Gil Troy pushes back against the perception that the ultra-Orthodox are taking over Israeli society:
Statistical projections warning of haredi hordes overwhelming “normal” Israel stoke the media hysteria. But statistical trends are not historical facts. In researching his 2003 book Real Jews: Secular Versus Ultra-Orthodox: The Struggle for Jewish Identity in Israel, Professor [Noah] Efron traced these Chicken Little statistical warnings to the 1960s. “It has become a staple media trope,” Efron says, “with some predicting the tipping point in 10 years time, others seven, sometimes 15. It should have happened in 1970, then again, and again, but never did.” And while demographers insist that now the threat is real, the steady, underpublicized exit from the community may provide the counter that the million-person Russian immigration provided a decade ago. This attrition accounts for the mirror-image standoff. Haredi and non-haredi Israelis both feel embattled, threatened by the other, and abused by the other’s advantages.
(Photo: Ultra Orthodox Jewish children look from their school windows as hundreds of Ultra Orthodox Jews demonstrate in Jerusalem on January 15, 2012 following the arrest of six members of their community suspected of tax offenses. By Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images.)
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