it was none other than the last Lubavitcher Rebbe who waged the strongest and longest political war to get the Israeli government to add the "giyur kehalacha" addendum as part of religious party's pre-conditions for joining the Shamir government. The uproar and counter-attacks against Chabad were furious, but the religious party's did not succeed, either by not insisting enough or being rejected, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe backed off at that time. Pity.

Israeli education endangers its existence

YNET reports:
The cultural ignorance of the secular education endangers the State's strength, Professor Ruth Gavison warned Sunday evening at the graduation ceremony of the Mandel Leadership Institution in Jerusalem. The Hebrew University law professor also warned against the lack of joint civil studies in the different streams of education.

Gavison complained that students of the state education system are unaware of the importance of a Jewish state and do not know why the battle for its existence has yet to end. "There is nothing which determines the State's strength more than the education it gives the young generation," she said.

Israel, educational policy should reflect the national, religious and cultural plurality, but also the joint objectives of the entire state. In practice, Israel gives preponderance to the multitude of minority groups, and fails to sufficiently stress the joint civil core, and the education for a rich identity of the Jewish-Zionist enterprise's key group – the Zionist group which does not observe mitzvot."

In an overall and harsh attack on the Israeli education system, Prof. Gavison went on to say that "in the Arab sector there is complete freedom to defy the legitimacy of the State's Jewishness, to argue that Israel must give up its Jewish uniqueness, and even to renounce basic duties of taking part in the civil life.

"This is a dangerous trend, both for the State and for the stability of the delicate link between majority and minority in Israel," she added. "The haredim, on the other hand, are unwilling to introduce core citizenship studies and integrations into the economy and society, and a significant number of them do not serve in the army and are not integrated into the workforce. This trend was recently backed by the political system for coalitional considerations." She then stressed the problematic character of the secular society. "The secular Zionist majority in Israel does not receive parallel education which is rich with identity, but rather a neutral education fitting the perception of the civil state. This majority is not given tools to significantly deal with the identity problems and the rightness of the way, which are a critical part of the ongoing success of the Zionist battle today.

"The combination of these trends endangers Israel in terms of its chances to survive in the long term as a state defending the Jewish people's right for self-definition, which is both democratic and defends its residents' human rights, and thriving."

Jerusalem become Chareidi?/ Demographics

Haaretz reports:

As an old-time Jerusalemite, city council member Saar Netanel (Meretz) remembers when the city's northern areas, Ramat Eshkol and Maalot Dafna, were populated by "bohemians" - television people, writers such as Meir Shalev and Amos Oz, the newscaster David Witztum, Knesset members, judges - in short, the stars of the 1970s and '80s. "Now all that is mere romantic memories," he says.

They say Jerusalem is turning ultra-Orthodox - that the city is being "Haredized." Supporters of this theory point out that evidence of this process can be found in the rising strength of the ultra-Orthodox sector in the local government institutions, mainly since Uri Lupolianski took over as mayor of Jerusalem in 2003. People talk about the "invasion" of the ultra-Orthodox into neighborhoods that had been markedly secular in character until then.

But is there any concrete evidence that Jerusalem's real estate market is becoming Haredized, or is the phenomenon limited to certain areas? The answer turns out to be complicated. There is evidence of a moderate increase in demand by ultra-Orthodox families throughout the city, and a significant increase in demand by Haredi families in certain quarters of the capital.

The real figures may come as a surprise. Many Jerusalem neighborhoods are indeed increasingly characterized by an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. But a study of the demographic changes in the city shows that, in relation to Jerusalem's entire Jewish population, the proportion of ultra-Orthodox has increased quite modestly in recent years.

Jerusalem today has 740,000 residents, 480,000 of whom are Jewish. Dr. Maya Choshen of The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies says that according to the institute's estimates, in 1995 the ultra-Orthodox constituted 29% of the city's Jewish population while in 2000, the figure was 30%. Today it's 32%, or some 196,000 people.

These figures illustrate that the increase of Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox population over the last 13 years was modest. By 2020, the proportion of Haredim out of the city's total Jewish population isn't likely to exceed 35%. [...]


The figures also belie another myth: that the secular are abandoning Jerusalem in droves, leaving the capital to the religious community. Yet the data shows that no small proportion of the people leaving Jerusalem are in fact Haredi.

The Haredim truly do face difficulties in the city. There's no future for them there, explains David Silbershlag, an ultra-Orthodox publicist and journalist. "They talk about negative immigration of the secular but everybody forgets that immigration has been negative among the ultra-Orthodox, too. A lot of them have moved to the satellite towns [around Jerusalem] such as Modi'in Illit, Beitan Illit, Elad and Beit Shemesh," Silbershlag says.

And because there aren't enough housing projects being built for the ultra-Orthodox community, some are even moving back to Tel Aviv. They're storming the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa, they're moving to Lod and will soon be moving to Ramle, too, Silbershlag adds.

The bottom line is that there is a demand for housing by the ultra-Orthodox throughout Jerusalem, and real growth in certain areas. [...]