Has Jerusalem’s religious tide turned?

"I can't believe he actually went ahead and did it," said one of the group, referring to Jerusalem's secular mayor, Nir Barkat. "He's just trying to give his constituency a reason to come out and vote. This won't last."

That was in May 2013. Mr Barkat has since won a second term, despite the attempt by the Charedi parties to unseat him by supporting a non-Charedi candidate who they hoped could win the votes of Likudniks and modern Orthodox Jerusalemites as well.

On Tuesday, not far from the old train station, in the Abu Tor neighbourhood, a new cinema multiplex opened for the first time - and it will be screening films seven days a week.

After decades of dire predictions that Israel's largest city would become strictly Orthodox (on its western side) and the last secular Jerusalemite would turn off the light on Shabbat, has the religious tide in the city turned?

Optimists point to Mr Barkat's re-election, to the fact that over 200 establishments are now open on Shabbat and that some of Israel's most cutting-edge restaurants have established themselves there, without Kashrut supervision, rather than in the culinary capital of Tel Aviv.

They add that after many years in which it was mainly secular Jews leaving Jerusalem, now it is just as likely that a young family leaving will be Charedi, forced out by the spiralling house prices.

On the other hand, aside from half a dozen areas featuring pubs and eateries, nearly all the bustling streets of west Jerusalem are empty from sundown on Friday.

Non-religious schools are struggling to fill classes and, as the murder of Shira Banki two weeks ago at the Gay Pride march in central Jerusalem emphasised, this is not a city of peace and tolerance.

But some things have changed in Jerusalem. The last Shabbat war in the city was around the opening of the Karta car park, ironically beneath the new Mamilla shopping arcade, which remains closed one day a week.

Demonstrations, often violent, took place there between 2009 and 2011 but eventually petered out.

The rivalry between the Jewish communities of Jerusalem is no longer being played out on the streets but in the corridors of City Hall over budgets and planning permission.

The Charedi leadership now recognises that it will not gain anything by demonstrating, and that they lost a key ally in the "national-religious" or modern Orthodox community, whose members may not sit in a café on Shabbat afternoon but want Jerusalem to remain an open city.

They are also confronting an increasingly rebellious young generation and are focusing their efforts within their community.

Jerusalem continues to face huge challenges - the divide between the Jewish and Palestinian sides of the city, shortage of space for new building, prohibitive housing costs, lack of employment opportunities - but at least for now, there is a ceasefire in the religious wars of the Jews.