{"id":49228,"date":"2020-05-07T08:18:08","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T08:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taubcenter.secure2.anova-host.com\/haredi-society-comes-full-circle\/"},"modified":"2020-12-29T09:24:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T09:24:21","slug":"haredi-society-comes-full-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taubcenter.org.il\/en\/haredi-society-comes-full-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"Haredi society comes full circle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taubcenter.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/eitanwebsitebio-cropped.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-39768\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-39768 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taubcenter.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/eitanwebsitebio-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"eitanwebsitebio cropped\" width=\"120\" height=\"109\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>People sometimes have the tendency to simplify things they do not fully understand, yet reality is usually more complex and evolves with time and changing circumstances. During my years as a researcher, I\u2019ve discovered that Haredi society is the most dynamic society in Israel and that recent decades have witnessed (and are still witnessing) dramatic changes within this segment of Israeli society.<\/p>\n<p>Few people know that in the late 1970s employment rates among Haredi men were very similar to those among men in the general population, standing at about 84%. In contrast, the employment rates of Haredi women at that time stood at only about 40%.<\/p>\n<p>The major turning point took place when Begin came to power in 1977 and the ultra-Orthodox parties joined the coalition for the first time. As part of the coalition agreements, the \u201cTorato Omanuto\u201d law (literally meaning \u201cTorah study is his art\u201d) was greatly expanded. This law exempted yeshiva students from military service \u2013 and granted them generous stipends \u2013 on the condition that they would not work and dedicate their time solely to Torah studies. Thus, it was in many ways the actions of the State that incentivized Haredi men to leave the labor force and form the \u201csociety of learners\u201d as we know it today. At this same time, a gradual process of radicalization was set in motion within Haredi society \u2013 which was manifested in several ways<\/p>\n<p>Employment rates among Haredi men dropped from 84% in the late 1970s to about 40% by 2000. The share of Haredi men attending great yeshivas jumped from 56% (among the older generation) to more than 90% (among the younger generation) and the average duration of study in the great yeshivas increased significantly to about 20 years. Birth rates among Haredim rose as well: from 6.5 children per family in 1980 to 7.5 children in 2000.<\/p>\n<p>Due to the increase in fertility rates, we might have expected a decrease in the employment rate of Haredi women, but their participation rate actually rose to compensate for the decline in employment among Haredi men.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But changes did not only take place in the spheres of employment and fertility. Not many people recall that, in the past, a significant percentage of Haredi boys (especially among the Sephardic Haredim) studied core curriculum subjects, such as math and English, in high school. However, the data show that the formation of the \u201csociety of learners\u201d gradually led to the abandoning of secular studies and removing them from Haredi boys\u2019 education. These changes contributed to the gradual adoption of a new narrative \u2013 which sanctifies religious study and a spiritual lifestyle and utterly denounces the world of employment and secular studies.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, this narrative has taken root and been strengthened, and today there are many who believe that this narrative has always characterized Haredi society. Few admit that the changes over the past few decades largely reflect the more radical elements of Haredi society rising to power as moderate elements weakened.<\/p>\n<p>However, the conditions that gave rise to these changes are very different from the conditions present today. The economic reality that the younger Haredi generation faces is significantly worse than the one faced by their parents\u2019 generation, from which the \u201csociety of learners\u201d emerged. The first generation of the learning society had parents who worked most of their lives (a portion of them also received reparations from Germany), and therefore could support their children more than is possible today.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, donations from abroad did not grow as quickly over this time as did the Haredi population. This was accompanied by a dramatic cut in child allowances in 2003, followed by another cut in 2013 (which, for Haredi families with many kids, significantly decreased their available income), a large increase in the cost of living, and a spike in housing prices. Together these ingredients form the recipe for an economic crisis. It is mainly the younger generation of Haredim that has to deal with this new economic reality, and is forced to adapt to it in order to survive.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, employment rates of Haredi men have risen to 51% and those of women have risen to 73%. Thus, we have actually retuned to the equivalent of one and a quarter persons in full-time employment per Haredi family, on average \u2013 as it was during the late 1970s \u2013 though divided differently between the genders. Birth rates have also returned to their previous level (6.5 children), yet today, these Haredi mothers are <em>also<\/em> the primary breadwinners.<\/p>\n<p>Another surprising change is taking place in academia. Between 2008 and 2014, the number of Haredi students in academic colleges and universities <em>tripled<\/em> and today stands at about 11,000 students \u2013 one third of whom are men.<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that these changes are driven to a great extent by economic pressures and the need to make ends meet. Yet, inevitably, they are also driving some new and fascinating social trends within Haredi society. In a broader sense it seems that, despite difficulties and internal frictions, this is the heyday of the more moderate elements within Haredi society.<\/p>\n<p><em>This op-ed was\u00a0<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.timesofisrael.com\/is-haredi-society-coming-full-circle\/\">published in the Times of Israel<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on July 13, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taubcenter.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/eitanwebsitebio-cropped.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-39768\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-39768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taubcenter.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/eitanwebsitebio-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"Eitan Regev - Taub Center\" width=\"120\" height=\"109\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eitan Regev is an economist and senior researcher at the Taub Center and&#8230;<\/strong><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong><em><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taubcenter.org.il\/eitan-regev\/\">Read More<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few people know that in the late 1970s employment rates among Haredi men were very similar to those among men in the general population, standing at about 84%.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Haredi society comes full circle | \u05de\u05e8\u05db\u05d6 \u05d8\u05d0\u05d5\u05d1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taubcenter.org.il\/en\/haredi-society-comes-full-circle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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