They arrived by bus and despite their youth they were veterans of demonstrations honoring the rabbi’s of the extreme-right and protesting negotiations with the Palestinian leadership. But last Sunday their focus was on a Knesset bill to draft Israel’s ultra-Orthodox into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Over 300,000 heeded the calls amplified on religious talk radio and shut down central Jerusalem with a tearful and gender segregated prayer protest.
“Lapid is dead.” “Lapid, he’s a Nazi.” “Lapid wants to die fast, from the heavens God sees everything,” said a group of teenage ultra-Orthodox (also called Haredim) girls from the Tel Aviv area. They likened Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid, the main backer of the compulsorily conscription legislation, to the assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, suggesting he would meet a similar fate. In the past week Lapid has taken the brunt of Haredi discontent against the military service measure, and even received a death threat days before the march.
“He’s a monkey, he’s a dog,” said the girls. Then turning their attention to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the secular-nationalist Economic Minister Naftali Bennett, both of whom are also backers of the draft bill, they said, “Bennett is an anti-Semite. Netanyahu is an anti-Semite. Lapid is an anti-Semite,” the teens continued, adding “Lapid he is a shiksa [Yiddish for a non-Jewish woman, with the connotation of a harlot], but Netanyahu, he is a shiksa–shiksa!”
Netanyahu, Bennett and Lapid, “they will cut our subsidies, the money is for us,” the teen continued. As with many Haredim, the young women feared the loss of government support the state provides them would go hand-in-hand with military service.
In 1948 Israel’s first prime minister—a secular labor Zionist—David Ben-Gurion struck a deal with the religious sector. The ultra-Orthodox of that day were not fully convinced of Zionism and the construction of a Jewish nation-state, but were very much in favor of a Jewish presence in the holy land. They were granted a pass from army duty, and instead could receive subsidies to study the Torah, which was intended to provide supplemental income during the years young Israelis are of draft age. Yet today scores of ultra-Orthodox continue their religious education indefinitely. They opt for state benefits in lieu of employment, and view prayers as their service and contribution to society.
At the time Ben-Gurion made the deal, the ultra-Orthodox comprised only 1% of the population of Israeli Jews, but today they represent 12% and are the base of the declining powerhouse right-wing Shas party. Yet in Israel’s secular population, where 30% of the citizens pays 80% of employment taxes, middle and low-income families feel the Haredim are a financial burden. The measure to conscript ultra-Orthodox is therefore supported by nearly every sector of Israel’s often factional political life, and was part of Lapid’s campaign platform during the last election cycle.
“Everyone, including those who are shouting, because they are expected to shout, knows that not one person studying Torah will be sent to jail. Period,” wrote Naftali Bennett, chairman of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party that typically aligns with religious parties, on Facebook on Sunday in advance of the demonstration. Bennett remarks come during a rift between right-wing parties and a coalition crisis within the ruling bloc. “There is no Jewish historical precedent for non-participation in the workforce. Rabbi Yochanan was a shoemaker. Maimonides was a doctor. Rashi was a vintner. Throughout the history of Israel, our leaders worked,” he continued.
The ultra-Orthodox opposition to the state of Israel continues to date, and overtly anti-Zionist Haredim chose to demonstrate in Tel Aviv on Sunday, rather than Jerusalem. By contrast the Jerusalem demonstrators—though often referred to as “anti-Zionist” due to this historical aversion to the state— support Israel as a Jewish state. Only 20,000 of some 800,000 ultra-Orthodox do not recognize the state of Israel as legitimate and do not receive government benefits, according to Tamar Aviyah a secular-leftist Israeli and one of the Tel Aviv protest organizers.
“We believe that with our study God guards us and without that the powerful army cannot protect us,” said Ziv Kelley, 45, another protester at the anti-military draft demonstration. Once secular, today he is ultra-Orthodox. Kelley used to be an IDF paratrooper, but had a spiritual awakening while in army service in Lebanon during the 1980s. Kelley said he feared the new bill, which is slated to go into effect in three years, would cut his grants and force him to seek employment.
“If you come to the land and an Arab has a house and you don’t believe in the Torah, who are you to kick him out?” asked Kelley explaining how the secular leaders of Israel existentially need the religious, “But if you come with the Torah, it’s your land,” he continued.
“There is no Jewish historical precedent for non-participation in the workforce. Rabbi Yochanan was a shoemaker. Maimonides was a doctor. Rashi was a vintner. Throughout the history of Israel, our leaders worked,” he continued.”
they all work in the States. Even if it is just in makey uppy jobs such as Shatnez Inspector.
800,000 is a lot of people with no modern education. Big problem for Israel with that birthrate.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/should-haredim-work-yes-can-they-not-so-fast.premium-1.477587
” Worse still, these subjects are probably being taught poorly in the Haredi schools. A Haaretz analysis published last week of the nationwide Meitzav examination of school achievement found that 54% of Haredi elementary school students tested in the bottom two deciles. Admittedly, only a small percentage of schools gave the test at all, but given the absence of teaching to begin with it is hard to imagine that the other schools as a group would perform any better.
But our jobseeker doesn’t know any of this. After all, almost no one else he knows has ever applied for a job and he never got a taste of the bottom rungs of the labor market by working as a waiter or call service drone while a student. He goes from employer to employer with a CV highlighting his lack of experience and education, fails a battery of job tests, refuses to shake hands with his female interviewer and looks at her curiously when she makes a passing reference to some bit of popular culture.
So our job seeker fails, which would not surprise him if he had seen and understood the statistics.
The unemployment rate among Haredi men is similar to the rest of the uneducated population. A study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies tracked a steady decline in employment rates for men between 35 and 54, with four years of education or less, from 1979 to 2011. The line shows a steady descent for them and Haredi males to less than 50%. The reason, of course, is that neither group has the qualifications to work in a modern economy. Whereas three or four decades ago, you could learn your skills on the job, working today requires a skill set that takes years of preparation in and out of school. The uneducated simply don’t obtain it. “
>> … scores of ultra-Orthodox continue their religious education indefinitely. They opt for state benefits in lieu of employment, and view prayers as their service and contribution to society.
Useless, supremacist people complaining that the state won’t finance their uselessness (even if it does approve of their supremacism). Amusing, but very sad.
There are also Orthodox protests up the road from me in London
wow.
Seems that the Orthodox are the true opponents to the government of Israel. holy moly– seems that Israel has much more to fear from within than from outside……..verrry interesting.
BDS with all of your might while there is so much discontent at “home”! Come on World, the achilles heel is more than visible!
Can anyone doubt that Orthodox Judaism and Orthodox Islam are two branches of the same religion?