After a long struggle, the chareidi majority in the Ramot neighborhood of Yerushalayim has a chareidi community council. Activists involved in bringing about the change explain they were not opposed to a non-frum council in principle, but when it became clear that the non-frum local representatives were uninterested in serving the chareidi majority in the area, it was time to make a change.
Rabbi Naftali Lawrence, the representative of the rabbonim will be on the Lev Ramot Council alongside 14 others, nine of whom community volunteers tapped as representatives of local rabbonim.
The new chareidi majority has announced it plans to work with the professionals in the local council, the paid employees, including the chairman, Asher Kuperstock.
The council plays a vital role in defining the character of the neighborhood, allocating funds for cultural events, education and other aspects of day-to-day life. The growing chareidi tzibur has been fighting the council for years, accusing elected officials of ignoring the chareidi majority, ignoring their needs in budgetary allocations.
The chareidi parties earned 66% of the vote as compared to less than 50% in the last elections some four years earlier.
Residents had an uphill battle against Jerusalem City Hall, which tried to work with the former council to avoid neighborhood elections, but when the mayor realized the chareidi tzibur was going to take this fight to the Supreme Court if necessary, elections were held and Baruch Hashem the expected outcome was realized, the chareidi majority now controls the community council.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
This is really fascinating. My chareidi friends live in Ramot for almost a decade and this is the first time they even heard about elections. They weren`t asked to participate in elections, not this year nor four years ago. I wonder if more people would have been informed if this council would have been put in place ages ago.