Research Suggestions

This post's subject:

The Haredi Community in Jerusalem During the War of Independence

Very little work scholarly work has been done on the Jewish civilian population's trials during this period, and even less on the Haredi community. With the exception of an article by Yuval Frankel in Ha'Tzionut, almost all discussion of the Haredi community in Jerusalem during 1948 tends to be superficial and biased.

Part of the problem is that documentation is hard to come by - if there are organized archives of the community and its institutions, they are hard to track down. Sub-questions could include: How many military-age Haredi Jews joined the Hagnah/Palmach/Etzel/Lehi? What was the attitude of the various parties and Rabannim to the problems that came up during the war? Is there responsa on the subject? What kind of relationship existed between the population and the military (Haganah, later IDF) and the civil (Va'ad HaKehilah, later Dov Yosef) authorities?

Good Luck.

AIWAC