Better to not build Haredi yeshivas in Ramat Sharett
Residents of the mixed religious/secular neighborhood of Ramat Sharett in Jerusalem are furious over the municipality’s approval of three yeshivas on the edge of their neighborhood at last week’s city council meeting.Me too. And I think it's better not to take steps that could lead to its becoming another potentially unpleasant neighborhood with a ghetto mentality full of people who could be of sects like the Satmar. So I am also voicing my objections.
On Thursday, the residents will hold a planning meeting with City Councilor Rachel Azaria (Yerushalmim) to try and submit a petition to the city’s Administrative Court to stop the yeshiva’s creation.
Last week, the City Council approved the creation of three yeshivas for haredi students on the border between the haredi neighborhood of Bayit Vegan and the mixed neighborhood of Ramat Sharett.
Azaria said this was an attempt to “blur the borders” between the haredi neighborhood and the surrounding area in order to make it easier for haredim to spread non-haredi areas.
“Jerusalem's neighborhoods are diverse and complex, that’s our city’s beauty,” Azaria said on Wednesday.
“Therefore, the declared city policy is to allocate public land and resources for the needs of each neighborhood’s residents in order to preserve its character. Ramat Sharett is a pluralistic neighborhood, with secular and modern orthodox working families. That’s why I was surprised to learn of the plan to build three haredi yeshivot on a public lot, a plan that seems intended to turn Ramat Sharett into a haredi neighborhood.”
Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Jerusalem, Judaism