Ramat Beit Shemesh 3 Haredi? Of course, everyone would say. Its non-Haredi residents. But if you ask me - the answer is a little more complex. A site that does not have a formal synagogue and mikveh cannot be considered a 'Haredi neighborhood,' as far as I'm concerned.
Ramat Beit Shemesh 3 has been the focus of public debate for many years. When it was built, the Ministry of Housing called it the neutral name "Shachar" to prevent it from being populated by Haredim. The municipality and the Ministry of Housing also apologized and justified themselves in front of every microphone: this is not a Haredi neighborhood, and invited market forces to decide. Members of Knesset, judges, and social activists stirred the pot, and for many years the municipality delayed construction on the site.
Until the ultra-Orthodox mayor, Abutbul, arrived and allowed construction in a neighborhood that was formerly ultra-Orthodox.
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Really?
What makes Ramat Beit Shemesh 3 an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood? Sociologically, it has all the criteria for ultra-Orthodox: Hundreds of families have lived there for over a year, and every day trucks unload the contents of another family's apartment. The residents are all ultra-Orthodox, wearing black kippahs, except for a few Braslavs with white kippahs.
Anti-technology ads have also already been hung on balconies.
But what about a synagogue? What about a mikveh? Embarrassingly, these two essential Jewish institutions are not in place.
Actually, there are! God-fearing individuals have established synagogues in homes, basements, warehouses, or trailers, appropriately and appropriately for an ultra-Orthodox place...
And a mikveh for purification? The closest mikveh in the area is an hour's walk away. And what do you do on Shabbat? It turns out that after a year of people not staying in the neighborhood on Shabbat due to the lack of a mikveh, the neighborhood residents paid from their own money to build a mikveh that currently operates only on Shabbat [since the place has no insurance].
And what about a mikveh for men? A private individual set up a makeshift mikveh in his home, but the pit has no heating.
I'm not talking about the other municipal services, such as kindergartens and dormitories, etc. Ironically, when residents complained about 'problems with the roads', the municipality reminded them that this was indeed an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and replied: After all, this is a neighborhood for Avrechim - who has a car?!
So is this the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood we all fought for?
Isn't the neighborhood located in the city that has become a symbol of everything related to the Haredim, after 7 years of a Haredi mayor, entitled to a few organized Yiddishkeit institutions?
The only solution that may materialize is a secular appeal to the High Court of Justice to ban the construction of a mikveh and a synagogue.
Then the fanatics and fanatics of Beit Shemesh will awaken, hold demonstrations, read slogans, and shake up the world.
Then synagogues and mikvahs will be built quickly.
