Four Times More Haredi College Students Than 4 years Ago

Increase largely due to work of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's daughter, Adina Bar Shalom.

Number of ultra-Orthodox university students swings up
By Ofri Ilani • Haaretz

As colleges and universities open their doors today, around 2,000 ultra-Orthodox men and women will be among those beginning bachelor's degree programs, at the three institutions designated specifically for them. In addition, this year a program in Jerusalem will be opened to Haredi women for the very first time - psychology. 

There are currently two colleges operating in Israel intended solely for ultra-Orthodox men and women: Bnei Brak Haredi College and the Haredi College of Jerusalem, the latter founded by Adina Bar-Shalom, the daughter of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. In addition, some 350 Haredi women study at a Safed branch of the Jerusalem College of Technology. 

These institutions are supported in large part by the Shas Party, which (as reported recently in Haaretz) is also working to establish a higher-education lobby in the Knesset. Figures released by the Council for Higher Education indicate that four times as many Haredi students are currently enrolled in higher education programs as compared with four years ago. 
 
Bar-Shalom opened the college in Jerusalem eight years ago. "The universities saw its achievements, as well as the fact that we've maintained admission standards - we're not trying to lower standards or to lower the level," she said. Three years ago, men also began attending the college, though the sexes were rigorously separated. 

Bar-Shalom said ultra-Orthodox society is undergoing significant changes: "People want to earn their daily bread with dignity. They want to be in places where they have strength and influence." 

"We also need doctors, psychologists, nurses," she added, "so that we have our own people who are familiar with our problems." 

Members of the Council for Higher Education's committee on budget and planning said they "see great importance in the impressive pace at which Haredi students are being absorbed into the higher education system." "This is a project that is budgeted separately by the Finance Ministry, and it needs to continue to be expanded," one member said. 

The most popular tracks among Haredi students are educational counseling, speech therapy, social work, medical laboratory studies and social studies. Bar-Shalom said the success of previous classes has prompted more Haredi students to register for the programs. 

"As soon as there are graduates who earn their degrees from the university, and [go on to] work in places which until now Haredim were unable to get to, it brings more people," she said, adding that the support the programs receive from rabbis, including her father, and strict observance of modesty codes, bolsters their legitimacy. 

"Of course there is support. When things are done modestly and appropriately, according to halakha, according to the rules, there is no reason to refrain from studying academic subjects. The rules of modesty are being followed completely in these places," she said. 

"You won't see boys with girls, and on any religious issue we get answers from scripture. After all, there is no problem to which there is no solution in scripture," she added. 

The academic studies are conducted with the support of universities. Of the psychology program, to be held in Jerusalem with 50 female students in its first class, Bar-Shalom said, "We've been preparing for this for four years. Our rabbis looked over the material and have addressed each and every problem. Just as we're teaching Freud, we'll teach how Maimonides deals with questions of human behavior. 

"We know what to be wary of, what not to get into," she continued. "Even scientists know that Freud isn't the only opinion in psychology - for example, there is also Jung." 

The psychology program will be headed by Prof. David Leiser of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. According to Leiser, "It was agreed that there would be no interference in the curriculum, and that we'd teach the same program taught at Ben-Gurion, with the same exam. The adjustments [made] will be based on sensitivity. 

"For example," he explained, "if we're teaching an introduction to psychology, we'll present a certain theory of psychoanalysis by saying, 'Here, there is such an opinion which you must be familiar with.' We won't treat it as truth, but simply as an existing idea." 

A master's program in psychology is expected to open in the future as well, which would certify ultra-Orthodox students as clinical psychologists. "We want to have therapists to whom we can entrust our souls. We can put our bodies in the hands of any doctor, but our souls are far more complicated," said Bar-Shalom. 

Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson, president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, praised the developments in Haredi education: "The interest Shas has expressed in higher education is an important change. Ultra-Orthodox society must adjust itself to changes taking place in traditional societies around the world, to encourage the acquisition of higher education and take part in bearing the economic responsibility borne by the society as a whole. This step by Shas points to its willingness to advance this issue."

As a young woman, Adina Bar Shalom dreamed of studying psychology but could not do so because life – and the absence of a haredi school – got in the way.

She converted her dream to something larger and more profound, and is now making it possible for haredim to get the education necessary to enter the workforce.

And, because she is Rabbi Yosef's daughter, Ashkenazi haredi leaders like Rabbis Elyashiv and Shteinman can't do much to stop her.

Here's an older Ha'aretz article on haredi higher ed.

Comments

[PulpitRabbi]

God bless her. Thanks for bringing us this article.

