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| Charedim in college - an increasing phenomenon |
Charedi society is the most dynamic society in Israel.
So says Eitan Regev, an economist and senior researcher at the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel. Not that this should surprise anybody. If there is any segment that has grown both in numbers and influence in Israel, it is Charedim.
But what is also true is that it has not only changed drastically over the last few decades, it is still changing. Perhaps this time for the better.
First let me say that the growth of number of people that study Torah among our people in the late 20th and early 21st century is unparalleled. I don’t think there have even been as many Jews studying Torah full time as there are today. Especially in Israel.
We can certainly pat ourselves on the back about this, as well as (in the case of Israel) expressing gratitude to the State of Israel for this phenomenon. The decades long government support for that is one of the primary factors in achieving this milestone. As Regev notes:
The major turning point took place when Begin came to power in 1977 and the ultra-Orthodox parties joined the coalition for the first time. As part of the coalition agreements, the “Torato Omanuto” law (literally meaning “Torah study is his art”) was greatly expanded. This law exempted yeshiva students from military service – and granted them generous stipends – on the condition that they would not work and would dedicate their time solely to Torah studies.
That is still pretty much the status quo – despite efforts by recent government to modify or qualify that support.
Let me be clear about the importance of Torah study. As the Mishnah in Peah (1:1) tells us, Talmud Torah K’Neged Kulam. Torah study is the most important Mitzvah - an absolute good that we should all do as much as we can. No one should dispute that.
The only question is how many of us should do it full time to the exclusion of everything else to the point of ignoring our material welfare. Which often comes at a cost of hurting our spiritual welfare as well.
This makes that abovementioned statistic one of questionable value. This is not to say there should not be those among us that do study full time. Clearly there should. We need world class Roshei Yeshiva and Poskim both of whom require a lifetime of Torah study – and more (…at least for Poskim. The lack of ‘more’ in some cases detracts from those Poskim that don’t have it - for reasons that are beyond the scope of this post).
As I’ve said many times, I do not believe all men should be guided into a lifetime of full time Torah study as they are today. But that is exactly the Charedi paradigm. Charedim are persuaded from a very early age towards a goal of full time Torah study for as long as possible. And to that end they have eliminated all other ‘distractions’ including but not limited to secular studies. Which leaves them with no preparation for the work place at all.
While it is true that many Charedim can catch up. Many don’t. Or can’t. Which leaves them with few options to find jobs that will enable them to support their large families. Bearing all this in mind, here are some statistics that show how things have evolved since the government greased their way:
The share of Haredi men attending advanced yeshivas jumped from 56% (among the older generation) to more than 90% (among the younger generation) and the average duration of study in the yeshivas increased significantly to about 20 years. Birth rates among Haredim rose as well: from 6.5 children per family in 1980 to 7.5 children in 2000.
Picking up some of the slack are women. They are now often the bread winners. They are the ones that ‘work with the sweat of their brow’ – the ‘curse’ given to Adam and all of his male descendants after the sin of eating fruit from the ‘tree of knowledge’. Women now have double duty. The pain of child birth (and child rearing) and the formerly male responsibility of supporting the family.
What may surprise many people is that the Charedi world was not always structured this way:
(I)n the past, a significant percentage of Haredi boys (especially among the Sephardic Haredim) studied core curriculum subjects, such as math and English, in high school. However, the data show that the formation of the “society of learners” gradually led to the abandonment of secular studies and their removal from Haredi boys’ education. These changes contributed to the gradual adoption of a new narrative that sanctifies religious study and a spiritual lifestyle and utterly renounces the world of employment and secular studies.
As I’ve said many times the current system is not sustainable as is. You can’t have 90 percent of your male population studying full time in Yeshivos (post high school) for 20 years without significantly impacting the material (and thereby spiritual) welfare of the entire community. This has caused a change for the better:
In recent years, employment rates of Haredi men have risen to 51% and those of women have risen to 73%. Thus, we have actually returned to the equivalent of one and a quarter persons in full-time employment per Haredi family, on average – as it was during the late 1970s – though divided differently between the genders. Birth rates have also returned to their previous level (6.5 children), yet today, these Haredi mothers are also the primary breadwinners.
Between 2008 and 2014, the number of Haredi students in academic colleges and universities tripled and today stands at about 11,000 students – one third of whom are men.
This is all good news. This kid of change was inevitable. It still however leaves over the question about those that are not able to catch up in their secular studies to succed in colleges and universities. That is one area that still needs to be addressed. The way to do that is to go look back to the time Charedim studied core curriculum subjects, such as math and English. Just the way they still do in most Charedi Yeshivos in America. Something I have strongly advocated here many times.
Alas, this has been successfully fought by the Charedi leadership. Unfortunately I don’t see things changing. Which means that there will remain an unnecessary level of poverty in the Charedi world that could change if only some common sense would prevail.
HT: emet l'amito