The northern city of Charish began as the new chareidi dream, the first city in Israel built with the chareidi tzibur in mind. However, the non frum community which also feels the housing shortage decided to make a bid on Charish and has been fighting for its fair share of the government subsidy pie.
The following information is based on Finance Ministry data and gives an indication as to who is buying in Charish.
200 chareidi families purchased homes in the new Charish project by the end of the second quarter. This refers to group purchases representing chareidim.
No less than 30 tenders were advertised in Charish for 4,600 apartments. Of the total number, 41% was designated for the general non-frum and dati leumi communities; 38% for the general chareidi tzibur and 21% for the nonprofit organizations representing chareidim. A major portion of the control that will determine the character of the city is in the hands of nine private developers which won the tenders for 1,762 units.
The ministry reports that as of the end of June 2013 they sold 350 apartments of which 182 were purchased by couples making their first real estate acquisition, represented by one organization or another. 52% of these buyers live in chareidi areas today with 17% coming from Elad, 17% from Modi’in Illit and the remainder from Yerushalayim. The ministry adds an additional 5% of the buyers are chareidi but they come from non chareidi communities, bringing the total chareidi purchase to 57% of the units sold to date, amounting to 200 of the apartments sold.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
A model city of coexistence between all Jews would be a dream come true!!
It is highly doubtful they will find chiloni families that even want to live in such a high Chareidi percentage town, since chilonim tend to hate chareidim and religious folks.
In all likelihood it will be close to a 100% chareidi town.
Mixed isn’t always bad. I lived at the top of Ramot Bet for a year and it was the perfect mix of frum/non frum. There were enough charedim that there was no music and barely any cars on Shabbat and no outrageous pritzut, but also enough chilonim that there weren’t hafganot and people getting lectured. Although a heavy percentage of the population (even amongst the charedim) were Sefardim so maybe that’s why it was more chilled out.
In general I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Ramot Aleph, Bet and Gimmel (not so much in Daled or Vav) but of those three I’ve found them to be a great mix and atmosphere. And it doesn’t even take somebody screaming and waving around a huge banner of “Achdus” – all it takes is everyone to mind their own business and be decent to each other 🙂
you know that a frum yid should not live only for his own personal pleasures but try to m’karev another yid. In charadi only communities you can not do this; therefore charish is a great testing ground for chardim if they can m’karev their non religious neighbor.
Assurnet, the matnas in Bet is a magnet for chilul shabbos, with cars coming from all over. When walking in Aleph, awareness not to get run over is around .5, in bet/gimmel its around 5.