H EADLINES
ISRAELBRIEFS Council Projects One in Three Israelis to be
Haredi Orthodox by 2050
ABOUT ONE-THIRD of Israel’s Jewish population
will be haredi Orthodox by 2050, according to projec-
tions from Israel’s National Economic Council, JTA
reported. Israel’s population of 9.2 million is expected to
reach 16 million by 2050. Of that total, about 25% are
projected by Israel’s National Economic Council to be
haredi Orthodox.

Th ose population estimates point to a future in
which Israel’s Jewish population continues to make
up about 80% of its population but in which that
Jewish population skews far more heavily Orthodox.

Israel’s Orthodox community now makes up
12.6% of the population.

Most of that growth will come from the Orthodox
community’s birth rate of 6.7 children per woman —
more than double the rate of 3.01 among the overall
population. Most of the nation’s Orthodox Jews are expected
to remain concentrated in and around Jerusalem and
also in the city of Beit Shemesh.

from the City of David park in Jerusalem, JTA
reported. Liel Krutokop was visiting the site with her family
when she found the coin, the Israel Antiquities
Authority said.

Aft er cleaning and examining the coin, archae-
ologists believe the coin may have been minted by
Temple priests sympathetic to Jewish rebels in their
war against the Romans who controlled Jerusalem at
the time.

One side of the coin is marked with a cup and the
letters “shin” and “bet,” which indicate that it was
minted during the second year of the war, sometimes
also called the Great Revolt. Th e other side includes
an inscription associated with the headquarters of
the High Priest in the temple and the words “Holy
Jerusalem.” 86-year-old Crowned Miss Holocaust Survivor
Salina Steinfeld, who was born in Romania and
survived Nazi attacks before moving to Israel in 1948,
was crowned Miss Holocaust Survivor in an annual
beauty pageant, Th e Jerusalem Post reported.

Steinfeld, 86, competed with nine other contes-
tants ranging in age from 79 to 90 at a museum
Girl Finds Rare 2,000-year-old Coin
An 11-year-old girl found a rare silver coin dating in Haifa. A team of volunteer make-up artists and
from approximately 67-68 CE in dirt excavated stylists prepared the contestants.

Contest organizers say the pageant “bestows
glamour and respect on a dwindling number of
Jewish women whose youth was stolen during World
War II but who went on to build new lives in Israel,”
the Post reported.

But some commentators and survivors say the
event cheapens the memory of the 6 million Jews
killed by the Nazis.

Archaeologists: Hellenistic Fortress Ruins
Show ‘Tangible Evidence’ of Chanukah Story
Archaeologists excavating a 2,100-year-old fortress
say it provides “tangible evidence” of Chanukah story
events, JTA reported.

Th e site west of Hebron in the Lachish Forest
includes remnants of a fortress made of stone and
wood that archaeologists working with the Israel
Antiquities Authority believe was burned by the
Hasmoneans — Judean descendants of the Maccabees
— during a battle with the Macedonian Greek
Seleucids. Th e excavation has turned up burnt wooden beams
as well as pottery, weapons and coins. Th e coins point
to the destruction of the fortress by the Hasmonean
leader John Hyrcanus around 112 BCE, the archaeol-
ogists say. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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