Campaign ads for the Sefardi haredi Shas political party and its
Ashkenazi haredi counterpart UTJ
spotlight their concern for Israel’s poor – perhaps because so many
haredim are poor because they have chosen to follow their rabbis’ orders
and study full time in yeshiva rather than work. But it turns
out that the concern for the poor doesn’t seem to extend past poor
haredim to include what is arguably the most vulnerable segment of
Israel’s society – non-haredim who are both elderly and disabled.
Haredi Pols Who Claim To Care For Poor Voted Down Law Meant To Help Disabled Elderly
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Campaign ads for the Sefardi haredi Shas political party and its Ashkenazi haredi counterpart the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party spotlight their concern for Israel’s poor – perhaps because so many haredim are poor because they have chosen to follow their rabbis’ orders and study full time in yeshiva rather than work.
But it turns out that the concern for the poor doesn’t seem to extend past poor haredim to include what is arguably the most vulnerable segment of Israel’s society – non-haredim who are both elderly and disabled.
Ha’aretz reports that both haredi parties voted against a 2009 bill that would have overturned a legal restriction that prevents elderly Israelis with disabilities from receiving both disability benefits and old-age benefits.
Under Israel’s current law, when they reach retirement age the disabled have to choose between keeping their disability benefits or switching to old-age benefits of about NIS 1,500 ($403) per month. Most opt to remain on disability because the benefits are somewhat higher.
A 2012 report on Israeli poverty by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute reportedly found that more than half of Israelis with income lower than NIS 2,000 were either "not at all able" to pay for all their monthly household expenses or were “not so able" to do it.
The same report found that the poverty rate for Israeli families is almost twice the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average for member countries, and the second worst among all of them.
The elderly disabled are one of the most economically deprived groups in Israel.
During the Knesset debate on the 2009 bill, then-Social Affairs Minister Moshe Kahlon claimed that the government "is unable to pay out double benefits," and others in the ruling coalition decried the cost Israel would have to incur if it did so.
But at the same time, Kahlon lamented the monthly benefit payments that retirees receive, calling those benefits "numbers that are simply disgraceful, dismal,” Ha’aretz reports.
But not “disgraceful” or “dismal” enough for haredim to support laws to fix them.
Instead, haredi concern for poverty focuses on large families, most of whom are haredim, and most which are poor-by-choice because their male breadwinner has chosen not to work, and because haredi leaders refuse to provide most male haredi children with secular education, leaving these haredi children without the skills necessary to function in today’s job market.