Hidabroot's Correspondent Tours Growing Religious Community in Afula: "I Arrived and Couldn't Believe My Eyes"

Admit it, before the saga around the singer event in Afula, which led to an uncompromising struggle from the haredi Jewish community, you neither knew nor heard about the rapidly growing religious community in Afula reaching unbelievable numbers.

To get to know Afula up close, I decided to head north. I took a page and pen, energy, and adrenaline, and set off on the road.

The length of the journey surprised me. Only an hour and a half of continuous travel from Bnei Brak. It turns out that the location isn't as far as some might portray the north to be. Along the way, I passed Harish - a city meant to be a haredi city, but in the end, it got a more diverse texture. Afula is relatively high up, allowing its residents access to the clean northern air. Thus, it lacks the disadvantages of the crowded center and has all the advantages of the elevated north.

Photo: Uri Disler

Upper Afula: Stopping Real Estate Price Surges

I arrived in the Upper Afula neighborhood and first turned right, towards the first haredi settlement – the Lithuanian community on 'Givat Hamoreh'. Everywhere, children with long peyot appeared and mothers pushed strollers; a scene resembling the heart of the haredi Bnei Brak. I sat down for a fascinating conversation with one of the founding members of the Lithuanian community and a central activist since its inception, discussing the initial core group and the future of haredim in Afula.

Here are some facts you didn't know about the haredi Afula:

How was the community born? In fact, the solution to the haredi housing crisis - sending haredi scholars to Afula - is credited to Rabbi Micha Rothschild הי"ו. In his extensive wisdom, he foresaw what we already know today - the state does not allocate special cities for haredim. These were the years when the housing crisis began to painfully manifest within the haredi public, and a central solution was not in sight. Rabbi Rothschild pushed full steam and acted with the great sages of Israel, who supported the purchase of second-hand apartments in northern Afula. Back then, it sounded like fantasy. Scholars on the streets of Afula? Children at a talmud torah in Afula? Who would agree to move so far north? But Rothschild, with his far-seeing eyes, foresaw the place's success in the future.

The location of Givat Hamoreh: Upper Afula is one of the best locations suitable for haredi communities. On one hand, it is detached from the city, providing a quiet environment - a sort of rural-urban. On the other, a five-minute drive provides all necessary city services, including a modern hospital.

(Photo: Uri Disler)

The haredi settlement in Givat Hamoreh started with ten scholars, a private talmud torah run by Rabbi Greenstein שליט"א, and... that's it. The community received halachic guidance and ideological direction from Rabbi Raphael Blum, Rabbi Natan Rothschild, the neighborhood's rabbi, and Rabbi Igal ז"ל, who was directed to move to the neighborhood and serve as a moral teacher answering the scholars' halachic questions.

Founders of the community fought tenaciously to build a magnificent mikveh that would befit the public and serve the area's residents, after the religious council issued a closure order for the existing, dilapidated mikveh due to health neglect. The renovation and its transformation into a splendid mikveh was costly. Here, community members truly saw the heavenly assistance that accompanied them every step of the way.

(Photo: Uri Disler)

Moshe Uri Disler, a community activist, recounts: "Under direction from the overseeing rabbi, I took on the building management, including covering expenses. I had no idea where to start covering construction costs. Simultaneously, while deliberating and assessing financial possibilities, we began building. We reached an agreement with the Ministry of the Negev and the Galilee, who budgeted the mikveh with an amount we pledged to raise - 'shekel for shekel'. I entered the rabbi's study and asked him how much to pledge. 'A million shekels,' he answered. I asked him where I would find such an admirable sum. I didn't receive a detailed answer, but the rabbi encouraged and bolstered me to see 'wondrous miracles'. We progressed with construction and the first payment, totaling one hundred thousand shekels, was due. I directed myself to the gemach operating in the area and borrowed the entire amount under my name. A month passed, and I needed to repay the loan. That day, I had no idea where salvation would come from. A few hours passed, and the phone rang. The rabbi on the line. 'I have the money to repay the loan,' he announces. With great joy, he wishes to inform me that he is currently meeting with an old friend, a man of means, who came to consult with him about his businesses and made a donation, how could I not - one hundred thousand shekels plain and simple. Right here and now."

The 'ingenious' solution to housing prices: I'm trying to discern the success behind the solution to the affordable housing crisis in Afula, unlike other mixed cities. Here I discover the punchline. The communities manage to arrest the rise in housing prices, a common feature in haredi enclaves nationwide. Both communities have an acceptance committee. Anyone wishing to settle in the city by buying or renting an apartment receives detailed instructions from the committee on the amount to settle. The price list is as follows: A three-room apartment is priced between 350,000 to 400,000 shekels. Four rooms – up to 720,000 shekels. For renting, the price cannot exceed 1,800 shekels per month. The arriving scholars cooperate with the committee, preserving the low and almost laughable price – over time. "Through public organization, we prevent market participants from following trends of price increases where the haredi public settles, ensuring affordable and accessible solutions for the haredi public for many years." Disler asserts.

