HARISH, Israel — The sound of children and music echoed down a narrow basement hallway in Israel as they scrambled in a pool of balls, climbed on a jungle gym, munched popcorn and laughed.
The atmosphere changed suddenly on that Saturday last month, as at least a dozen religious men appeared and blocked the entrance, accusing the indoor playground of desecrating the Jewish sabbath by opening for business. Angry parents confronted them, scuffles broke out and in an instant, the center in this mixed city had become a flashpoint symbol of a larger battle between secular and religious Jews in Israel.
“I think it represents what’s going on in the country,” said Tzipi Brayer Sharabi, a 38-year-old mother who says she was attacked and thrown to the ground during the May 20 incident. “I want my kids to live how they choose to live. I don’t want somebody to tell them how they should eat, how they should dress, what they should do on Shabbat.”
Similar incidents have long upset the tenuous balance between the communities. But with ultra-Orthodox parties now wielding unprecedented power in Israel’s new government — and playing a key role in a contentious plan to overhaul the legal system — they are aggravating concerns among secular Israelis that the character and future of their country is under threat.
Thanks to its supercharged political clout, the h aredi community has gained massive budgets that critics say will entrench its isolated way of life and weaken Israel’s economic prospects as the ultra-Orthodox population balloons.
“We have two kids. They have 10 kids. They’re going to be the majority here, eventually,” said Brayer Sharabi, a secular Israeli whose elbow was broken in the scuffle. “What’s going to happen to this place once they have the majority?”
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, known as haredim, make up 13% of the country’s 9.7 million population. The cloistered community has long been at odds with the secular majority, clashing over…
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