[rabbidw]

BTW there is an article in todays NY Post about the growing need for high paying blue collar workers, auto mechanics, air conditioning repairmen, plumbers, carpenters etc. I know that chareidim in America do go into the trades. The chasidim work, they do not sit (I use that word deliberately) in Kolel. But the Israeli Charidim seem to be allergic to work.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Shirking 9 to 5
Apologies to Dolly Parton

Tumble outta bed
And I stumble to the kollel
Wanna be just as sharp as a mohel
And daven and kvetch
And try to get a life
Shuckle in the beit midrash
And the blood starts flowing
Out on the street
The chilonim start going
Folks unlike me on the job from 9 to 5

chorus:
Shirking 9 to 5,
What a way to mach ah leben
Charity given by
It's all takin' and no givin'
We just use our minds
And never move our tuchus
It's enough to drive you meshuggeh
If you look at it

9 to 5, for kollel and learning
You would think that I
Would deserve a decent earning
Want to get a job
But the rebbe will not let me
I swear sometimes that man is out to get me

They let you daven
While soldiers get splattered
They're just a step
On Yaakov's ladder
"Pidyon shvuyim"
Is only for the hairy
You're in the same docket
With your chevrusa
Waitin' for the day the government sues ya
'N' the tide's gonna turn
And it's all gonna roll away

chorus

9 to 5, yeah
You can earn a nice parnassah
That's a better life
Don't you think about it, don't ya!
It's a goyish game
No matter what they call it
And you'll spend your life
Giving tzedakah till you fall down

chorus

repeat last verse

[MalachHamovies]

But the Israeli Charidim seem to be allergic to work

There is a reason to that. When the chief rabbi of jerusalem Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld passed away in 1932, the Badatz made a takanah that on the day of the funeral there had to be "bitul malacha" - meaning no one was allowed to open his store or go to work.

The problem was they forgot to mention that the day after the funeral it's alright to go back to work...

[Hometown Postville]

Psychology for Haredi women? Won't they be able to figure out Haredi men and form opinions of their own?

[Yosef ben Matityahu]

As mentioned by PulpitRabbi,
G-d bless her, and strengthen her hands.
A true modern day Eshet Chayil.
Come to think of it, if the original Eshet Chayil of Proverbs 31 showed up today, (outgoing and diligent as she was), she would probably be placed under cheyrem by the spiritual heirs of the chassam seuyfer!
The 'chodosh' (probably including chareidi college)being 'ossur min hatheuyreh'!

[peter]

the community is going to leave everyone behind.

for years they have worked hard on getting their priorities right and building a society that is able to be frum and survive having to contend with a secular world that thinks with its "little head".

SO they established an overly protective, overly strict, totally closed minded society. They pissed a lot of people off, a lot of people went off the derech, they created a lot of blogs where people protest the injustice, stupidity, narrowness and hypocrisy of the chareidim (all of which is true) , and quietly waited till their community is strong enough to really enter the public realm.

Now it is beginning. after 3 generations of chareidim, living in poverty to build the Torah they love, rebuilding after the holocaust, letting the left wing get soft, they are strong, resolute and able to deal with adversity and challenge far more easily than their soft secular counterparts.
Now they are heading for college, hightech, business and politics.
Some of the leadership thinks they need another 20 years of kollel and poverty and dirt and filth. others think they could have got going about 5 years ago. But the community is not stupid. they know that they need to earn money, and are beginning to do whatever they want. So its happening.

Either way, give it another 10 years and they will be in control. Watch out left wing Israel. You are about to become irrelevant!

IM not saying this is good, by the way. but it is happening.

p

[Ben]

There is another reason for Haredim in Israel to avoid working - army. They don't want to share defense burden (just like taxation and work burdens) with the rest of the society. They want all of their 10 - 16 kinderlekh to be safe at home while other children are dirty, tired, injured and often killed in defense of the country.

[MalachHamovies]

Peter,

Great point !! When the charedeim will consolidate power they will find heterim for Birth Control and Going to work.

They will even tell people that it's a mitzvah to use BC and will be pushing the men and women to go to work.

If they have full control of the purse strings they won't be able to fund a welfare state where every family has 10 kids and no one goes to work.

Once again. Good point.

[Dave Marshall]

That's like what my Dad says about the Arabs
"wish your enemy prosperity".

[shmuel]

Charedim going to college? Are they willing to concede that the YU model was right after all?

[Yoel Mechanic]

Peter, sorry if I missed the sarcasm...but in case there wasn't: do you have any evidence there is this planned take-over?? I think the kollel system would continue indefinitely if the Rabbeim had their choice. I think there is some evolution going on, perhaps driven by changing social and economic concerns.