The

bandonment
A ofJerusalern

AP/EYAL WARSHAVSKY

withdrawal from the capital. The study, con-
ila Cantor, a public relations woman, lives in the new housing being built in Jerusalem is ducted by HU geography Profs. Amiram Go-
for
non-Haredi
residents.
what she describes as the "militantly secular"
nen and Shlomo Hasson, found that one in
Werner Loyal, manager of the Jerusalem
district of Beit Hakerem in Jerusalem. But
seven secular Jerusalemites has recently pur-
branch
of
Anglo
Saxon
Realty,
Israel's
largest
surrounding the area are districts that have
chased an apartment out of the city or gone
grown increasingly Haredi, or "black-hat" Or- real estate firm, agrees that the notion of a sec- looking for one — twice the proportion of
ular
flight
from
the
capital
"is
mainly
a
news-
thodox.
Haredim who have done so.
paper story.
"I'm caught in a vise," says Ms. Cantor, 43.
The study also found that three out of five
"Most
of
[the
secular
Jews]
selling
their
"If I started to see black coats walking around
secular
Jerusalem residents are considering
my neighborhood, that would mean that the apartments are moving into larger homes in moving out mainly because of the bad rela-
other
parts
of
the
city."
Haredim had targeted Beit Hakerem. I'd be
scared to death, and this would fi-
nally push me to sign up with a real
estate agent in Tel Aviv." "
Keren Gutman, a photographer,
lives in Jerusalem's East Talpiot sec-
tion, which has no Haredim. Cate-
gorizing herself as religiously
"traditional," Ms. Gutman, 34, says
she worries that a nearby planried
district "is supposed to have a lot of
Haredim. It could mean that some
of our access routes will be closed on
Shabbat, and you'll see Haredim
shopping in the Talpiot shopping
centers. I know this sounds racist,
but they'll change the whole atmos-
phere of the neighborhood."
But despite such emotions, nei-
ther Ms. Cantor nor Ms. Gutman
have any immediate plans to leave
Jerusalem.
Their stories challenge the con-
sensus that secular and liberal re-
ligious Jews are fleeing Jerusalem
because of the escalating presence
and power of the Haredim, which for
many secular Jews impinges on their
unreligious lifestyle.
Yet, the antipa-
thy of the secularists • Israelis in downtown Jerusalem.
the Hared-
towar d.s th
Occasionally, secular residents on the edges tions with the Haredim. By contrast, only one
im has deepened with the
out of five Haredim would consider leaving
of
heavily Haredi neighborhoods leave the city,
years. Many of the former talk
Jerusalem; their main reason would be the
about moving, feeling that they he added, "but not in really large numbers like
capital's shortage of affordable housing for
have no future in the city. But [the media] make out."
Moreover, "In the last six months we've sold their large families. They find poor relations
whether there is an actual ex-
about
twice as many apartments to secular with the secular a negligible irritant.
odus has become a matter of
Finally, 52 percent of the city's secular res-
people as we have as to the religious," he said.
controversy.
idents said that if a Haredi mayor were elect-
Typically,
secular
families
move
to
Jerusalem
Mayor Ehud Olmert has
ed, they would pack their bags.
been speaking out angrily because a parent has gotten a job with large
Ms. Cantor and Ms. Gutman said they feel
employers
like
the
government,
Hebrew
Uni-
against what he calls "the or-
like
their city is being taken over by militant
LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
ganized campaign by the me- versity, or one of the big hospitals or high-tech Jewish fundamentalists who see them as en-
dia" to create the impression companies, he explained.
emies. When she came here 28 years ago, Can-
But a recent study by the Hebrew Univer-
that there is such a movement afoot. He ar-
sity's
Floersheimer
Institute
for
Policy
Re-
gues that Haredim are leaving the city in equal
ABANDONMENT page 68;
proportions to the secular, and that most of search detected the beginnings of a secular

The Palestinians might
want Jerusalem, but
many secular Israelis
seem poised to leave it