Re: Umm, no

Technically, it's about immigration here, not the birth rate. It's true that religious Jews' birth rates are higher than secularist Jews' but the spike in population in the last two decades is due to immigration, not new births.

Although that's a good point too. It caught a lot of Israelis, and certainly the local authorities everywhere, by surprise.

That's why I find a North American analogy with cities where the Hispanic or Asian population has risen suddenly in the same span (and in Europe, Arab, Eastern European, African or South Asian population, depending on countries).

If anything, Europe might be a better analog than North America. South Asians (Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims alike) and Arab and Turk Muslims being way more socially conservative than white Europeans; while the difference might not be that large, or even that unidirectional, in North America...

Though there is no doubt about Beit Shemesh identity. It's mentioned quite early in the Bible, the archeology supports settlements since the early Bronze Age, and the name is, obviously enough, Canaanite.

Ultimately the issue comes, again, to reality biting in unpredictable ways - so a school finding itself in an area where the locals wouldn't have it. Through no fault of the pupils, teachers, parents or, to a point, even the Education authority.

Of course, in other countries, they would have found the solution: move Sex Offenders there and nobody will want to build the school.