The percentage in haredi society of those who officially work has reached a record high of 55.8%
By Kobi Nachshoni, INN 26.8.213
It’s hard to remain unmoved by the findings of a survey publicized earlier this month showing the rapid growth of haredim (sometimes called ultra-orthodox Jews) in Israel’s workforce. The numbers, crunched by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, show that the percentage in haredi society of those who officially work has reached a record high of 55.8%. This is still a far cry from the 63% target set by the government back in 2020, and much further still from the 87% of the general Jewish populace. But the trend is positive and very encouraging: After nearly a decade with no real change in the percentages, the number of gainfully employed haredim is clearly rising, and appears on track to continue to do so.
Just a few days after the release of the above, apparently coincidentally, another report was published indicating a similar trend. This time it was the Council for Higher Education that released its findings that the 5782 school year (2021-22) showed a jump of over 25% in the number of haredi recipients of academic degrees. Among men, the increase was 18%. That is, 4,725 haredi students received degrees last year (up from 3,760 the year before), which is double the number six years ago, and three times that of a decade ago. Even more significantly, the number of M.A. and Ph.D. degrees awarded to haredi candidates this past year was up 45%, reaching a record high of 1,085. This indicates clearly that the haredi sector is taking the idea of higher education and making a comfortable living more seriously now, and no longer suffices with the very basics.
What has brought about this change? The sour-faced commentators, such as Nechemia Strassler of Haaretz, have various ideas, such as that the jobs being filled by the haredi graduates are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers’ money. Politicians also have their explanations, having to do with themselves, such as that of Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas), who said that the welcome increase is “the fruit of our efforts, and thanks to wide-spread investment.” Not too surprising.
But the true experts, those who have no position to defend, have a different approach. They mainly attribute the change to economic circumstances in which the government cannot really take pride, such as the rising cost of living and interest rates. These incentivize young haredi parents to realize that they must place full-time Torah study on hold while they seek ways to increase their income.
Economist Dr. Eitan Regev, Deputy Director of Research at the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, predicted some months ago that the new economic circumstances, including the changes in the mortgage market, would have this effect. He now estimates that “this is only the tip of the iceberg,” and that the percentages of haredim in the workforce will soon reach 60% of their sector. “There’s no doubt that the trend will continue,” he said. “The only question is how fast.” He added that the rise of interest rates, affecting mortgages quite significantly, could even have an effect on haredi-sector birth rates.
According to Dr. Regev, haredi families with only one breadwinner have always lived on the edge financially, consistently managing to overcome the periodic “bumps in the road” that hit their pockets. These included the cutting of child allowances, reductions in other government stipends, and the tax on disposable dishes and sugary drinks (both of which are consumed in large measures in large families). But the latest developments, Regev says, are more significant than what they have experienced until now, and are actually “a watershed event.” The increase in interest rates not only costs them hundreds of shekels a month in mortgage payments, but actually affects the mechanism by which they survived such challenges in the past and still managed to both buy apartments and save money for their children. How so?
Regev explains that these young families no longer have the strong financial backbone that their parents used to provide, enabling them to purchase an apartment with no need for a large down payment. This, together with increased mortgage prices, “was a sharp and very unexpected jump that threw them off balance. Not only can’t they buy apartments, but they also face climbing rent prices.”
Until now, the rising cost of living caused these families to turn first to seek to increase the wife’s earning capacity, by choosing more lucrative professions than those they had customarily worked in, and by increasing the number of hours they worked. The main goal was to maintain the husband’s level of Torah study. But around four years ago, this began to change, leading to the great increase in academic degrees this past year, most of which was due to women who began their studies around 2018 and graduated now.
Regev feels that the current trend will not stop even if interest rates begin to drop. This is because the increasing numbers of young haredi husbands in the labor market has already had its effect on their society, and the resulting cultural changes are already in place. Regev says that the next step may well be that many parents will provide their young children with math and English studies at home alongside their Cheder learning, to ease their expected integration into higher education and employment.
Itzik Krombi, who heads an employment and innovation center for haredim, and who authored the curiosity-piquing book, “When the Haredim Become the Majority,” has his own opinions on this topic: “It’s not just because of the current economics. Certainly that has some influence, but the bottom line is that it’s happening now, and not during the previous government, when Lieberman was Finance Minister [and enacted some decrees that particularly hurt the haredi public], but rather now, when monthly allowances to young Torah scholars are at a record high!”
Krombi feels that the main difference now is a result of changes that the State and many employers have made to facilitate comfortable work and study environments for haredim, suited to their needs without a danger to their spiritual needs or religious life-style. This paved the way for many haredim looking for an economic solution to take the first not-simple step with relative ease.
“The Council for Higher Studies opened new tracks, the Labor Ministry opened more guidance centers, and the MeGo Program for haredi integration in hi-tech has expanded,” Krombi numbered off some of the factors. “Many employers now better understand how to work with haredim. There are also increasingly more opportunities for men and women to work and study separately, and this is the result.”<
Krombi also notes another very welcome aspect of this story: the choice of many of the haredi graduates to move into new professions such as medicine and engineering, as opposed to the traditional education and law careers of many of their predecessors. “We have here an upgrade not only in quantity but also in quality, and this is our biggest challenge,” he said.
Krombi agrees with Dr. Regev that the new situation is likely to have a broad societal influence, way beyond just the families whose income has now increased. “The young fathers and husbands see their friends who have gone out to work and still remained haredim, and this gives them the confidence that they can do the same thing,” he said. “The rabbis, too, see their students leaving the kollel but remaining men of Torah just as they were before – and they can thus encourage others to take this step as well. It’s a process that takes time, but it is clear that the sharp increase we’re seeing is not just temporary, but rather a trend that is here to stay. We see this on the ground as well.”
Attorney Avraham Yustman is the Deputy Director of the KEMACH Foundation <https://kemach.org>, whose website says it “provides effective solutions to increase the income and welfare of Haredi society in Israel, through career guidance, scholarships, job placement, encouragement of entrepreneurship, and developing future employment leaders.” He has another explanation for the change: “This trend started already two years ago, and is the result of a few factors, primarily the historic detachment between army service and making a living. [Working gainfully without having performed military service or received an exemption is not permitted – ed.] Lowering the age of exemption [at which one who has not served may receive an exemption], and the possibility of its further lowering, certainly contribute to the increase in employment.”
Yustman does not attribute great significance to the removal of government subsidies to some kollel families as a factor in the change, as these sums are “negligible in comparison with a regular salary that one receives from a steady job, not to mention the possibilities for future increases and promotions.”
Like Krombi, Yustman also has compliments for the Council of Higher Education, which of late has been “investing more in creating a positive atmosphere for haredi students. Scholarships alone are not sufficient.” As a top figure in KEMACH, which has been active for years in the field of finding economic incentives for haredi students, he certainly knows what he is talking about.
Story by Kobi Nachshoni, Besheva Newspaper, translated & by Hillel Fendel
Just what I’ve been saying all along!
The more Haredi get higher degrees and enter the workforce, the more it will become the norm in heredi society and thus the growth percentages will increase.