Nothing could be further from the truth. The Charedi world I know is idealistic, dedicated, caring, and unselfish. Its idealism informed by a strong attachment to God and His Torah.
What I just said might seem odd to the occasional reader who has read many of my critical posts on the Charedi world. Which for the most part are still true. But those criticisms pale in comparison to their virtues. (That I tolerate all manner of comments some of which are venomous against the Charedi world is true but beyond the scope of this post).
First it must be emphasized that the Charedi world is not monolithic. Segments of the Charedi world vary widely and can be as different from each other as Neturei Karta is from Open Orthodoxy..
I am not going to list all of their many virtues here. Something I have done in the past. My purpose here is to describe the mainstream, moderate Charedi segment. Which is perhaps its largest segment. It has many of the features of the Centrist modern orthodox world (without its accompanying Hashkafa) as follows.
Most moderate Charedim have had the requisite education enabling them to seek higher education and professional careers. These are not exceptions. Although obviously not every one in Charedi world seeks a higher education or becomes a successful professional. But even those that don’t – still usually do relatively well financially whether in business or in jobs that often pay more than a living wage.
While it’s true that many of them still struggle to pay bills like Yeshiva tuition - that is true about every segment of Orthodoxy. Point is that their lifestyles are as much middle class as the Centrist modern Orthodox world is. They are not isolationist and they function quite well in general society.
Some have challenged this notion. Calling these descriptions the exception rather than the rule. And that they are isolationist which prevents the kind of mainstream world I know to be the reality.
This brings me to a couple of articles in last week’s Mishpacha Magazine.
One article is by Jonathan Rosenblum and should by itself change some hearts and minds. First - Jonathan is himself Charedi and has been educated in 2 of the finest schools in America: the University of Chicago and Yale Law School. Jonathan told me personally that being Charedi has not diminished his appreciation of the education he received in those two schools.
Jonathan’s article gives testimony to the character of the Charedi world by way of a project called the MITZVA Cohort - a blood bank where the vast majority of donors are Charedi. And which has become a major Kiddush Hashem greatly benefitting medical researchers attempting to defeat COVID.
I want to focus on the 4 Orthodox doctors that have created and forwarded this project. I believe that at least 3 of them are Charedi. All of whom have a profound understanding and appreciation of - and respect for science. They are not just doctors. Some are respected leaders in the field of medicine they are in:
Dr. Israel (Sruli) Zyskind is a Brooklyn pediatrician who studied in the Philadelphia Yeshiva which is Charedi.
Dr. Avi Rosenberg, a professor and researcher at Johns Hopkins Medical Center who attended the pre-med program together with Dr. Zyskind at Brooklyn College.
Dr. Jonathan (Nechemia) Silverberg of Baltimore, director of Clinical Research at George Washington University, who also holds a master’s degree in public health and biostatistics, in addition to his MD and PhD.
Dr. Aaron Glatt — a professor at Mount Sinai’s medical school and medical director at South Nassau Medical Center.
Not every Charedi professional is a top exert in their field. But there are more than a few that are. Just like anyone else in the world, any Charedi with the intelligence, education and drive to succeed – can and often will.
It should also not be lost on anyone the respect these Charedi professionals have for science. The accusation often hurled against them that their Hashkafa forces them to ignore or completely dismiss science is false. Unfortunately there are some Charedim that do think that way. (In some segments more than in others.) But the mainstream believes in science no less than the rest of the civilized world.
There is another myth about the Charedi world which I wish to explode. Which is that they only care about themselves. That is the furthest thing from the truth as this project clearly demonstrates.
At this point I want to focus on another article in the same issue of Mishpacha. Which features the Charedi world in Chicago that I believe demonstrates this best. Rabbi Shlomo Soroka is the director of government affairs for Agudah of Illinois. He describes a Charedi initiative called Community Vaccine Alliance - a COVID vaccination clinic. It is housed in the gym of one of Chicago’s Yeshivas that had recently applied and received accreditation as a medical clinic . The Community Vaccine Alliance has become a model for other such clinics. Anyone that thinks this clinic was limited to Orthodox Jews has another ‘think’ coming. (...excerpting liberally from Mishpacha):
“It’s the only one of its kind in the country, to my knowledge, a community organization that became more than just a one-day clinic,” Rabbi Soroka said...
When the White House reached out to Agudah’s DC director, Rabbi Abba Cohen, about vaccination efforts in the Orthodox community, he pointed to Chicago as the gold standard.
“How can we tap into this so replicate your model?” an administration official asked Rabbi Soroka. “We don’t have the capacity to do this, to mobilize so many people, galvanize so many volunteers.”
The Community Vaccine Alliance received a big boost two weeks ago when Mayor Lori Lightfoot paid a visit, during which she turned to her vaccination czar, Tamara Mahal, and asked her to ensure the group gets sufficient doses and resources. That visit put the alliance on the proverbial map, Rabbi Soroka said, and quieted growing hesitance from city officials over their medicinal experiment...
The next complexities with getting the project off the ground were how to assemble the hundreds of volunteers necessary to run it, and, more importantly, where to find arms to inject. The search for volunteers didn’t take long — word of mouth spread rapidly, and within days the Agudah office was flooded with hundreds of offers. And the arms were procured by partnering with the Catholic and Lutheran school systems, as well as with groups in the Indian and Korean communities.
The volunteers, none of whom get paid, including the organizers and medical staff, speak the same symphony of languages that make up the clientele. At any moment, the Joan Dachs gym can be filled with people jabbering in Hindi, Korean, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, or Spanish. One city official whose wife was vaccinated at the yeshivah gym reported that she felt like she was “in the United Nations.”
The clinic is open once a week, on Sunday. Setting up takes hours of preparation, so the volunteers arrive on Motzaei Shabbos to build the cubicles and install the medical equipment. A roster of about 600 volunteers staff two shifts, spread across a few weeks, with some 60 to 80 people weaving in and out throughout the day.
Close to 6,000 people have been vaccinated so far, some already on their second dose. The large pool of volunteers and quick turnover meant they were able to vaccinate the majority of elderly and teachers in the yeshivah, and in the Catholic and Lutheran schools.
I should add that the volunteers come from all segments of Orthodoxy here. Which is a unique feature here in comparison to other cities with a large population of Orthodox Jews.
If after reading these two articles anyone still believes that the Charedi world is filled with self-centered individuals that mock science… and would just as easily defraud the government as eat a chocolate bar, then their prejudice has seriously clouded their judgement overwhelming their ability to see the reality of this world.