We hear all the time from statistics and especially from organizations like Arachim and Rav Amnon Yitzchak's Shofar, among others, how the Israeli public is becoming more and more religious, how they are making serious inroads and the baal teshuva movement is sweeping through the country...
It makes me wonder regarding all the increased level of public chilul shabbos. In Jerusalem it is regularly increasing, in Tel Aviv we have all been following the attempts to officially open stores on Shabbos, but even before that stores have been open for a long time already.
More and more places around the country are moving towards allowing shops to open on Shabbos. Now we have Hadera - the city council in Hadera just approved the opening of leisure type businesses to open on Shabbos. Restaurants and shops, only in the area near the coast, will be permitted to open for business.
source: Yediot via Kikar
So, which is it - is Israel getting more religious or more secular? Maybe it is not a contradiction - maybe Israel is getting more religious, while the shrinking secular community is getting more demanding and public? or maybe the claims are for fundraising purposes only but there really is not a major baal teshuva movement?
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