The recent conflict surrounding the Orot Girl’s School in Beit Shemesh aside, while some may not be pleased with the reality, the future of the city is chareidi, at least based on today’s demographic realities. Three out of every four children entering first grade in 2012-2013 school year will be chareidi, and this speaks volumes regarding demographic facts on the ground. The remainder, 625 children, will be attending public schools, both secular and religious.
The growth has been steady since last year the number of chareidim in the education system stood at 60% and the number of chareidi children entering first grade was under 70%.
Beit Shemesh Deputy Mayor (Yahadut HaTorah) Shmuel Greenberg, who holds the city’s education portfolio, the growth is evident among the elementary school children, with chareidi children amounting for 5,800 of 7,000 children between the ages of 5 to 8-year-olds. The deputy mayor explains the national government must begin to address the birthrate and the urgent need for more schools, adding that two classrooms are born every week in the city, most from the chareidi sector.
These numbers include state-funded schools as well as chareidi mosdos which are unrecognized by the Ministry of Education and do not receive state funding.
According to some, the battle over the Orot School is not significant, for “it is a matter of time” until that building and others become chareidi since ultimately, demographics will determine the future of the city.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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21 Responses
There is a new wave of young dati leumi couples buying up the inexpensive apartments in old BS and they will eventually also be having children. And BS is one of the main places that olim come to from the USA and a great deal of the olim end up in the Torani State schools. BS has become extremely expensive-many chareidim are choosing to go to Lod or Elad or other new areas where the housing is more reasonable. Even the new area of RBS that is being marketed to chareidim is still considered expensive for the average Israeli charedi to buy. With the way the real estate market is going in BS, it is a matter of time until it becomes more realistic to sell and move out to a more inexpensive place. (The average cost of a small apartment in RBS or even in the Kirya is exorbitant-and the arnona is ridiculously high).
the battle over the Orot School is not significant, for “it is a matter of time” until that building and others become chareidi
Whether it does or not is not significant, the outrageous anti-torah behavior towards others is what is SIGNIFICANT.
What does the Orot school have to do with a general trend of chareidi population growth in the entire city? Sad to have to go “there.”
this article is completely incorrect… this is assuming that schools such as rappaport, magen avot, torat moshe, etc are chariedi… there are different levels… the above schools are american chariedi and in no way related to israelie chariedi…………if you take ramat alef, shienfeld, old bet shemesh, ramat shilo the majority are dati leumi .. you have bet and kiyat chariedit which are israeli chariedi
The numbers you lay out paint a clear picture, but your interpretation of the numbers is faulty and your conclusions are insulting.
Beit Shemesh and Ramat Beit Shemesh together are over 4-5 times the size now as Beit Shemesh was 20 years ago. Much of this growth has been in the chareidi segment. But this growth has not reflected a reduction in the number of non-chareidi families in Beit Shemesh. Indeed, these same 20 years has seen the creation of the large and influential “anglo” neighborhoods with over a thousand religious non-chareidi families. These same 20 years have seen the creation of several flourishing Torani schools, meaning school that are non-chareidi but that add privately to the religious cirriculum of the State religious schools. The continuing growth of the non-chareidi segments of Beit Shemesh along with the Chareidi segments is reflected in the fact that the 625 students you say are entering non-chareidi 1st grade classes reflect roughly 15-20 classes, but there are many more than 20 nursery school classes opening this year for the non-chareidi constituency.
In the past 20 years the growth of both the chareidi and the non-chareidi segments of Beit Shemesh has been seen in the building of both large apartment buildings with relatively inexpensive apartments in Ramat Beit Shemesh, along with neighborhoods of higher-priced cottages and larger apartments in Beit Shemesh. A fair-minded city government that meets the needs of all citizens would clearly continue this past trend of building for all constituencies.
