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The aggressive hostility of the ultra-Orthodox has had other splintering effects on Israeli society. Most of the zealots are Ashkenazim (Jews of European background), while the majority of Israelis are now Sephardim (of Asian and African origin), who have different traditions. Some of those being forced out of the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods are also Sephardim. Complicating matters, the Hasidic movement is split into feuding groups. The Satmar sect, whose Brooklyn-based rebbe (spiritual leader) is Moshe Teitelbaum, believes that the very existence of Israel as a state is a blasphemy; Jews should wait for the Messiah to establish a true spiritual kingdom in the Holy Land. (When Teitelbaum and 1,000 followers flew to Israel to visit Satmarers in Mea Shearim, they refused to fly on El Al, the country's airline.) On this point, the Satmar group bitterly opposes the Lubavitch Hasidim, who are ardently pro-Israel. The Lubavitchers, who also have their headquarters in Brooklyn, have had several rock-throwing street battles with Satmarers.
In the past, Prime Minister Menachem Begin was reluctant to move against the religious rioters, partly because his coalition government needed the votes of the Agudat Israel Party, which is backed by the ultraOrthodox. But the attacks have become so prevalent, and the government feels so secure, that police are now cracking down on the hooligans. Obviously distressed, the recently elected Chief Rabbi of the nation's Sephardim, Mordechai Eliahu, pleaded that Jewish factions "must not exploit each other," and a spokesman for the new Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Avraham Shapiro, said, "It is forbidden for one Jew to lift a hand against another Jew." So far, however, the zealots have listened only to their own rabbinical authorities, who have not publicly denounced the violence.
* The Hasidic movement, which arose in the 18th century, consists of closely knit Orthodox groups, each led by a dynastic rabbi, that exuberantly express spiritual fervor and strictly observe religious law.