Relations between the municipality and the haredim: Relations with the local authority, it seems, have seen ups and downs. When the community settled in Givat Hamoreh, the city's mayor refused to assist at all, and more so - he restricted their steps and sought what not to give. Educational institutions were housed in stifling caravans. The turning point occurred when the current mayor, Mr. Avi Elkabetz, sat shiva for his grandmother. Representatives of the community came to console him, and he was deeply impressed. Later, he visited the haredi district, saw the children studying in inferior conditions, and declared: "These children are the city's mezuzah." Since then, the mayor has been at the forefront for the haredi public in the city and has been actively working to expand the bounds of holiness and helps well beyond his ability for the development of the haredi neighborhoods.

(Photo: Uri Disler)

Institutions: At first, they received half of the built complex of the 'Rimonim' school, which belonged to the state system, and years later they were granted the entire building. All this was accompanied by the personal guidance of the mayor who promoted the matters in the best way possible. In the last year, the city council, led by Avi Elkabetz, even approved a budget of one million shekels for renovating the structure.

"This year, we received a budget for three more kindergartens," adds Disler, an unprecedented achievement for anyone familiar with how matters are handled with local authorities. "We received two more mobile structures for the children's center. As for the synagogue, we are currently located in seven different shelters scattered throughout the neighborhood. Recently, the mayor promised to put the saga to an end and allocate a vast area for a central building to serve the community.

Vyzhnytsia Community: Hasidic Songs in the Streets

On the other side of Upper Afula is a splendid Hasidic community - "Vyzhnytsia Community." Seeing the scholars in their elegant Shabbat garments reminded me of the ambiance of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. The Hasidic singing into the deep night slicing the howling wind in the Afula mountains reminded me of home. Who would have believed that sleepy Afula would hear 'Keh Aksesf' filled with longing in the late hours of Friday night?

It all started on Shabbat Zachor 5772, when a group of 12 scholars, led by the rav of the place, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Tuvekin, came to spend Shabbat in the city. "The fears were great," describes one of the early settlers here, "We didn't know how the environment would accept us, what this place actually was, whether we would connect to it. We were sent by the command of our rabbi to a land not sown, and with faith, we set off on the way."

Scholars recount that on that Shabbat, they sat as brothers until the small hours of the night, and for the first time, Afula was privileged to hear praises and hymns to the living Hashem in the Vyzhnytsy style – and they later all walked together through the city's streets to return home.

"We walked together in one large group because we were afraid of undesirable reactions from the surrounding residents who would suddenly see a Hasidic scholar with a shtreimel. Then it happened, we approached a park, and we saw dozens of youths who hadn't had the chance to taste the flavor of Torah, sitting together with musical instruments and singing loudly.

"Fear crept into our hearts, we had to walk through the park, and who knew how they would react to seeing us, 'the haredim who came from Bnei Brak'. We quietly walked on tiptoe, trying to be like seeing and not seen, but soon the boisterous group spotted us.

"Astonishingly, they hurried to toss the cigarettes from their hands, stopped playing, placed their hands on their heads as a substitute for a kippah, and amicably wished us a 'Shabbat Shalom'. This is the moment we realized our future is here."

From the Herzel-Penks streets, characterized by older construction, settled via the "creeping conquest" method – another apartment, another apartment, another apartment. All done under absolute secrecy below the radar to not awaken sleeping bears, not to raise prices, and not to attract investors, we progressed downwards and reached Asaf Simhoni Street.

On this street, dozens of Vyzhnytsia Hasidic families currently reside, enjoying a quality of life hard to find elsewhere. Low buildings up to three stories, huge apartments of 100-120 square meters, including huge balconies and gardens, and stunning mountain views of the Jezreel Valley, purchased at an average price of 700,000 shekels.

What is your opinion on the employment rate in the city, I asked Disler. The answer quite amazed me. "Until now, we had 90% job placement. Recently, after a few more families joined, the number decreased slightly." 90% job placement? Even in central cities, this doesn't exist

"That's the case," Disler replies. "Unlike central cities where communities are flooded with scholars, here the community is cohesive and counted, allowing investment in each family and catering to its full needs.

"When we wanted to establish the community in Givat Hamoreh, Disler concludes, we went to Rabbi Shteinman זצ"ל, after laying out the plan before him, he replied: 'Afula will have heavenly assistance'. The heavenly assistance accompanies us on every step, and we see it clearly in reality. Many issues that are stuck in other cities, here get solved. There is no other explanation besides heavenly assistance."

As I leave Afula, I can't help but ponder that the significance of Afula for the haredi public is clear. It's not a passing episode but a massive project that will continue to develop further and further.