Once we see that Beit Shemesh is a city with growing numbers of chareidi and non-chareidi families, even if the chareidi numbers are growing faster, it’s clear that schools, housing, and other infrastructure will need to continue to be built for all constituencies. The building of the Orot school at the edge of the Sheinfeld, Nofei Aviv, Ramat Neria, and Nofei HaShemesh neighborhoods, all non-chareidi, was exactly the meeting of such a need. The fact that the school also abutted Ramat Beit Shemesh should not have been a problem given the large numbers of schools being build at the same time in Ramat Beit Shemesh for chareidi schools.
The non-chareidi citizens of Beit Shemesh are not going anywhere. We are also having lots of young children, ken yirbu, and have invested a lot more in our houses, communities, shuls, schools, and more. Most of us are perfectly happy with the growth of the chareidi neighborhoods, with whom we always had good relations before the growth of the kanayim in Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet.
The significance of the Orot issue is the growth of the kanayus, which is hated by most chareidim as much as by the non-chareidim. When the kanayus is stopped, be’H soon, we can see continued growth of all segments of Beit Shemesh happily and peacefully.
If the Deputy Mayor is correct and the City of Beit Shemesh is gradually becoming 100 percent Chareidi, than he is forecasting a tragedy in the making. What was once a vibrant pluralistic city will gradually collapse under the weight of a population of unemployed, uneducated and dysfunctional yidden who refuse to integrate into the social fabric of the medinah. They cannot survive unless they fundamentally change their outlook without changing their committment to halacha.
Mr. krulwich, When the kanayus stops from both ends (the anglo mo/dl community AND the “chareidi extremists” ) then there will be peace in Beit Shemesh.. Both have a hand in the debacle that occured. The jewish world should never forget that.
Don’t call the sikrikim and their supporters kanayim, but reshaim. There is not heter anywhere in the Torah to call an 8-year old girl zonah and prutzah, for scaring children on their way to school, for throwing rocks at people and buses, for destroying public and private property, for using threats to intimidate those they don’t like.
וכאשר יענו אותו, כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ
“וכאשר יענו אותו, כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ”
AMEN TO THE WRONGFUL AFFLICTION AGAINST THE CHAREDIM IN RBS BET. MAY THEY CONTINUE TO GROW AND SPREAD.
As ‘RamatShilo’ (above) said, there are many errors in this article.
“the national government must begin to address the birthrate and the urgent need for more schools, adding that two classrooms are born every week in the city, most from the chareidi sector.”
WHY must the national government address this, when this group (claims) they do not receive, and do not WANT anything from the (ZIONIST) national government?!?
Towns like Beit Shemesh will be criticized as being “anti-chareidi” if they don’t build enough housing, schools, etc. for the chareidi population, but realistically exactly how large of ANY population group that does not contribute to the national or local economy can OTHERS be expected to support?!? – especially when that population sector not only does not contribute to the society as a whole, but does nothing but show hatred, disdain and contempt towards it.
This story misrepresents the reality on the ground. There is a HUGE gap between the really chareidi chedarim and the “public” system.
Most of those classically called chareidim would never send their kids to many if not most of the yeshivos in RBS Aleph. “Rappaport” for example is not chareidi by any sense of the word, nor is it “public” and it is a huge and growing yeshiva system for both boys and girls (separate). Moriah is quickly doubling in size, and this is a chardal yeshiva feeding into the tsioni merkaz harav yeshivas. And even as we head into the more “yeshivish” yeshivas, few of them are classically chareidi.
These statistics are ridiculous.
Chareidirbs, I actually don’t believe you live in RBS, since in RBS everyone knows how terrible the kanayim in question are. Non-kanay chassidim and litvish chareidim are moving away from the street in question because they hate their life being ruined by the kanayim. Chassidim in the middle of RBS-B have been beaten up by them. Ger is in a constant war with them. And slowly everyone is putting aside their fear and starting to speak up, now that we’ve stood up to them. Chareidi men and women from RBS-B thank us for standing up to them.
When I spoke a few weeks ago with Kvod HaRav Kopshitz, head of the Eida for Beit Shemesh, the biggest “kanayus” he was able to mention that happened from the non-chareidi side was the city taking down a sign that was offensive to women. With all due respect, taking down the sign may have been stupid, but it was hardly abusive on the order of cursing at children, shoving men and spitting on women. Also, taking down the sign was a reaction to the kanayus, and happened 2.5 months after the kanayus started.
