A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Are The Gedolim backing charedim going to work?

Now here’s something unexpected.

As we all know, an even greater problem for Israel than charedim not serving in the army is charedim draining the economy. The anti-education, anti-work, pro-freeloading-off-taxpayers philosophy of the charedi world presents nothing less than an existential threat to the country. There are a few heroes, such as Rav Dovid Leibel, who are working to change things, but they have been condemned by the charedi leadership. So you would be thrilled to learn that a very high-profile organization is being created to support charedim going out to work, led by top rabbinic figures in the charedi world! Here’s the official announcement of the launch in Manhattan tomorrow:

Except that if something seems too good to be true, then it often isn’t. And this case, it absolutely isn’t.

The immediate sign that something is very wrong here is the appearance of R. Elimelech Kornfeld from my hometown of Ramat Beit Shemesh. He also happens to be the official rabbinic delegate of UTJ, United Torah Judaism, and he has even publicly criticized Anglo immigrants who believe that they can choose who to vote for - he insists that it is not a matter of choice and they are obligated to vote for The Gedolim™.

And we are being told that R. Kornfeld is backing charedi educational reform?! Nobody here has worked harder to block charedi educational reform! He’s done this in all kinds of ways. He’s fought against the creation of charedi political parties who support such things. He tried to block land being allocated to charedi high schools that teach general studies. And after Rav Dovid Leibel’s speech about how it’s perfectly legitimate to work for a living and to give your child a rudimentary secular education, R. Kornfeld wrote an article denouncing it.

Likewise, R. Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the “Gadol HaDor” featured at this event, has also made clear his opposition to charedim getting an education and being economically self-sufficient. At the notorious rally describing charedi women attending (religious) college programs as “Pigs in Streimels,” he declared that although the charedi economic model causes immense problems, the spiritual price of attending religious college programs is too great to pay, and charedim must consign themselves to ever-worsening economic ruin.

So what on earth is going on? How are such peope backing a new initiative to support “working Bnei Torah”?

Well, it’s a scam, of course. Not that this event is not happening with these people - it is. But it is nevertheless a scam. And the scam, according to my sources (and I don’t see a more plausible explanation), is as follows.

There is no need for a new organization to help charedim be able to work for a living. There are already wonderful people such as R. Menachem Bombach and R. Dovid Leibel who are working to help charedim become actually economically self-sufficient. This necessarily also involves getting some amount of general education, in the new educational systems that these heroic rabbis have created such as Netzach Yisrael and Achvat Torah. (After all, if you stay in the charedi yeshiva and kollel system, then by the time you’re financially desperate in your 30s with a wife and several children and no academic background of any sort, you’re unemployable.)

And here’s the issue. Naturally, people who take this approach move out of the socio-political community of The Gedolim™. They might even, horror of horrors, join a charedi hesder yeshiva to help protect their brethren in Israel. Even worse, Heaven forbid, is that they are less likely to vote UTJ.

And so The Gedolim™ and their circles are trying to prevent people from making this move. And the way to do so is to intercept the funding that comes in from the US for charedi educational reform and instead use it to support a system in which men are denied the opportunity to get any general education, entirely discouraged from being economically independent, and need additional financial support when they are finally at the point of total collapse and have entered the workforce but by this point can’t get anything other than the most menial forms of employment.

For those who don’t believe me, here’s a quote that I received for this post from Motty Leitner, the deputy mayor of Beit Shemesh who represents charedim seeking genuine reform, speaking about the people behind the event in Manhattan:

They “take care” of working Haredim in this way: they will make sure that there are no more working Haredim.

Their entire approach towards them is to convey to them that they are inferior and second-class. They do not try to support them or help them. And if it were not for (R. Dovid Leibel’s) Achvat Torah they would not bother to glance at working Haredim.

Rabbi Kornfeld is personally hostile to the working Haredim movement, trying to harass in every way the movement and institutions of our community in the city, from the charedi state elementary schools, yeshiva high schools to the seminaries.

He is a danger to the future of the working Haredi community.

Anyone who donates to him has the right to do so. But they should be aware that he engages in deception. In reality he is doing even more harm than the zealot rabbis in the city to everything related to working Haredim, immigrants to the city, and encouraging the integration of Haredim into the world of employment.

So, just like Keren Olam HaTorah’s “pro-Israel” scam with American philanthropists (some of whom are also involved with this) to support people that are actually anti-Israel, this is a “pro-work” scam that is actually anti-work. What we have here is nothing less than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And the people in the charedi community who are genuinely working for change are furious about it.

Donors beware!