At Haredi Hi Tech Conference, Most Politicians Pander For Haredi Votes While Haredi Pol Blames High Haredi Unemployment On The Secular Government

“As someone who wants to implement the integration of haredim into the workforce, the haredi battalion [of the IDF] and academia, I say to you that until today the state has not taken one step or reached out its hand,” haredi Interior Minister Eli Yishai claimed, insisting that haredi integration into the job market and the military “should be allowed to develop according to its own norms and in its own fashion” at its own pace and not through what he would call coercion and demands.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai

At Haredi Hi Tech Conference, Most Politicians Pander For Haredi Votes While Haredi Pol Blames High Haredi Unemployment On The Secular Government – Not On The Tens Of Thousands Of Haredim Who Chose Not To Work
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The Jerusalem Post reports that Rabbi Shai Piron – a Zionist Orthodox rabbi and yeshiva head who is  also the No. 2 candidate on Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid political party’s Knesset elections list – told a gathering of high technology, academic and political leaders along with more than 200 haredim that haredi leaders have created an entire generation of haredim who are unable to support themselves.

Speaking Tuesday in Jerusalem at a symposium billed as the “first-ever conference” on hi-tech entrepreneurship, innovation and employment for the haredi community, Piron was blunt and direct.

“We are calling out to the haredim because we need them. Haredi leaders have to stop relating to the State of Israel as an enemy of the Torah,” going on to argue that this mentality has “damaged Judaism,” forming “a generation of frustrated people who can’t support themselves.…it is forbidden for a yeshiva be an ir miklat [city of refuge],” Piron said, used to allow people to avoid participating in the work force.

Interior Minister and co-head of the Sefardi haredi Shas political party Eli Yishai disagreed, arguing that the state had not done enough to promote haredi participation in the workforce or to get them to voluntarily join the military.

“As someone who wants to implement the integration of haredim into the workforce, the haredi battalion [of the IDF] and academia, I say to you that until today the state has not taken one step or reached out its hand,” Yishai claimed, insisting that haredi integration into the job market and the military “should be allowed to develop according to its own norms and in its own fashion” at its own pace and not through what he would call coercion and demands.

Haredi rabbinic leaders have banned most higher education. Many talmud torahs and yeshivas for males up to age 18 do not teach any secular studies at all, even math. Just this week, Ashkenazi haredi leaders published a campaign ad for the upcoming elections criticizing the government for trying to force them to teach students “Greek” math – i.e., basic math, geometry, algebra and calculus. These same haredi rabbinic leaders have banned military service except for a handful of haredim at the very fringe of their community who have already given up on yeshiva study and who spend their days on the streets.
 
The leader of the right wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi political party Naftali Bennett also spoke.

Bennett, who is a hi-tech entrepreneur in his own right,  has been courting haredim with the hope that the sizable minority who choose not to vote for haredi parties will vote for HaBayit HaYehudi in Tuesday’s national elections. He claimed that haredim had a lower chance getting jobs in hi-tech because of the unjustified stigmas attached to haredi workers. Bennett called on hi-tech directors to employ haredim “who do excellent work.”

Bennett recently came out against drafting haredim, instead announcing a scheme to reward those Israelis who serve without punishing those who do not – unless those who do not are university students. In that case, Bennett’s party wants to double their university tuition. Haredim who do not serve would still receive their normal full basket of government stipends and welfare benefits.

Erel Margalit, founder and chairman of conference co-sponsor JVP and the No. 11 candidate on Labor’s electoral list, argued that Israel could “leap forward” if haredim decided to enter the workforce. He reportedly claimed that there is no reason for haredim to partner with “the extreme Right.” Instead, he said that a “work covenant” should be made with haredim to focus on integration into Israeli society “together with a logical and sane political path.”

The Labor Party’s leader Shelly Yachimovich has repeatedly urged finding ways to get more haredim to join the workforce while downplaying the issue of drafting haredim, calling it a distraction from the country’s real problems. Any government formed by Labor (if it were to win enough seats to be asked to form one) would almost certainly require the support of haredi political parties.

More than 400 people, mostly haredim, reportedly attended conference.

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Comments

[andre]

He's full of shit.

[OTD with ADD but no STD]

Rabbi Piron is not Rosh yeshiva, he is a president of one (Petach Tikva). He is also like Bennett a BT.

[Yussy]

We are calling out to the haredim because we need them

How true, we have seen countless stories here on Failedmessiah declaring the importance of haredim for Israel's existence from their need in IDF for the defense of the country to their need in Israel's economic growth. They are vital for Israel's existence - more than any other group in Israel's society.

[YTHM]

The Haredim have their own strong free-market economy within Israel.

These politicians only care about extra votes so they can fill their own pockets! They use cleverly constructed lies that that sound sweet to the untrained ears!

[Yochanan Lavie]

Let them register as conscientious objectors and not be penalized. But don't subsidize them either. Only yeshiva students who served in a chareidi brigade should be subsidized. As Heinlein wrote, service guarantees citizenship.

[Rebitzman]

T seems most of the people speaking (exception being R. Yishai) were quite vocal in support for the idea that Haredi serve. R. Piron's statement "that haredi leaders have created an entire generation of haredim who are unable to support themselves." was especially direct.

And OTD with ADD but no STD - no one really gives a damn if he is or is not a BT. Designations such as this serve only to tier and falsely classify Jews. An absolute violation of hallachah.

[Alter Kocker]

Haredism is a cult. That being said, most cults operate under the premise that the members must be kept ignorant in order for the cult to survive. Therefore, if the Haredim wish to work, it would be required that members of that cult attain a minimum level of facility with mathematics and language. As the Haredim already condemn secular subjects in their academia, and have recently come out against mathematics as being "Greek" in nature, then the conundrum presents itself: How can the Haredim work if they do not have the ability to do so? How do they attain that ability when their cult does not allow them to do so? Therefore, what job would a Haredi be qualified to do?

In other words Mr Yishai is disingenuous. There is little that the Haredim are qualified to do AND the Haredim generally choose unemployment. This is not secular Israel's fault.

[Sarek]

Isn't a Haredi high-tech conference an oxymoron?
I mean, wouldn't they consider a yad as high tech?

[Tuvya]

Speaking of high tech, I have to pass on this gem that caught my eye.

Software developer outsources his job to China, makes good money goofing off all day

In this economy you'd think there aren't many six-figure jobs that let you wander aimlessly throughout the web all day between cat videos and catching up with social networks. And you'd be right. But one software developer in his 40s was living the dream nonetheless thanks to the magic of outsourcing.

A Verizon Business report recently detailed one the case of an employee at a U.S. based infrastructure company who was outsourcing his entire job to China for a fifth of his salary. The man in question, referred to as Bob, had gone as far as physically shipping his RSA security token to China so that the third-party contractor could go through the two-factor authentication and log-in under his credentials during the workday.

http://www.techspot.com/news/51354-software-developer-outsources-his-job-to-china-makes-good-money-goofing-off-all-day.html

Amazing! I am sure if one digs deep enough we can find a haredi or chabad connection.

[Pagan]

I absolutely agree with Eli Yishai.

Haredi integration into the job market and the military should indeed be allowed to develop according to its own norms and in its own fashion, at its own pace ...

... and on its own shekel!