[3] Pooling their resources, the society members purchased a tract of land outside the walled city, which was severely over-crowded and plagued by poor sanitation, and built a new neighborhood with the goal of improving their standards of living.

The Edah HaChareidis, which supervises kashrut certification and runs a Jewish religious court, has its headquarters at the western end of Mea Shearim.

[6] The late Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, the leading posek of Litvish / Yeshivish Jewry, made his home here.

[7] Some residents have been criticized for attacking police, and other government officials entering the area, with stones, and blocking the streets, or setting fire to rubbish when they try to do so (otherwise known as Hafganahs).

[8] A small, violent group called "The Sikrikim", of less than 100 families, enforce censorship on bookshops, causing over 250,000 NIS damage to a shop that resisted their demands.

[9] On 24 June 2010, politicians Uri Maklev and Moshe Gafni of the Haredi party United Torah Judaism were attacked in Mea Shearim, after they had visited the Slonim rabbi and had entered his synagogue to pray.

[10] In April 2015, an IDF officer was attacked by men and women of Mea Shearim who allegedly threatened to kill him, while children blocked his exit.

The attack was condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "outrageous", and by Shas leader Aryeh Deri as "an act of terror".