Top Haredi Politician Says Israelis Do Not Resent Haredi Draft Dodging And Intentional Reliance On Welfare Rather Than Work

"The public doesn't resent the haredim more than before. Every Haredi has been told at some point, 'if only all the ultra-Orthodox were like you.' Because people's image is of radical, violent haredim who hurl stones at cars on Shabbat. There's no resentment - it's only on TV, not in real life."

M.K. Rabbi Moshe Gafni

Ha'aretz has posted a Q & A with haredi Member of Knesset Rabbi Moshe Gafni. Gafni is the head of the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism party and the Knesset's Finance Committee chairman.

Gafni – a longtime politician – is adept at spinning and at avoiding questions he doesn't like. Even so, Gafni's answers to some of the questions posed to him by Ha'aretz readers are shocking in their arrogance and in what can easily be called their mega lies of omission.

Here are two examples:

In a party conference you said that the coming election is the most pivotal in history for the Haredi community. What did you mean by that? Do you think that ultra-Orthodox men will be drafted after the election? Does the public resent the community more than in the past? (Hananel)

More and more Israelis are becoming more and more religious and traditional. We now see synagogues and mikvehs even in kibbutzim. What you have to understand is that there's a shrinking minority of atheists who think that the Jewish people should be like the French or the English, without any Jewish character. It's a minority that used to be hegemonic and therefore feels that the country is slipping through their fingers.

Most Israelis now believe in G-d. The numbers are unprecedented. Most Israelis think that we are the Chosen People and that we aren't a nation like all others. And who do these people blame for it? The Haredim, because we are very happy with this trend and encourage it.

The public doesn't resent the Haredim more than before. Every Haredi has been told at some point, "if only all the ultra-Orthodox were like you." Because people's image is of radical, violent Haredim who hurl stones at cars on Shabbat. There's no resentment - it's only on TV, not in real life.

Whether this election is critical to the relation between religion and state, the answer is yes. It's the first time I've witnessed the Knesset debating the very basics. The struggle between the Haredim and the anticlerical minority is in full swing, and is likely to be decided during the term of the next Knesset, especially on the issue of yeshiva students, who are the backbone of the Jewish people throughout history. Maintaining that is our most cherished cause.

[…]

Do you think it's right that representative of a community that makes the smallest contribution to the economy would chair the Knesset Finance Committee - where all the decisions about the distribution of the budget are made? (Oded)

Tens of thousands - possibly hundreds of thousands - of Haredi men and women are hardworking people whose wages are lower than average. They rarely work in the civil service, which means that they don't enjoy the favorable conditions that others get, just because they're Haredi. Throughout my years in the Knesset I've tried to bring Haredi people into the job market and help them make a decent living. It is unfair to complain that I represent a community that makes no contribution. I represent a community that is discriminated against. Studies have consistently showed that a Haredi will be the last to be hired - even after immigrants and Arabs - because employers are prejudiced: they think that Haredim aren't hardworking.

Public opinion polls show that a large majority of Israelis want haredim to share the national defense burden by serving in the military, and that those Israelis overwhelmingly support a mandatory draft of yeshiva students, who have until now been effectively exempt from military service and even its civil service option. Israel's High Court of Justice agrees that there should be no special exceptions from the military draft for entire classes of people like yeshiva students and struck down the law that allowed those haredi exemptions last February, causing haredi leaders – including colleagues of Gafni – to threaten civil war.

What Gafni is really saying is that haredim can keep raiding the state's treasury to support yeshiva study and haredi outreach to non-haredi Jews almost in perpetuity, because many Israeli politicians – especially Israel's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – are craven and self-serving and will always find a way to give in to haredi demands to secure haredi coalition support. And the demographics as Gafni sees them – the extraordinarily high haredi birthrate largely paid for by israel's non-haredi taxpayers – combined with kiruv, outreach, haredi missionary recruitment – also paid for in part by the state – will soon create a demographic reality in which forcing haredim to equally share the burdens of defense and earning a living with the rest of Israel will be permanently off the table.

Gafni was asked if he thought it was correct for him to be the head of the Knesset's Finance Committee. The question is based on the fact that only a minority haredi men actually work (the rest opt to study in yeshiva and live off stipends, some from the state, and welfare, to do it), and when haredi rabbis' bans on higher education and haredi K through 12 schools and yeshivas near-uniform refusal to teach the country's mandatory core curriculum.

