A poll conducted and released before Rosh Hashana for Hiddush, an
Israeli religious freedom lobby and education nonprofit, shows that 67%
of Israel’s Jewish population thinks that the activities of haredi
political parties distance Israeli Jews from Judaism.
Haredi Pols Distance Jews From Judaism, Poll Finds
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
A poll conducted and released before Rosh Hashana for Hiddush, an Israeli religious freedom lobby and education nonprofit, shows that 67% of Israel’s Jewish population thinks that the activities of haredi political parties distance Israeli Jews from Judaism, the Jerusalem Post belatedly reports.
Among the poll’s other findings: 76% of Israel’s Jewish population is dissatisfied with the government’s handling of religious issues; more than 70% of respondents said that tension between haredim and non-haredi Israelis constitutes either the most or second most important inter-Jewish problems in the country; 64%, including 56% of Zionist Orthodox Israelis, think that discrimination against women in public places should be a crime.
Commenting on the poll, the head of Hiddush Rabbi Uri Regev said that “the public wants mandatory [national] service for everyone, core curriculum subjects [to be taught to all school children – including haredim], civil marriages, public transport on Shabbat, cutting benefits for yeshiva students and a struggle against discrimination against women.”
Instead, Regev told the Post, Israelis are getting “at best incompetence and at worst political deals and machinations” between the two haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism.
Rabbi Shaul Farber, an Orthodox rabbi who heads ITIM, a nonprofit that helps secular Israelis and converts navigate Israel’s state religious bureaucracy, said that haredi political parties are a reality of the Israel’s democracy. “The challenge is to have the religious establishment take a klal yisrael – all Jews – perspective rather than a myopic one. Religious functionaries have been corrupted by their perceived power and all too often don’t serve the general public in a meaningful way,” Farber reportedly said.
Related Post: Overwhelming Majority Of Secular Israelis Fed Up With Haredim, Want Total Separation Of Religion From State.