DeLorean in Orthodox Jerusalem

DeLorean in Mea Sha'arim

A drive through Mea Shaarim, an ultra orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem, might as well be taken in a time-traveling DeLorean. It takes us on a journey to a different place and time, A Ghetto in Eastern Europe of the 1800's. 

Most people are quite surprised to see the circular fur hats worn in the scorching summer heat or a man raising his palms and shyly blocking his vision at the sight of a woman. These day-to-day gestures have continued day-by-day for hundreds of years.  For the people of this god fearing neighborhood they are not simply idiosyncrasies, or traditional whims, they are the very fabric of life.

As I walk through the street, I think of the data made public last week. 53% of the orthodox community in Israel falls below the poverty line. Once again, the snapshot reality of the media fails to point out the historical context of this fragment of Jerusalem.   

During the Holocaust, the Jewish orthodox intellectual crowd took a difficult blow. Most where easily identified as Jews by the Nazi régime and murdered. Few escaped to the holy land, but for those who escaped Israel was just a historical haven and they had no ambitions for statehood, some even thought that an establishment of such a state before the coming of the messiah was a sin. 

Israel was established as a Jewish and democratic state, and to its founders that meant the Jewish element that was destroyed must be nurtured. The plan was to provide the orthodox 'wise men' or rabbis who see "Torah as their Craft" with a government income so they could once again become fertile ground for thinkers and religious leaders. This population grew quickly and enjoyed a very unique and protected lifestyle. 

For more than 60 years, two narratives evolved separately by neighboring Israeli Jews. One of a liberal, secular, democratic country that will draw on its Hebrew heritage for inspiration and direction in a world of conflicts, and another of religious riotousness and a belief that God's law is above state law and tradition above liberty. These cultures would have to clash eventually.

Today the orthodox community in Israel is a paradox. It can no longer shut out the world but is unable to integrate itself into the culture around it, it is unable to sustain itself economically through study and yet unable to find employment in the modern world. 

As I stroll through the Ultra-Kosher shops, the bible-study rooms and stare upwards at the laundry lines of the many poor but large families living here I can't help but wonder how or if they grasp their own dilemma. 

With extreme tradition these simple people have managed to beat the Nazi war machine and revive their community just as it was hundreds of years earlier. But just like the protagonist in a Greek tragedy, their attempt at escaping a horrible doom proved to be their downfall. 

Their way of life is a relic of the past, detached from modern life and in danger of extension and yet, the Orthodox Jew with his fur hat, dark overcoat and ironic existence, is forever a part of the Israeli mosaic, a master piece of diversity that makes this country unique and beautiful.