According to a 2014 study, Israelis who were once religiously observant are at a high risk of committing suicide. The study was carried out by Bishvil Hahayim (Path to Life), a nonprofit organization that helps the families of people who have committed suicide. It found that 40 percent of people who are no longer religiously observant have had suicidal thoughts, compared to 12 percent, 10 percent and 6 percent, respectively, among respondents who described themselves as secular, traditional and religious. The incidence of suicidal ideation increased to 45 percent for young people in the process of leaving the religious community. Also, 90 percent of ex-religious respondents reported a low level of social support.
Ha'aretz writes in a powerful editorial:
While Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett [of the right-wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party] is spending almost 200 million shekels ($50 million) to “combat the weakening of the Jewish foundations of the family unit,” the Israeli nonprofit Hillel [this is not the US-based campus organization called Hillel that was originally founded by B'nai B'rith; instead, this is a completely separate organization that is the rough equivalent of Footsteps – FailedMessiah.com], which helps young adults who have left the ultra-Orthodox world, receives no state funding and must rely on volunteers and donations. While the Jewish Identity Administration — another one of Bennett’s useless creations — continues to plunder tens of millions of shekels from the national budget, Hillel received just 3 million shekels from the Social Affairs Ministry in 2014. All the attempts (by Meretz and Shinui) to obtain public funding for it failed.
The government’s neglect of people who leave Haredi life is particular troubling in light of their growing numbers. Ultra-Orthodox society’s efforts to retain all of its members have in recent years met with the twin obstacles of poverty and technology. As a result, increasing numbers of individuals are leaving the community. Many of them, however, are not prepared for their new lives and face many difficulties.
“The greatest pain facing someone leaving a religious community is that of being ostracized,” Hillel’s executive director, Yair Hass, said in an interview with Ayelet Shani (Haaretz Hebrew edition, August 14). “The family and community erase you from their lives — it’s very painful. It often leads to suicide.”
According to a 2014 study, Israelis who were once religiously observant are at a high risk of committing suicide. The study was carried out by Bishvil Hahayim (Path to Life), a nonprofit organization that helps the families of people who have committed suicide. It found that 40 percent of people who are no longer religiously observant have had suicidal thoughts, compared to 12 percent, 10 percent and 6 percent, respectively, among respondents who described themselves as secular, traditional and religious. The incidence of suicidal ideation increased to 45 percent for young people in the process of leaving the religious community. Also, 90 percent of ex-religious respondents reported a low level of social support.
Community support is crucial to minimizing the chances that the newly ex-religious will feel alone and possibly suicidal in his or her new world. (“Our role is to break the loneliness,” Hass says.) Vocational guidance and assistance in obtaining an education is also vital. In addition to good intentions, these things require money.
But the state doesn’t care about these people and their problems. Due to narrow coalition considerations, mainly the desire to placate the religious parties, people seeking to leave the cycle of poverty and ignorance and join the workforce encounter an establishment that ignores them. It’s time the state looked at other groups in society, rather than supporting only the religious and Haredi communities.It’s time to give those who leave ultra-Orthodoxy a softer landing in their new lives.