bY PROF YORAN ZALICHA, israel hayom
Research has turned up some surprising facts surrounding the importance of various school subjects, and the effect different subjects learned have on ethnic minorities and their integration into the workforce. Certain research studies indicate that studying the local language, particularly verbal reasoning, is more important than studying mathematics or a foreign language.
The students attending our haredi (ultra-Orthodox) campus at the Ono Academic College (in Kiryat Ono, in central Israel) are living proof of these findings. It is very obvious when the haredi students begin their studies that they suffer from a severe disadvantage in math and English skills. On the other hand, their verbal reasoning skills are incredible.
These students manage to bridge the math and English gaps quite well during the course of their studies, and an especially high percentage of them pass the CPA exam (which certifies them to become accountants), which requires quite a bit of quantitative reasoning.
The percentage of haredi students who pass the exam is steady above 90 percent, sometimes reaching 97% and even 100%. The haredi students often get the highest scores and some of them have even won medals for achievement from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Israel.
The haredi students’ impressive success in the CPA exam is not the end of the story. After they complete their studies, they go on to excel at accountancy firms, in the Israel Tax Authority and in the business sector. I think that these facts speak for themselves, both in terms of the desire among the haredi public to integrate into the workforce and in terms of the populist debate regarding the absence of core studies from haredi schools.
It would be best to stop blaming the haredi population for its ills – most, if not all, of which are products of misguided fiscal and social policy on behalf of the state – and instead begin encouraging the haredi community to engage in higher learning. This could prove an invaluable step toward integrating the haredim into Israel’s workforce.
As such, the state should begin helping haredim finance higher education. Our institution, the Ono Academic College, is able to provide scholarships to 2,500 students, but the demand among the haredi community far exceeds our capabilities. How long will they continue to wait for an education while listening to demagogues debating their case? Will the state pick up the gauntlet?
It sometimes seems to me that the decision makers and politicians prefer to keep the haredi problem as it is, painful, burning, instead of acting moderately, efficiently and with groundbreaking agreement from all sides.
The writer is the dean of the Ono Academic College Faculty of Business Administration.
Daniel Kahneman (in the text “Thinking Fast and Slow”) suggests that heredi have the potential of being excellent academic scholars (due to their ability to concentrate on texts for extended periods of time). (Kahneman also mentions another researcher whose interest is in re-defining “intelligence” — moving away from a fast-thinking, IQ model to one of “rationality”.
This is good news.
Sounds a bit self serving to me: looking for increased state scholarships to pay tuition at ONO.
I dont know the difference between Haredi and Orthodox but things about them turn me off: 1) I automatically distrust those who set themselves up as G_ds gatekeepers, intermediaries, anointed ones, messiahs, spokespersons, etc. (as if G_d had a need for anyone to speak for Him). 2)I distrust when self appointed holy ones obtain gain and stature as a result of their self appointment. (e.g. appearance of holiness,excuse for non service to nation 3) pompous pontification to jews and much worse, physical attacks, Those pretending to follow G_d’s teaching would be expected to be more humble, less arrogant and to have more faith in the ability of G_d to deal directly with those whom the orthodox deem as sinners. 4) no shame in receiving the benefits of taxes and military contribution from those who they despise and abhor 5)I cant stand the attire of black hats, coats, etc.: it reminds me of the ghettos of europe and everything negative which the jews experienced there. For me the ashkenazi yiddish culture does not bring positive feelings. I prefer the return to time before the diaspora for culture and not europe. Even Yiddish reminds me sickenly of German. I am sorry but these are my feelings. My grandparents and father were from Poland then Germany and although I loved them I always hated the attachment to jewish european culture. I think much of european culture that was positive was given by the Jews to europe. It was the birth of Israel and the break with Europe that brings pride.
One of the problems in Saudi Arabia is that there religious instruction only produces robots for cannon fodder. I am not convinced by examples of accounting and computers as religious islamists are apparently also good at these things. Israel needs creative minds with critical thinking also as these are the talents which lifted her higher. Although a society needs drones it is best when those drones are not one collective culture. It is not good that the army and creative class be composed only of the left and secular.
Insufficient job skills are only one factor in Haredi poverty and university level education is only one and not suitable for all.
For discussion I will list some and how they handicap Haredi society.
1) No IDF service – no security clearance, no contacts, for those not academically inclined lost opportunity to l
earn trade
2) Kollel system – not everyone really is suited to a life devoted to Torah study and enterring the workforce 10-15 years after everyone else is a huge disadvatage. Torah v Avodah is the answer.
3) Modesty rules – Men work (with sometimes ‘immodestly’ dressed women in every hiloni business
4) Neduniyah – apart from encouraging Haredim to remain out of workforce it impoverishes the parents by reducing investment capital and leads to frequent fraud.
@ leonard white:
While there is a speck of truth in your exaggerated claim, unlike nature’s parasites, which feed on their hosts and find a new one when the host is sucked dry, plenty of Haredim have already learned the lesson that man does not live by schnorering alone.
Where do you live, Leonard? I’m in Jerusalem. Plenty of Haredim in the workplace. Not enough but the numbers keep on growing. And there’s nobody like the Haredim to build charity and social organizations which save people’s live by the 1000s – physically and mentally – Haredi or otherwise.
You wanna know who the real parasites are in Israel? The bloated Government of Israel, the Knesset and all of the ministries and bureau-clerks they breed. Government spending is equivalent to 44.3 percent of GDP. The budget balance has been in deficit, with public debt corresponding to over 70 percent of total domestic output. Get the government out of our lives, stop sucking up our money and stop dishing it out. Then everyone, from Haredim to Habima actors, can decide what to do with their money and whether others want to voluntarily contribute to their causes whatever they may be.
@ Shy Guy:
LET US CALL A SPADE A SPADE . HERADIM ARE THE THE WORST PARISITES EVER. Should they continue to multiply as they do they will eventually destroy the nation.
This is old news in the US, where back in the 80s, especially when the Reichmans went belly-up, lots of Kollel people went to work. Many did quite well in all sorts of professions.
A fews years ago, statistics showed that Beit Yaakov high school girls in Israel were averaging noticeably higher than Israeli secular schools.
Turn off the government spigots.
Last week, Moshe Feiglin discussed the Ono College experiences: The Draft Tragicomedy.
At the Jerusalem College of Technology, their Hareidi program is having similar success in computer programming and other challenging subjects, both for men and women.