Lack Of Haredi Education And Employment Pose Existential Threat To Israel, Study Finds

The annual State of the Nation Report by the Taub Center, a Jerusalem-based policy research institute, found that Israel’s economy is dramatically falling behind the West, and this failure poses an existential threat to Israel’s survival.

Lack Of Haredi Education, Employment Pose Existential Threat To Israel, Study Finds
Shmarya Rosenberg • Failed Messiah.com

As we reported several weeks ago, the annual State of the Nation Report by the Taub Center, a Jerusalem-based policy research institute, found that Israel’s economy is dramatically falling behind the West, and this failure poses an existential threat to Israel’s survival.

Why? How?

Israel’s economy is held back by large groups of non-workers, by low productivity, and by a dysfunctional education system.

These trends are deep-seated and long-term, and the Taub Center’s director, economist Dan Ben-David, says they pose an “existential threat” to the country’s future.

Even so, Ben-David says there is still hope.

“We have all the pieces to change direction. The capabilities of this country to reverse these trends are empirically proven and fantastic…we have empirical studies that show Israel’s universities ranked among the world’s leading universities. So it’s not just a few Nobel laureates; we’re an academic superpower. We have all the knowledge we need. We just need to get it to our kids tomorrow morning,” Ben-David told the Times of Israel.

Academically, Israeli schoolchildren have consistently ranked below schoolchildren in industrialized Western economies for the past two decades.

In the state-funded secular and Orthodox school systems, academic achievement measured in international standardized tests low, below First World levels, the center’s report found.

But in the Arab and haredi school systems, academic achievement is much lower than that – below many Third World countries.

“How are [these kids] going to compete in the global economy?” Ben-David asks.

A weak education system and overcrowded inefficient transportation infrastructure combine to form a recipe for inefficiency and low productivity, the Taub Center’s report notes.

Israeli workers rank 23rd out of 34 OECD states in productivity and falling.

Israel also lags way behind in employment.

In 1979, there was 90% employment in both Israel and in G7 countries. But Israel’s employment rate rapidly dropped off as subsidies given by successive right wing governments to haredi yeshiva students grew.

The Times of Israel notes that “even in the wake of a strong recovery, Israel cannot match the employment figures for the G7 economies during their worst economic downturn in living memory.”

“We know how to map education’s role on employment,” Ben-David told the Times of Israel. “We compared Haredi employment to employment of people with different levels of schooling. There’s an argument out there that what they learn [in post-elementary yeshiva] is good [preparation for the modern economy].”

But the Taub study found that the rate of haredi employment is identical to the rate of Israelis who dropped out of school after the 4th grade, hovering just below 50% employment.

And with the exponential growth rate of haredim as shown by kindergarten enrollment in haredi schools, this is frightening.

The report also debunks the widespread myth that the Israeli economy is strong. While there are many signs of strength in the short term, the long term problems are deep seated.

“The problem is that this stable decades-long trajectory reflects slower growth over the long term than in leading Western states. This means that the standard of living in Israel has been retreating, in relative terms, from leading Western countries for several consecutive decades,” the study found.

“You can’t forgo half of society and say, ‘the rest will support everything.’ This is existential. We saw just a week ago [in the Gaza conflict] how important a modern economy is if you want to have a modern army. We’re shooting down missiles. Who else in the world can do that?” Ben-David said, noting that without a First World economy and First World education, Israel will have great difficulty paying for or training a First World army. “And without a First-World army,” Ben-David said, “how exactly are we going to exist in this neighborhood?”

Comments

[Yochanan Lavie]

1. End all kollel subsidies.
2. Set up vocational programs geared towards chareidim.
3. Impose and enforce basic literacy and numeracy skills on chareidi curricula.
4. End barriers to employment on those who didn't serve in the army.
5. Encourage more chareidim to enlist- carrots work better than sticks.
6. Provide assistance to those who want to become Chardal, Modern Orthodox, or Secular.
7. Improve secular education in all schools.

