If the average Israeli were to fall asleep under a tree and wake up, like Rip Van Winkle, a generation from now, it’s hard to say what kind of country they’d see when they opened their eyes — whether it would be at peace or war with its neighbors, or whether the roads would be just as clogged as they are today.

One thing is nearly certain, however: The Israel of 25 years from now will be a lot more Haredi.

That’s the main takeaway of a report published this month by the Israel Democracy Institute, which cited population estimates showing that, by 2050, the country is projected to be nearly one-quarter ultra-Orthodox.

The report analyzed what that population growth would mean for Israel’s higher-education rate, its employment rate and its GDP (the short answer: Without far-reaching societal changes, they all decline).

But beyond the granular data, the report pointed to a more fundamental shift: The rapid Haredi population growth, rising from 11 percent of Israelis a decade ago to almost 25% in 2050, means that this country’s citizens will one day open their eyes to a different kind of Israel.

The question of what that Israel will look like became more urgent on Sunday. A harrowing riot in Bnei Brak saw a mob of Haredi men chase a pair of female soldiers — who had to be rescued by police — and overturn a police car and torch a motorcycle.

Footage of the incident was shocking not only because of the violence on display, but because it laid bare an issue that Israel has been facing for decades and only recently started to confront in earnest: The Haredi population’s current priorities are at odds with those of the rest of the country, and any reconciliation is likely to come only after considerable national strife.

The Bnei Brak riot drew widespread condemnation, not only from politicians across the political spectrum but from Haredi leaders themselves, who called on their followers to stay away from protests and decried the demonstrations as a “desecration of God’s name.”

Haredi rabbis and politicians have portrayed the rioters as an unrepresentative fringe. But the riot didn’t create a new issue; it just exposed how dire an existing problem has become.

For decades, successive Israeli governments have largely avoided confronting the fact that Haredi society operates differently from the rest of the country’s Jewish population, in terms of education, employment, government funding and military service. Over the past couple of years, pushed by the judiciary and amid growing public frustration over the unequal imposition of the mandatory draft, the government has been forced to address the blanket exemptions ultra-Orthodox men have long enjoyed from IDF conscription.

The effort has come as the army has been driven to the brink by the longest war in Israel’s history, stretching resources and putting a heavy burden on........

© The Times of Israel