The Meah Shearim, Geula, Bucharim Community Council is awaiting final approval from Jerusalem City Hall for funding for its Back to Tradition community tours, set to include the neighborhoods mentioned. The city’s Finance Committee is expected to approve the program during a meeting next week. Needless to say many residents of the chareidi communities are displeased with the news as they frown on bringing outsiders into the area since such a move for many is synonymous with comprised modesty standards and introducing an unwanted lifestyle into the area.
Tourists visiting Jerusalem will be able to sign up for neighborhood tours in these areas after the city approves the move, which in some cases will include workshops and eating with community residents.
Organizers explain there is a wealth of history in these communities and many visitors are anxious to get a look inside. Organizers explain many are unaware that Meah Shearim was established as a non-chareidi area back in 1874 by personalities including Yoel Solomon and Yosef Rivlin.
Maariv quotes some “extremist elements” responding, “The chareidi tzibur is unwilling to learn about the Zionist past of the area. The program is likely to expose out tzibur to tuma, the type of which our rabbonim have worked to keep hidden and this will not be permitted.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
tourists are going to come NEVERTHELESS, so isn’t it better when they are on a guided tour and some areas are restricted and so open to visit and intermingle.
we already know about the Zionist past all we have to do is look at all the destruction
I don’t think the Ma’ariv quote is valid. It smells like provocation. I have seen too many cases where a writer will concoct a quotation from his own imagination, attribute to anonymous “sources” or “elements,” and use it to prove his otherwise-weak point.
There’s a precedent for this. Look at the ‘Biblical zoo’. Will there be signs by the cages saying “do not feed the hareidim”?
Perhaps we should organize tours of some of the highlights of secular Israel. They could Tel Aviv – oops, I forgot that would be highly “inappropriate” (wink).
Meah Shariim and Geula has many different types of people ranging from lovable normal to crazy extremist.
In reality, the concept of a tour might be interesting to a secular chiloni who only knows of the charadim from reading the virulent Ha’aretz and its like. But would a tour as such change their view or would it make it more anti-charadi?
Depends on who they meet there…
#2 on the contrary, the building.
Geulah and Meah Shearim LOVE the tourists. The number of stores in the area have multiplied in recent years. THEY LOVE THE TOURIST GELT!
I suspect we are missing an opportunity here. We the Chareidim should be running such tours. Tours that offer an authentic, inside, perspective and of course insist on modest clothing as a matter of course. Such tours would show what we want people to view including our vibrant, growing and successful communities that have rapidly taken over the once nearby non-religious communities. A stop explaining our triumphs at Kikkar Shabbat, another at the ultimately successful Edelson theatre war etc… For Jews we arrange an appropriate lecture/chat at Ohr Somayach or similar Kiruv opportunity.
As someone once said about some of our enemies, we never seem to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Just like the Israeli Rabbinate could have made Israel frum decades ago by showing the caring and human face of Yiddishkeit to Jews seeking a marriage licence instead of the faceless beurocracy that they have shown instread, these tours should rather be seen as a wonderful opportunity for us to run them as a Kiddush HaShem.