Many of these haredi schools have no math classes, no science classes, no civics or English classes – meaning their graduates are wholly unprepared for the 21st century workplace.

In fact, many of these haredi schools don't even teach Modern Hebrew as a language, so their graduates are frequently unable to effectively communicate in writing in the country's own language.

All of this means that the haredim– especially the men, whose secular education is almost always more deficient than the women – who do want to find jobs start out far behind others of their age.

Add to this the special requirements that often come with hiring haredim – kosher company cafeterias must become glatt kosher, genders must be strictly segregated, and haredi men must be allowed to arrive late (due to morning prayers) and leave early or take a special prayer break (for afternoon prayers). And there's more – this list of necessary accommodations for haredi workers not complete.

How can someone who represents a community like this, a community that intentionally depends on welfare, eschews work, and which contributes so little to Israel's economy or its tax base possibly chair a country's parliament's Finance Committee?

Do you think it's right that representative of a community that makes the smallest contribution to the economy would chair the Knesset Finance Committee - where all the decisions about the distribution of the budget are made? (Oded)

Tens of thousands - possibly hundreds of thousands - of Haredi men and women are hardworking people whose wages are lower than average. They rarely work in the civil service, which means that they don't enjoy the favorable conditions that others get, just because they're Haredi. Throughout my years in the Knesset I've tried to bring Haredi people into the job market and help them make a decent living. It is unfair to complain that I represent a community that makes no contribution. I represent a community that is discriminated against. Studies have consistently showed that a Haredi will be the last to be hired - even after immigrants and Arabs - because employers are prejudiced: they think that Haredim aren't hardworking.

And how will Israel survive when haredim, now about 10% of Israel's Jewish population, grow to become 40% or 50% of it (something that with the exponential population growth of the haredi community is not that far off)?

Gafni dodged a similar question about who will be the doctors, the scientists, the engineers, etc., when haredim become the country's majority, but he did venture this about how the country would handle its defense then:

About military service, for most of their history the Jewish people were at war. Half of the people fought and the other half studied Torah. I'm all in favor of continuing this arrangement.

In Gafni's mind, the burdens, be they defending the country, paying taxes, providing for public health, science eduction, research & development, and anything past studying Torah will always be borne by others, not by haredim.

This is the unsustainable future that is being enabled by Netanyahu and his cronies.

Comments

[jancsibacsi]

I agree with him 100 per cent he is a realist,the violent ones are the trouble makers the rest just want to live in peace with everyone else.

[Rocky]

JB: You should have added "and at everyone else's expense."

[Garnel Ironheart]

> The public doesn't resent the Haredim more than before.

In other news, Gafni wished Elvis Presley a happy birthday and many more.

[AztecQueen2000]

Didn't Rashi make wine for a living while he wrote his famous commentaries on the Chumash and Shas?

[ah-pee-chorus]

in a related headline:

TOP SECULAR POLITICIAN SAYS:

charedim are thrilled about being drafted. they look forward to finally being able to do something productive and unselfish.
they anxiously await the cessation of all stipends and govt. funding of yeshivas. charedim are begging israel to force their schools to prepare them for the job market.

[Lubavitchers are Christians]

Here's how it works:

Ask the haredim why they don't contribute to society? Why don't they work? Why do they instead collect benefits from the government? Why do they depend on government for their livelihood, while not working and contributing? Why are they comfortable that their parasitical lifestyle is destroying the rest of the country? Why do they not care that they are causing the rest of the country to hate them?

And then they answer back: Well, we are suffering from discrimination and from racism. WE are the victims here.

They will not even address the issue, just revert to the "racism" claim.

This is so typical of the core contituency groups of the Democrat party. Ask them the same questions as above, and you will receive the same answer.

[jancsibacsi]

Rocky-- You have a good point there i must admit:).

[Jeff]

[facepalm]

Every Haredi has been told at some point, 'if only all the ultra-Orthodox were like you.' Because people's image is of radical, violent haredim who hurl stones at cars on Shabbat. There's no resentment - it's only on TV, not in real life."

Okay, so who's throwing the stones? Actors?

Is there an Israeli version of Central Casting?

[seth]

Maybe Isrealis do not resent haredi free riders, but as an American taxpayer whose dollars allow these welfare layabouts to be financed by a national treasury that could not finance it on its own, I do resent it.

He who pays the piper calls the tune. Congress should step in and inform Israel, pay your own bills or conform to what we consider rational and that means a total separation of church and state in this case. If Israel chooses to go its own way, I wish them well.