Haredim Face Poverty Even When They Actually Work
The Globes reports,
Poverty levels in the haredi (ultra orthodox) community have continued to grow substantially over the last three years, says a survey.
The survey, which was conducted by Dr. Daniel Gottlieb of the Bank of Israel commissioned by the Van Leer Institute and Ben Gurion University in conjunction with economic consultant Yehuda Eliraz found there had been alarming increase in the intensity of poverty among ultra orthodox families, despite the continuation integration of haredim in the labor market.
Gottlieb and Eliraz said that families with two breadwinners were no better off, adding that any campaign against poverty must be built around the long term reduction of poverty levels, in a similar fashion to other macroeconomic targets.
Also key to reducing poverty was the need to improve educational facilities, in cooperation with haredi community leaders.
Gottlieb and Eliraz attributed the increasing poverty in the haredi sector to three main causes:
- Failings in the elementary educational system, principally for boys, with specific deficiencies in tuition of English, maths and computer skills, all of which are key skills central to the creation of future earning capacity.
- Size of haredi families.
- Long term Torah study by haredi men, specifically those in the Lithuanian stream, a trend that has led to low levels of haredi participation in the work force.
Can anyone recommend charities that take donations online and are known to make a real difference? When work hours and poverty increase together, that is a failure in society.
The frum learning community of Europe faced the same problem and worse – with much fewer children per family… do the math , gen #1: 5+/- learners; gen #2: 50+/- learners. That’s alot of parnossa for kollel bachurim & their families (not to mention, weddings, apartments, yeshivas, simchas, levusha, shtramels & sheitels… )
“When work hours and poverty increase together, that is a failure in society. ”
Not necessarily. It could reflect a shift of (relatively) high-paying jobs to sectors that require a more rigorous education. Whether or not you believe that globalism’s greater overall efficiency outweighs the short-term (but painful) dislocations it causes regarding the world in general, I don’t see how a tiny and embattled country like Israel (whose only real resource outside of tourism is its population) has any choice but to do everything it can to keep its workforce at the cutting edge of knowledge and expertise. As the article stated, Chareidi education is deficient. Seems to me that the best charity would be one that creates institutions that Chareidim are religiously comfortable in attending that graduates world-class workers in various fields.
“As the article stated, Chareidi education is deficient…”
Actually, heradim don’t see their educational systems as deficient. It is quite efficient to their ends. Instead it is the authors of the study that highlight “failings” in the yeshivas (from their prospective) along with 2 other important factors. There is no inability of the ultra-Orthodox in the area of learning, only an aversion to secular learning. However, that is a mind set not likely to be changed especially on advise of a couple of secular Israeli academics .
“However, that is a mind set not likely to be changed especially on advise of a couple of secular Israeli academics . ”
True. So maybe it’s time for other Orthodox Jews to persuade them that financial meltdown not only damages Chareidim, it puts all of Israel in jeopardy, and creates chillul hashem (because it makes Judaism appear to be unsustainable without handouts, and because of the things that occur when honest money isn’t earned). Count me in.
That’s because 1) they are totally untrained and 2) they don’t join the workforce until they already have large families. So they are technically working and therefore don’t get the benefits that unemployed people get, but they are all the way at the bottom of the workforce making pennies. If they would start working when they are relatively young and after some serious training then their salaries could support their needs.
J- Judaism ISN’T sustainable without handouts. It’s not inherently capitalist, so there should be no reluctance, outside of the not-uncommon sense of entitlement held by the recipients, of maintaining some semblance of a welfare state. If we assume for this issue that Israel is a Jewish state, and views amateur (i.e. unpaid) learning as a vital and necessary branch of its identity and population, then a solution must be found where these families can maintain their lifestyle.
Of course, if the point is that Israel should move toward a more capitalist economy, and abandon the charedim to the whims and generosity of private donations, that’s a fair point, too. But it certainly won’t help the poverty issue.
But the idea to create haredi-friendly vocational schools is a great solution, and one that would definitely fit within Israel’s current economic paradigm.
C-
“Judaism ISN’T sustainable without handouts.”
I don’t know why you say that. Most sectors of Judaism are sustaining themselves nicely. In fact, considering their (relatively) healthy family life and scarce incidents of violent crime, I would say that most such communities are net benefactors to the countries they live in.
Even Chareidi Judaism doesn’t have to be the way it is today. The Talmud is loaded with injunctions to learn a trade, be self-sustaining, and take handouts only when absolutely necessary. The situation today started after WWII, when Torah study was on the edge of extinction, and the Chareidim (and others) perceived this to be an emergency (correctly, I think). The Chareidim (and others) decided to abrogate the above-mentioned obligations in order to respond to this emergency. But what was good and proper in 1955 no longer makes sense. Torah learning is flourishing, the birthrate is high, and the emergency is long over.
“It’s not inherently capitalist, so there should be no reluctance, outside of the not-uncommon sense of entitlement held by the recipients, of maintaining some semblance of a welfare state. ”
A welfare state exists as an insurance policy for unfortunate individuals, not for the pre-meditated acts of entire communities. If any community consistently takes more than its proportionate share of welfare, we have to ask why.
“If we assume for this issue that Israel is a Jewish state, and views amateur (i.e. unpaid) learning as a vital and necessary branch of its identity and population”
I think we could find a great many people in Israel who would support SOME learning, even among secularists. The problem is that nearly the entire population is spending years learning, including many with little desire or ability to do so. This should not be supported even by the Orthodox.
“Of course, if the point is that Israel should move toward a more capitalist economy, and abandon the charedim to the whims and generosity of private donations, that’s a fair point, too. But it certainly won’t help the poverty issue.”
Abandon the Chareidim?? How about the Chareidim stop abandoning themselves, and take their place among the Israeli workforce? Why have you precluded this choice? And why wouldn’t getting jobs help the poverty issue?
Um, it’s expensive to have lots of children.
End of discussion.
TM-
All the more reason for the people having those children to do everything possible to get jobs that will pay for them.