A lot of people ask me if there’s any hope for Israel’s future, given the size and political power of the charedi community which is hellbent on draining the economy, weakening the IDF in various ways, and ultimately collapsing the country. As even Jonathan Rosenblum once effectively admitted in Mishpacha magazine, they are a serious existential threat, in some ways more serious than Iran or the Palestinians, since their path to collapsing the country seems so unstoppable. My answer until now has been to point out that there is always hope that following the forthcoming election, the charedi parties will not be in the government, and it will be possible to cut off the funding which enables their damaging lifestyle to exist. But now there’s also other grounds for hope.
HaTzibur HaCharedi, “The Charedi Community,” is a new charedi political party, led by Beit Shemesh Deputy Mayor Motti Leitner. It seeks to correct much of what is wrong in charedi society - the lack of civic (or any) responsibility, the lack of education and its resultant terrible poverty, the corruption of askanim who obtain power and control and money. HaTzibur HaCharedi aims to strengthen charedi army service in various ways, to improve general studies education for the charedi community, and so on.
The question that everyone is asking is whether they will gain enough votes to clear the minimum threshold that requires four seats. Personally I think that it is quite likely - there are many disaffected charedim who don’t vote for UTJ - and in any case hopefully they will unite in a technical bloc with another party so that together they will comfortably clear the threshold.
But the significance of HaTzibur HaCharedi should not just be measured in how many votes they get and how much resultant political power. The very fact of it having come into existence is cause for celebration. We are seeing charedim openly rejecting the mainstream charedi approach, and openly not caring about what The Gedolim™ decree. This is not just vital for the well-being of charedi society and of all Israel, but also far more consistent with the traditional model of rabbinic authority.
I do not agree with all of the positions of HaTzibur HaCharedi. They take the approach that people who are genuine full-time learners should be allowed to stay in that position (though they do not state the extent to which such people should be funded by the rest of the nation). This is a position to which I am strongly opposed - I don’t think that the Torah of people who do not care for civic duties and helping the nation during war has any value.
But I think that HaTzibur HaCharedi nevertheless is the best hope for shattering the current charedi monolith and creating a fundamental transformation in charedi society. They are in a position to literally save not just many charedim from collapse, but the entire country. I wish them tremendous success, and I urge people to consider voting for them.
(Personally I am not voting for anyone - because I will be out of the country on election day!)
Would you vote for them if you could? I would think the more support they get, the more the charedi establishment weakens, which at this point I agree is the country's #1 priority. And why are so against full time learners being exempt? If there are enough soldiers, DL can also have their best and brightest learners dedicated to learning. In a balanced world where priorities are straight, where these learners respect their societies and the reality of modern life, isn't their increased expertise and ability to teach and lead valuable? And isn't it enhanced by as larger beis midrash with a pool of learners who may not end up teaching or leading but contributing to the overall quality of the Torah being learned?