Relationship between Haredim, non-Haredi strengths at break level

“There has never been anything like it in the last 50 years or so, perhaps even more so,” said Dr. Benjamin Brown of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israeli Institute for Democracy, an expert on Orthodox Jews and Haredi, to The Media Line.

Dr. Dan Ben-David, head of the Shoresh Institute for Socioeconomic and Economic Research at Tel Aviv University, agrees.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been at as big a level as we are today,” he told The Media Line.

Many ultra-orthodox Israeli leaders and their followers have blocked the Ministry of Health’s coronavirus restrictions, including lock-in orders, as Israel opposes the biggest health crisis and one of the worst economic conditions in history.

Just last week, thousands of Haredim attended the funeral of one of their leaders, Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik.

“Most people are good, but their leadership is driving them down the drain,” Ben-David said.

On January 8, as Israel entered a tougher phase of third closures and closed schools, some yeshivas and other centers run by Haredi refused to close, with authorities delaying the implementation of the rules.

“To some extent, their conversation. They routinely prevent their children from receiving a primary curriculum education [basic secular studies], not only through the corona pandemic, but part of the problem is that they want to be able to dislodge their children so that nothing they say and whatever happens will happen. come from outside, ”said Ben-David.

“They don’t teach them science so they don’t understand how viruses work,” he said. “They don’t understand mathematics so they don’t understand what an abstract action is.” When you double or triple every time the number of people affects everyone, that means many of them die and many of them get sick, and with them the rest of us . “

“They are bringing down the entire health care system and economy by simply breaking the rules and regulations suddenly,” Ben-David continued.

That behavior has only exacerbated tensions in their relationship with other Israeli Americans, who have long felt that Haredim gives much less to Israeli society than they do. taking.

While about three-quarters of Haredi women work outside the home, men typically learn in yeshivot. With an average of just over seven children per family, many are still unable to meet and are dependent on the Israeli welfare system. In addition, a full-time religious study exempts most Haredi men from the military service that is mandatory for other Jewish Israelis.

“People feel… they like the fruit of the Israeli worker and they also worry about public health… they just don’t give a damn about what the government is saying and they do it in a deceptive and deceptive way and it angers people who are not Haredim “Brown said.

“There is [expletive] silly. Maybe if the police had enforced the rules in these religious neighborhoods, we wouldn’t be in our third lockout, ”Ari Klein, a secular Jerusalem, told The Media Line. “They do not follow any of the health protocols. Their neighbors’ stores have big contracts on baby stuff but I won’t go there because they’re not worth the risk. “

Haredi’s mother of eight Miriam, who refused to give her last name, has also received this case. As a secretary in the Jerusalem district office, she feels she has put an end to the anger of the Jewish people in general.

“I was waiting in the lobby with a woman and her son for the lift. When he arrived, I went in and held the door open so he wouldn’t close, ”she told The Media Line. “The woman suggested going ahead and said she would take the next one.” I heard her tell her son that there was no way she would let him ride in an elevator with him. [a Haredi person] for she did not want him to be sick. “

“I was so sorry because I have a mask.” My family follows the rules. Everyone I know does the same, ”said Miriam.

Brown believes that tensions between the Haredim and everyone else will move down when the pandemic is over.

“People manage their energy a lot more to get back to work and… normal life than fighting[ing] about how you behaved before, ”he said.

However, Ben-David says it will take political change to improve relations between the two groups.

“If the leaders of the whole country put too much personal and regional interest, then I think they have the ability to settle things and get us on a sustainable path,” he said. we have a fundamental revolution here of individuals who refuse to accept Israeli law, from what we order in schools to health care and everything down the line, everything we do. “

“If things are already difficult when the Haredim are only 7 or 8% of the adults, what is going to happen when their children grow up, which is already one-fifth of the population. children in Israel? “Ben-David asked. “Who can make laws and do nothing in the Knesset then, not to mention in two generations when, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, they are half the children in Israel?” he said.

Ben-David says the tension between the Haredim and the rest of Israel has only addressed deeper systemic problems facing Israel as a whole, including an “abusive” health care system and an education system that is considered among the worst in the development. world.

“It’s not just the Haredim that are getting a crooked education,” he said.

“We need real leaders at a bad time to take great control of this country and put us back on a path that is stable and one that has a future,” said Ben-David. our backs are against the wall to bring the act together. Our backs are pretty much against the wall now. “

“We’ve seen the future and we don’t like it.” It’s time to do something about it while we still can, ”he said.