WSJ: Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Welfare Kings
Abe Kohen
There is no precedent in Jewish history for a whole community devoting
itself to Torah scholarship.
By EVAN R. GOLDSTEIN
In Israel, where modernity coexists uneasily with tradition, hand-wringing
about the country's ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority is a national pastime.
Cloistered in poor towns and neighborhoods, exempted from conscription into
the military and surviving largely off government handouts, the black-hatted
ultra-Orthodox, known as Haredim, have long vexed more secular Israelis.
Now, in the wake of an Israeli Supreme Court decision, this perennial
tension has escalated to new heights.
The immediate issue is a decades-old state policy of providing stipends to
students who attend religious schools, called yeshivas. In June, the court
declared those stipends illegal, citing discrimination against secular
university students who don't qualify for such assistance. Last month,
however, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers introduced a bill to reinstate the
stipend. "The state sees a great importance in encouraging Torah study,"
says their proposal.
Opposition to the bill is fierce, as many Israelis believe that decades of
welfare and draft exemptions have created a cycle of poverty and dependence
among Haredim. "If they want to live in a ghetto, fine, but why should the
state pay for it?" Yossi Sarid, a former education minister, told the
Associated Press. The controversy has triggered street protests across
Israel, and threatens to topple the coalition government of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
This year the Jerusalem-based Taub Center for Social Policy Studies released
a report showing that unemployment among ultra-Orthodox men age 35-54 is 65%
and has tripled over the past three decades. Voluntary unemployment has
become the dominant lifestyle choice for Haredi men. And even if there was a
desire to work, Haredi schools leave students unprepared to function in a
modern economy. Meanwhile, the ultra-Orthodox population is expected to
double by 2022, to over one million.
While explaining the data to me recently, Dan Ben-David of the Taub Center
asked, "When did Judaism become about not working?" The answer is a case
study in unintended consequences.
That has proven mistaken, and today tens of thousands of yeshiva students
qualify for draft exemptions. The law bars them from working, so an
increasing number depend on public support. It's socially and financially
unsustainable, says Hebrew University Prof. Shlomo Naeh. "We are trapped in
a disaster."The story begins shortly after Israel's founding in 1948, when
then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion excused 400 yeshiva students from
serving in the army-thereby establishing a framework for relations between
the state and the ultra-Orthodox. Although secular himself, Ben-Gurion was
sensitive to the desire to revive Torah learning after the Holocaust
destroyed the centers of Jewish scholarship in Eastern Europe. He also
thought that, over the long term, most Israelis would become secular
socialists like him.
At the root of the disaster is the revolutionary idea that the study of
Torah is a vocation. There is no precedent in pre-1948 Jewish history for an
entire community devoting itself to Torah scholarship-and certainly no
precedent for getting paid to do so.
"Torah study has always been for spiritual, not material, sustenance," Zvi
Zohar, a professor of law at Bar-Ilan University, tells me. Moreover, the
notion that a man's primary obligation is studying, and not providing for
his family, is "diametrically opposed" to Jewish tradition, Mr. Zohar says.
The Shulchan Aruch, for instance, an influential 16th-century legal code
written by Rabbi Joseph Caro, states: "A respected and impoverished scholar
should have a trade, even a lowly trade, rather than being in need of his
fellow man."
State-supported Torah study has also harmed the quality of Jewish thought,
argues Mr. Naeh. Ultra-Orthodox self-segregation has cut "learning off from
life," he wrote in a recent essay. As a result, the current generation of
Torah scholars "is far from being one of the greatest . . . despite the
existence of tens of thousands of learners."
Solutions to the current impasse are in short supply, not least because the
religious parties oppose any meaningful reforms and wield inordinate power
in Israel's parliamentary system. Asked what's at stake if nothing changes,
Mr. Ben-David doesn't mince words: "We can survive against our neighbors,
but this issue is existential. The ultra-Orthodox will soon be a huge
minority, possibly a majority, and then what? Where will we find doctors,
engineers, physicists and soldiers?" he says, his voice rising. "Who will
defend this country?"
Mr. Goldstein is an editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703848204575608473772263624.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0
Tilly
news:ibqcgp$rd1$1...@harrier.steinthal.us...
Thank you Abe for an excellent article.
Tilly
Yes , the numbers on welfare are increasing exponentially and this is what
secular Israelis are irritated by.
Their taxes support stipends paid to tens of thousands of Haredim and
until quite recently none of them
served in the IDF.
Secular Israelis feel they are getting nothing or very little in return for
their tax dollars..
Voluntary unemployment has
> become the dominant lifestyle choice for Haredi men. And even if there was
> a desire to work, Haredi schools leave students unprepared to function in
> a modern economy.
Yep.
How can they when they don't study subjects that equip them to work in a
modern economy?
Most of the Israeli public would have no problem with supporting the best
Yeshiva scholars, at least that is my impression.
> Solutions to the current impasse are in short supply, not least because
> the religious parties oppose any meaningful reforms and wield inordinate
> power in Israel's parliamentary system. Asked what's at stake if nothing
> changes, Mr. Ben-David doesn't mince words: "We can survive against our
> neighbors, but this issue is existential. The ultra-Orthodox will soon be
> a huge minority, possibly a majority, and then what? Where will we find
> doctors, engineers, physicists and soldiers?" he says, his voice rising.
> "Who will defend this country?"
> Mr. Goldstein is an editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
>
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> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703848204575608473772263624.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0
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