[Jack]

Lack Of Haredi Education And Employment Pose Existential Threat To Israel, Study Finds

Wow, I had no idea that Haredim were so curtail to Israel's existence.

[Jack]

Make that

Wow, I had no idea that Haredim were so critical to Israel's existence.

[jancsibacsi]

Sure if they keep ruminating on toireh and nothing else the country of israel is going to loose its scientific and work force,the hynotized toreh idiots think they are the only ones who make this world prosper and flourish,its the exact opposite work and less ruminating on bygone eras is what will make us prosper.

[Rocky]

Israel is heading to failed state status, but it won't happen for at least another generation. While secular Israeli Jews are moving abroad by the thousands every year, religious Jews from the US, Canada and other western countries continue to make alliyah. I wish them luck. They are going to need it. In the meantime, we can continue reading about the failures of the religious class on this web site.

I wonder what will happen to the New York area, as the rapidly growing Haredi population gradually replaces the doctors, dentists, lawyers and accountants that Jewish mothers used to sing praises about?

[seymour]

I guess this study misses the main point. the only reason the others make any money is because the yeshivas boys who learn Torah the secular are just too stupid to understand that only a yeshiva mind can truly appreciate that

[Garnel Ironheart]

First let the secular system clean itself up. They are ranked below every country in Europe for achievement and at the top for violence and teacher intimidation. When they've done that then they can preach.

[seymour]

First let the secular system clean itself up. They are ranked below every country in Europe for achievement and at the top for violence and teacher intimidation. When they've done that then they can preach.

Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | November 27, 2012 at 11:08 AM

[provide link to study

[flatearth]

Substitute any of the following for Israel:

New Square, Ramapo, Rockland, State of New York.

[Rocky]

flatearth: Both Kiryas Joel, NY and New Square, NY appear on this list of poor US communities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_poorest_places_in_the_United_States

They rank right up there with the Indian reservations.

[jancsibacsi]

Rocky -If you but that that they are so poor i have the brooklyn bridge to sell youn by the hassidim everything is a tactic to delude you or fool you into beleiving that they are so poor,if they are so poor how come they keep making so many babies have a house not on their name cars and nice malbishim,i know at least 3 who are millionaires and they get all the entitlements like sec.8 food stamps of course nothing is on their own name so they are gaming the system fantastically outsmarting all of us.

[Stevens Henager Idaho Falls]

@jancsibacsi i'm sorry you wrote that in a very confusing way I'm having a hard time understanding. You're saying the some people who appear to be poor are millionaires? while it is possible but unlikely I have a hard time seeing people playing the system in quite that way. bu like I said it is possible.

[jancsibacsi]

Stevens Henager Idaho Falls--Yes you got it right some who appear or play the poor are actually millionaires, and i know a few of them itsd not that hard to hide youre money and get all the benefits like sec.8 or food stamps medicaid well you dont live in major cities like new york so i dont expect you to understand it,its callled gaming the system i even know a few who get sect.8 living in their own house not on theier name a they are on a relatives name get food stamps medicaid to me its old news i knew this over 20 years ago

[Bob Guthrie]

Posted by: Jack
"Wow, I had no idea that Haredim were so critical to Israel's existence."

Ten (10) percent of Israel's population. Oxford study predicts at current sustained birth rate that by 2040, 50+ percent of the country's population will be Chareidim.

With no apparent changes in their mentality regarding the basic ("evil secularism") tenants necessarily for the viable prosperity of a country, roughly calculate these dismal findings by a rate of 5.

...Israel’s Health Minister Yaakov Litzman not shaking the hand of her Female Belgian counterpart because of his Chareidim "beliefs"...

That was in 2012. Wait until more of them are put in charge of Education, Technology, Physics, Transport, or any Economic post or committee in the next 30 years as their voting block and views expands unchecked,...

Yes, Israel continuing dominant place on the First Wold Country's tier seems... assured.