Who are the haredi Jews running in Jerusalem's municipal election?

As February 27 approaches, Mayor Moshe Lion’s reelection seems assured; and against the backdrop of the war, there appears to be little interest in who will win seats on the city council.

Nevertheless, competition for the 30 city council seats is cross-sectoral, with lists that declare themselves to be representative of the moderate secular/Religious Zionist public; lists representing the ultra-Orthodox public in all its variations; and two Right-veering lists representing the National Religious public.

In the haredi sector, there four lists competing against each other: United Torah Judaism (UTJ), consisting of two factions: Lithuanians and Hassidim; Shas, representing Sephardi ultra-Orthodox and Mizrahi traditionalists; Bnei Torah, led by Chaim Epstein; and an interesting new list led by Avishai Cohen, belonging to the new generation of haredim, who both study and work. Cohen’s list even has a woman in the number two slot.

The Shas party

Shas, which appeared on the city council as a local list in 1983, has high hopes of restoring the success of those early years and returning the party to greatness. Party leader Arye Deri has said as much: “With God’s help, we will become the largest faction in Jerusalem.”  Hinting at repeated rifts and accusations among faction members, he also said that he wanted to “lower tensions.”

Tensions, however, have not been limited to the ranks of Shas. They had also reached the mayor’s office on the sixth floor of Safra Square, with allegations against Moshe Lion, considered close to Deri. But municipal officials say that calm has since prevailed and there are currently no signs of rebellion in the Shas ranks, just a strong desire to win many seats. Shas currently holds five seats on the council.

Deri explained that his party’s Jerusalem focus is investing in education, building schools, and acquiring a budget of NIS 1 billion for new classrooms. “We never dreamed of such an amount, but this is not a recommendation. This is already happening and will bring solutions to many schools. Our focus is on education, education, and education.”

In reference to current Shas councilman Rabbi Zvika Cohen, Deri said: “I want to put worries to rest and declare that a successful team is not to be replaced. Our team led by Rabbi Cohen will continue on the council, and our mission is to bring in additional members. Our goal is to be the largest faction in Jerusalem. This is an achievable goal. Everyone saw what we did for five years and knows that Shas is the true home of all Sephardim.” Deri also referred to the fact that young Sephardi women have often been rejected by Ashkenazi schools. “Let’s not imagine what would happen if, God forbid, Shas weakens. Think about what has happened in the last five years and what is to come. Who will the girls turn to regarding their registration? Who will organize all the important activities for yeshiva members, cultural activities for women, and more?”

Sectoral politics

Shas’s position can be illustrated by a dramatic event that took place around a year ago. A pinui-binui (“vacate and build”) construction project in the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood (considered a stronghold of Shas voters) stalled due to opposition by Shas city council representatives at the behest of the movement’s rabbis. As a result, the municipality withdrew its commitment to promoting a project that many neighborhood residents had favored, and since then the entire project has stalled. What was behind the rabbis’ opposition? The claim is that the project might attract residents from other areas and thus change the ultra-Orthodox character of the entire neighborhood.

However, while stalled, the project has not been canceled and is still on the table at the Local Planning and Construction Committee, headed by Deputy Mayor Eliezer Rauchberger, who is also the chairman of UTJ – currently the largest faction on the council – and a senior partner in Moshe Lion’s coalition.

Fears such as those of the Shas rabbis are not foreign to Rauchberger. The committee he chairs has been dealing with residents of the Bar-Ilan complex, who oppose the light rail there for exactly the same reason, the introduction of “foreign” elements. While the light rail project is nevertheless going ahead, the scope of attacks by opponents who have no hesitation in damaging expensive equipment has greatly slowed its progress.

Aside from accusations that the haredi community’s biases are being upheld by its city council representatives, there is a serious issue that no one has thus far addressed: How to handle tensions arising from haredim moving into non-haredi neighborhoods, demanding changes such as Shabbat closures.

Other considerations

Among those on the list representing the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi public, the winds are no less stormy. The main dispute since the 2018 elections has been around appropriate representation for Hassidim – the Shlomei Emunim movement – and those representing the Lithuanians, led by Rauchberger. Threats of splitting up, running separately, and more, have been bandied for months, but as of this writing, both factions are still running together.

Although outwardly, they both support Moshe Lion’s candidacy, the situation on the ground is a little different. Both are aware that Lion is seen as Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman’s man (who, sources in Safra Square claim, often visits the mayor’s office). The close relationship between the two is no secret, but in the eyes of haredim (Ashkenazim and Sephardim alike), Liberman is crossing a red line.

Moreover Rauchberger, at the opening of his list’s campaign, stated that his faction’s interests did not always align with Deri’s (whom he calls “Lion’s political patron”), thus his Ashkenazi faction would not unite with the Sephardi Shas. Another source presented allegations about the closure of synagogues operated without a permit in residential premises, deeming Lion’s conduct “unfair.”

Yet, neither Shas nor UTJ representatives are, as is commonly thought, engaged in changing the character of Jerusalem. Shuttering entertainment spots and reducing the number of places open on Shabbat are really not at the top of their agenda.

So what is on their minds? The lack of affordable housing and educational institutions, whether “official” or “official but not recognized” (a unique status invented years ago to differentiate between educational institutions fully budgeted by the state and those that are only partially funded). It is therefore no surprise that according to data from the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, the majority of those who move out of the city are haredim who cannot afford the larger apartments they need for their growing families.

“It is difficult to have a non-kosher restaurant in Jerusalem, but today the ultra-Orthodox don’t even bother coming to demonstrate against such restaurants anymore,” a business owner observed. In any case, he predicted, there would be “no need” for protests, as given the depressed economy and the lowered tourism, he said many such businesses “won’t survive in this situation.”■