“Where is the Unity?”

Mishpacha and Jonathan Rosenblum miss the mark

Dear Jonathan,

In your article “Where is the Unity?” (https://mishpacha.com/where-is-the-unity/) you bemoan the lack of national unity in Israel. You appropriately acknowledge that the IDF manpower crisis means that charedi wholesale avoidance of IDF service is a serious problem, which understandably causes resentment among those who have to make vastly greater sacrifices and suffer enormously as a result. But you suggest that charedim could at least partially solve the criticism of their community via better PR:

“Nor has the Israeli chareidi community established any public relations operation, like that which I ran for nearly a decade for Agudath Israel of America. Such an effort would address the widespread perception of the chareidi community’s “freeloading lifestyle,” in the words of our harshest critics. In fact, almost every chareidi household has at least one wage-earner. Though the percentage of chareidi men employed lags far behind their secular counterparts, the percentage of chareidi women in the workforce is almost identical, and chareidi women are highly sought in many well-paying professions, such as accounting”

But it’s not a “perception” of a freeloading lifestyle, it’s a fact. And a few exceptions do not affect the overall pattern. The men are vastly underemployed, and even those who are employed are generally in low-wage jobs. With a few hi-tech exceptions, the women are, on average, employed in far lower-paying professions. Consequently, charedim pay far less taxes than everyone else - and meanwhile, they receive all kinds of welfare benefits.

As a result, whereas the average non-charedi family puts far more into the economy than they remove, the average charedi family removes far more than they put in. These are simple and obvious facts. You can see the raw data at https://www.boi.org.il/media/fnffif5h/vol-231-2025-3.pdf. Meanwhile, surveys have shown that, incredibly, most charedim believe that they contribute as much to the economy as everyone else! (I even heard R. Aharon Feldman, CCd here, make this claim.) If anyone needs to be educated about the reality of charedim and the economy, it’s the charedi community.

“Rabbi Rochberger quotes a finding that chareidim pay only 4 percent of the national tax receipts (presumably ignoring VAT), but constitute 14 percent of the population, to explain the secular perception that they constitute a drain on the economy. But the same could be said for all those below the top quintile in income earners. Are they, too, an unconscionable drain on the public?”

There is no comparison anywhere in the world to a community which sets an OFFICIAL UNIVERSAL POLICY of its men having no general studies education and not working for a living, while also raising large families to do exactly the same, and expecting everyone else to support them (and fight to defend them), and then organizing a political bloc to make this happen on a massive scale.

As for your claims about the amazing chessed in the charedi community, you’re talking about a very small proportion of that community. And it doesn’t come close to the chessed performed by non-charedim. See https://www.rationalistjudaism.com/p/the-charedi-chessed-myth

Finally, you claim that “it is both unrealistic and unfair to expect the chareidi community to change dramatically overnight norms that have developed over decades.” Overnight?! Eleven years ago, you yourself warned in Mishpacha Magazine that the chareidi lifestyle is unsustainable for the country (as was perfectly obvious to everyone for many years - except, apparently, “the Gedolim”). October 7th happened three years ago, and made it even more clear that Israel could not tolerate a huge and growing sector that refuses to serve and demands to be paid for the privilege. When none of the rabbinic or political leadership in charedi society is remotely interested in long-term planning, national welfare, and serious change, don’t be surprised when others, out of desperation, force it on you. And yes, this will cause immense suffering in the charedi community - which is entirely the fault of their “wise” leadership.

Meanwhile, if you want to complain about the lack of unity, look no further than the “Cover Tzadik” that Mishpacha chose for this Sukkos edition, “Rav” Bunim Schreiber:

This is a man who, shortly after Oct 7, declared in a shiur to Mir students as follows:

“The soldiers who draft are nebuchs. I don’t think anyone drafts willingly… if there was no obligatory draft, nobody would join, other than perhaps a few crazy Mizrochniks…. There’s no need to express gratitude to soldiers fighting in Gaza any more than to street cleaners... Who says that there needs to be a relationship with the injured? What’s your connection to them? Why do you need to have a relationship with them? ...A ‘community tragedy’ is not if 1200 people were killed… a community tragedy is one that affects everyone.... Lehavdil, the Meron tragedy, you feel connected because they were your friends, they were your family, they were your people.... For the entity called ‘The State of Israel,’ regarding which it is superfluous to talk about our opinion, there is no ‘acknowledgement’ and no ‘good.’”

Your problems begin at home.

Sincerely

Natan Slifkin