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Beitar Illit (; officially also spelled Betar Illit; "Illit" is pronounced "ee-leet") is an Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement

Israeli settlements are communities inhabited by Israelis in territory that was captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, which is partially under Israeli military administration and partially under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, and in the Golan Heights, which are under Isr...
 and city
List of cities in Israel

The following list of Israeli cities is based on the current index of the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Within Local government in Israel, an urban municipality can be granted a City council by the Israeli Ministry of Interior when its population exceeds 20,000....
 west of Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion

Gush Etzion refers to a group of Jewish villages established from the 1920s south of Jerusalem on the northern part of Mount Hebron in the southern West Bank, and destroyed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War....
 in northern Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
 region of the West Bank
West Bank

The West Bank is the eastern Part of the Palestinian territories on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel....
.

Located south of Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, Beitar Illit was established in 1985 and initially settled by a small group of young families from the religious zionist
Religious Zionism

Religious Zionism, or the Religious Zionist Movement is an ideology that combines Zionism and religious Judaism, basing Zionism on the principles of Torah, Talmud et al and authentic heritage....
 yeshiva
Yeshiva

Yeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for Torah study, the study of Talmud, Rabbinic literature and History of responsa....
 of Machon Meir
Machon Meir

Machon Meir' is a religious Zionist Baal teshuva organization and yeshiva situated in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe, close to Givat Shaul....
, including that of Rabbi Reuven Hass (now of Beit El). As Beitar Illit began to grow, an influx of Haredi Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 families came to predominate while the original group moved on.






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Beitar Illit (; officially also spelled Betar Illit; "Illit" is pronounced "ee-leet") is an Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement

Israeli settlements are communities inhabited by Israelis in territory that was captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, which is partially under Israeli military administration and partially under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, and in the Golan Heights, which are under Isr...
 and city
List of cities in Israel

The following list of Israeli cities is based on the current index of the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Within Local government in Israel, an urban municipality can be granted a City council by the Israeli Ministry of Interior when its population exceeds 20,000....
 west of Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion

Gush Etzion refers to a group of Jewish villages established from the 1920s south of Jerusalem on the northern part of Mount Hebron in the southern West Bank, and destroyed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War....
 in northern Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
 region of the West Bank
West Bank

The West Bank is the eastern Part of the Palestinian territories on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel....
.

Located south of Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, Beitar Illit was established in 1985 and initially settled by a small group of young families from the religious zionist
Religious Zionism

Religious Zionism, or the Religious Zionist Movement is an ideology that combines Zionism and religious Judaism, basing Zionism on the principles of Torah, Talmud et al and authentic heritage....
 yeshiva
Yeshiva

Yeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for Torah study, the study of Talmud, Rabbinic literature and History of responsa....
 of Machon Meir
Machon Meir

Machon Meir' is a religious Zionist Baal teshuva organization and yeshiva situated in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe, close to Givat Shaul....
, including that of Rabbi Reuven Hass (now of Beit El). As Beitar Illit began to grow, an influx of Haredi Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 families came to predominate while the original group moved on. The city has since expanded to three adjacent hills.

Beitar Illit is the fastest-growing city in Israel, with the highest birthrate in the country. At the end of 2007, it had a total population of 32,200. According to former mayor Yitzchak Pindrus, the population is expected to reach 100,000 by 2020 , based on population growth
Population growth

Population growth is the change in population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
 and the building of new apartments to attract more Haredim from older Haredi cities such as Bnei Brak
Bnei Brak

File:Location_bneibrak.pngFile:800px-Ponivez1.jpegBnei Brak is a city located on Israel's central Mediterranean Israeli coastal plain, just east of Tel Aviv, in the Gush Dan and Tel Aviv District....
 and parts of Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
.

Beitar Illit was the first Haredi
Haredi Judaism

Haredi or Chareidi Judaism is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
 town to be established as such. The city's ideology is based on the desire to have an exclusively Haredi environment. It is named after the ancient Jewish city of Betar
Betar (fortress)

Betar was the last standing Jewish fortress in the Bar Kochba revolt of the 2nd century AD, destroyed by the Ancient Rome army on Tisha B'av.The site of historic Betar , next to the modern village of Battir southwest of Jerusalem, was known as Khirbet al-Yahudi, Arabic for "the Jew's ruins"....
, whose ruins lie away.

Demographics

According to the statistics from the Ministry of Interior, the population figures for January 2007 there are 34,427 members listed on their computers and 29,404 citizens that are listed as active. The town is reported to have almost 20,000 schoolchildren.

Income

According to CBS, as of 2000, in the city there were 2,172 salaried workers and 131 self-employed. The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a salaried worker in the city is ILS 3,079, a real change of 3.6% over the course of 2000. Salaried males have a mean monthly wage of ILS 4,475 (a real change of 7.2%) versus ILS 2,173 for females (a real change of -0.7%). The mean income for the self-employed is 4,438. There are 99 people who receive unemployment benefits and 671 people who receive an income guarantee.

Education

According to CBS, there are 26 schools and yeshiva
Yeshiva

Yeshiva or yeshivah , or metivta or mesivta ) also frequently referred to as a Beth midrash, Talmudical Academy, Rabbinical Academy or Rabbinical School is an institution unique to classical Judaism for Torah study, the study of Talmud, Rabbinic literature and History of responsa....
s and 3,225 students in the city. They are spread out as 22 elementary schools and 3,019 elementary school students, and 4 high schools and 206 high school students. ..% of 12th grade students were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001. All education in the town is religious, as its population is exclusively Haredi.

Achievements

Despite having no industry and minimal commerce, as well as a population that is generally weak economically, Beitar Illit has been awarded the Israeli Interior Ministry's gold prize for a balanced budget
Budget

Budget generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more good ....
 seven years running. The municipal welfare
Welfare

Welfare may refer to:* Well being, quality of lifestyle** Animal welfare, the quality of life of animals, and concerns thereabout* Welfare, a film directed by Frederick Wiseman...
 department was awarded a prize and recognised by the national government as an "outstanding department" for its work in preventing teen dropout
Dropping out

Dropping out means leaving a group for either practical reasons, necessities or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves....
s. The city also received the 2005 national "flag award," as well as the Council for a Beautiful Israel's "Stars of Beaty" prize as one of the cleanest Israeli municipalities, and for community education programs emphasizing recycling, for five years running.

2007 municipal elections

In a closely-fought election on October 30, 2007, Rabbi Yitzchak Pindrus, the incumbent mayor for the past five years, was defeated by Rabbi Meir Rubinstein.

See also

  • Betar (fortress)
    Betar (fortress)

    Betar was the last standing Jewish fortress in the Bar Kochba revolt of the 2nd century AD, destroyed by the Ancient Rome army on Tisha B'av.The site of historic Betar , next to the modern village of Battir southwest of Jerusalem, was known as Khirbet al-Yahudi, Arabic for "the Jew's ruins"....
    , the last Jewish fort held in the Bar Kochba revolt
  • Battir
    Battir

    Battir is an ancient town located in the West Bank, five kilometers west of Bethlehem, and south west of Jerusalem. It has a population of almost 5,000 inhabitants....
    , an Arab village adjacent to Beitar Illit and the Betar ruins.


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