If you in fact do live here in RBS, I’d be happy to hear what non-chareidi kanayus you say “has a hand in the debacle that occured.” The whole world has been disgusted by the Chillul HaShem from the kanayim, noone should be mesayeiya by supporting it or defending it or justifying it or even downplaying it.
For those who don’t understand how some in the mo/dl community are extremists..just look at their facebook group “We are all orot banot.”They want to make women Rabbis and the like.
#7 – When the kanayus stops from both ends provide an example if you could.
dovid2: don’t call them sikrikim, kanayim, or reshaim. Look at the root cause: MOs or RZs who send their daughters out like zonahs and prutzahs to a school that teaches kefira, who dress untznius, have mixed buses, and use private property in unkosher ways next to Jewish neighborhoods. They were first treated with darchei noam but it didn’t help. What followed, followed. Even now they can stop the unpleasantness by keeping Torah but they won’t.
to kitzur_dot_net:
פורץ גדר ישכנו נחש
#15, how about after the chadash(local RBS paper) came out with an article written by Yisroel Schreiber about how he couldn’t decide which side was worse as the media campaign started by the anglo community in Beit Shemesh.. they wanted to call all the advertisers and tell them that if they continue to advertise in the Chadash paper then they will boycott their products/businesses.. They had NO remorse over the fact that chareidi children , businesses etc were hurt in response to the media campaign. only one or two people in that group had mixed feelings about the media campaign.
how about the hysteria over the blurring out of faces in one circular? Couldn’t they just throw it out in the garbage?? Why are only THEIR needs taken into account.
#13, I most definetely DO live in RBS.. and that is why I am so disgusted the whole situation. It’s one thing to be angry about the violence, name calling.. but another to attack a whole way of life eventhough they claim not to..
chareidirbs, you can certainly find some radical things said by some people here, but (a) that doesn’t reflect anything like the mainstream here, it just means that we’re a diverse neighborhood, and (b) you can’t name an example of kanayus being done against chareidim here. There are loads of things that people may believe, but only the kanayim in question are yelling curses at kids, shoving men, and spitting on women.
neviah, same question: what is being done to chareidim in rbs-b? Nothing. Do you have any examples, or are you just convinced it’s happening because you can’t believe that the kanayim in question are as terrible as they are? 98% of Chassidim in RBS-B are fine ehrlich people, but the kanayim in question are a different breed.
Loyal Jew, I assume you’re posting a disgusting parody and don’t believe what you’re saying, but it’s disgusting to write nonetheless. The only thing that you can question about the way the girls are dressed is that they wear short socks. Many teachers in the school are chareidi, and the worst that they teach is the secular subjects that every school in America, including chareidi schools, teach.
kitzur_dot_net – that’s why we’re not backing down against the kanayim. Utzu eitza ve’asufa, dabru davar (curses) ve’lo yakum, ki imanu kail.
Again, most people in all segments of Beit Shemesh have no problem with 98% of the chareidim here. We all got along with the Gerrers and Yerushalmim in the Kirya Chareidit, and the shteiblach in the Kirya Chareidit are often filled with non-chareidi Jews who daven there. Ken Yirbu. The problem is the kanayus, where a small group of chassidic resha’im are terrorizing both us and also many many chareidi residents of their own neighborhoods. Even if this is hard to believe, there’s no reason to make up facts that aren’t true just to make the reality more pallatable.
mr. krulwich, it’s internet kanayus. ANY time there is criticism it is totally bashed and then go from blog to blog to blog to attack.. they can’t take any criticism at all..
Mr. Krulwich, these things aren’t happening behind closed doors. The photographs and stories in the media prove it all: an MO neighborhood full of semi-tznius, semi-Shabbos, semi-Jewish curiculum in the schools, etc., all on our doorsteps and all lehachis. So who needs to change? Who are the real “kanayim” and “reshaim”?