The largest population of Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews in Israel lives in Jerusalem. Yet, ask any non-orthodox Jerusalem resident about burning issues in the Haredi community, and they will only be able to tell you about them from what they hear from the mainstream, secular media.
0202, a project begun in March 2015, aims to provide all Jerusalem populations with a window into the ‘other’s perspective, from their perspective. 0202 began translating news items from the Palestinian viewpoint. The Hebrew and English pages can be seen here and here. Today they have over 50,000 ‘likes’ combined and reach over 100,000 people weekly. As part of the 0202 philosophy, 0202 – A View from Haredi Jerusalem, began in September 2016. Many of its 2,300 ‘likes’ were received in its first two days on line; today the page reaches 10,000 weekly. Like its sister pages, 0202 – A View from Haredi Jerusalem reaches key stakeholders regularly: journalists, municipality figures, activists, journalists, Israelis and Palestinians, in and beyond Jerusalem.
0202 – A View from Haredi Jerusalem
Unlike its sister pages, 0202 – A View from Haredi Jerusalem does not need to translate. (0202-A View from East Jerusalem translates items from Arabic to Hebrew or English.) However, it does bridge a vast cultural divide between the ‘general’ (secular and modern orthodox) Jewish population and the Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) population of the city.
First, it breaks a few stereotypes of how information is transferred. Many believe the main avenue is through pahskevilim and print media.
While this practice still continues, today there are a number of web sites and Facebook pages that serve the Haredi community of today. Here are some examples of interesting posts over the past month.
Here is a recent post dealing with discrimination of girls from a non-Ashkenazi origin:
The Haredi press dealt with this issue at length at the beginning of the school year as well:
This issue has been a recurring problem at the beginning of the school year for several years. Click here for an article from the secular Ynet news on the subject, from a few years ago.
Two different perspectives of a cultural event – which featured women singing – that was disrupted by members of the Haredi population. The post reads, “Dozens of activists break into a missionary conference in Jerusalem.”:
And here’s the way the organizers presented it:
Event with Armenian choir
And the Times of Israel (secular) coverage of the event.
And here is what others are saying about the page:
From the excellent people at 0202-A View from East Jerusalem, introducing the next project: “A View from Haredi Jerusalem.” They continue to bring items from the Haredi world from outside our Facebook sound box. Here, there might not be a language barrier, but how many of us seriously follow the Haredi media? I promise that it’s fascinating. Congratulations to Michal Shilor, Hagai Agmon-Snir and everyone else working on the project…P.S. Waiting for the completion of the set, “View from West Jerusalem” in Arabic.
Here’s the post in Hebrew:
Welcome to the world, 0202-A View from Haredi Jerusalem. May your posts and the discussions they raise serve to increase understanding among the populations of Jerusalem.
