Jerusalem municipality boasts in official publication: we succeeded in expelling Haredim from city

Data from the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies published in Ha'aretz newspaper this morning (Monday) indicate that the Haredi population in the capital is dwindling, while the secular population - increased. City officials were overly enthusiastic about the data, uploaded them to Facebook - and received a flood of angry responses.

The data show that this is the second consecutive year where the number of students in public education and state - religious in Jerusalem has increased. That is, after ten years of steady decline in the number of students in these schools. The decline has been explained so far with the negative migration of young secular families from Jerusalem, which was probably halted in the last two years.

However, the new data added this year, is the decline in the number of applicants for grades 1-6 in the haredi education. The number of haredi students in Jerusalem in elementary school dropped from the previous school year from 36 349 to 35 880 for this year. While the number of students in public education (religious and secular together) increased from 22 136 last year, to 22 725 this year.

The data is explained by the Jerusalem Institute researcher, Dr. Maya Choshen, in that in the last decade the flow of young Haredim who are leaving the city has greatly increased, especially to haredi cities of Ramat Bet Shemesh, Modi'in Illit and Betar Illit, because of the housing crisis.

"In a way we predicted it," says Choshen. "The part of Jerusalem haredi immigrants is at least as much as the haredim in the city's population. The apartments in Jerusalem are expensive, not only for secular."

However, an essential qualification should be added: It is possible that some of the change in numbers in the Haredi sector is also affected by the change in data collection by the Jerusalem Municipality. Furthermore, the data does not include students who are not registered in any official education system, such as students in the educational institutions of the radical sects who refuse to receive state funding.

Publishing datat on Facebook – offends a large population

The Jerusalem municipality was proud with the datat and rushed to post them on the official Facebook page of the municipality, even Mayor Nir Barkat bothered to boast the data on his Facebook page.

Users were quick to react against raising the article to the social network. One of them wrote: "I can not believe I'm writing this, I am a secular person, a Jerusalem born, and most of my adult life I spent in the fight against haredization of the city - so I can post this piece on my wall and be proud of it. The official Facebook page of the municipality of Jerusalem can not publish this figure in any context – it's not right and it offends a big population, that despite the many differences that I have with them, is still a population with equal rights. "

Nir Hasson, reporter in Ha'aretz, which published the data, also wrote in response, "As one who published the data I agree that there is a difference between publishing them in the newspaper and uploading them to the municipality's page. As a Haredi I would not feel comfortable seeing the municipality, "celebrating" with this data."

The "Dosim" Project, a Haredi Internet advocacy, responded on Facebook: "Shame! In the Jerusalem Municipality there are public figures sent by the Israeli public, racism and hatred of haredim can not be a legitimate target which one can boast with publicly!".

The Jerusalem Municipality said in response: "In recent years there has been an improvement in quality of life of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, enjoyed by all sectors and populations in the city. The municipality invests much in the development of each sector according to its needs, the one next to the other and not at each other's expense.

"Jerusalem Municipality regards positively the increase in the migration balance of young people from the state and state - religious sectors to Jerusalem and is sorry for anyone who chooses to leave Jerusalem from any sector, and is certainly not celebrating it. Likewise, the city is not celebrating the data, G-d forbid, but shares with the public the existing situation, as reflected in the figures published by the Institute for Jerusalem. "

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!