Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Historically, Haredim were distinctly Ashkenazim with a European background. Then very
religious Mizrahim —Jews from the Middle East and North Africa — joined Haredi (Mitnag-
dim) yeshivot and copied their teachers' clothing and ideas. With the rise of the Shas move-
ment, Mizrahim developed their own distinct interpretation of the Haredi lifestyle and views.
The Mizrahi Haredi community is strongly Zionist.
In Europe, Haredi men followed a full range of vocations, specializing in unskilled and
semi-skilled work and craftwork because of their rejection of secular education. After the de-
struction of the great European yeshivot during the Holocaust, the new State of Israel agreed
to subsidize those Haredi men studying to receive rabbinical ordination. The number of such
students grew to unexpected levels over the years. Continued study brings higher status within
the community, along with exemption from military service, although a few Haredim have
always entered the army.
Haredim have accepted lower living standards for their larger families as the price of spiri-
tual elevation. Thus, Haredim, both women and men, are underemployed in the labor force.
All families with children receive allowances from the National Insurance Institute. For many
years, the addition of each child brought the family an ever-higher allowance, a policy espe-
cially benefi ting the Haredim, but in 2009 this policy ended; instead, the family receives an
equal payment per child regardless of family size.
Since the community has outgrown both welfare payments and contributions from wealthy
Haredim, more have to engage in paid work, and the community has slowly accepted the ne-
cessity. The increase in vocational schools catering to Haredim is a response. In 2006, more
than half of Haredi men were gainfully employed — 60 percent — as were 65 percent of Haredi
women, mainly in the fi elds of sales, technology, diamonds, and education.
With employment, Haredim are becoming more involved in transportation, real estate,
food, technology, sales, and education. Their overall living standard is on the rise. Increased
contact with the world of work has not led to secularization, but it has produced more interac-
tion with mainstream society and thus, for many, a stronger sense of having an Israeli identity.
Israelis do not question the right of Haredim to live as they please — except for the matter
of army service. Some Israelis do, however, claim that the Haredim are trying to extend their
infl uence to dictate how others must act. This is sometimes true, sometimes not. To charges of
“religious coercion,” the Haredim generally give the same response: that they have no serious
ambition to transform Israeli society but are concerned — sometimes to a degree bordering
on paranoia, fueled by false rumors — that Israeli society seeks to transform them. For ex-
ample, everyone in Haredi neighborhoods follows a dress code, which emphasizes modesty
for women. Billboards implore women to dress appropriately. But can Haredim demand that
those passing through their neighborhoods follow the same standards? In Mea Shearim, a
stronghold of the most extreme Haredi groups, there is sporadic harassment of non-Haredi
women who pass through wearing “immodest” clothing. And Haredim periodically throw
rocks at cars passing through their neighborhoods on Shabbat.
Although Haredim have sometimes become involved in broader questions — including
those relating to peace, confl ict, and the territories captured in 1967— they usually focus on
issues closer to home. Should a parking lot or road near their neighborhood be open on Shab-
