About the Research
The year 1996 marked a shift in the attitude of ultra-orthodox society to vocational and academic training for men. Also noted were changes in and expansion of vocational and academic training for women. Across Israel institutions of higher learning for Haredi men and women sprang, adapted to the special heterogeneous needs of this population. Thousands of men and women study in them and prepare themselves for a life of earning and integration into the labor market. This study reviews the shift from ideological, historical and socio-political perspectives and proposes recommendations to substantiate and expand this phenomenon.
PREFACE
When I told some of my friends that I was doing a study of vocational and academic training in Haredi society, I was generally greeted with exclamations of surprise and a recurring question: “What? Is there such a thing?” This response reflects the stigma attached to the Haredi community with regard to secular studies, which are the pathway to learning a profession and earning a living.
In this context, three qualifications can be mentioned:
First, the issue has been a subject of controversy in Haredi society for over 150 years. In the course of time Haredi society has tried out different combinations of secular and religious studies. In certain periods there were breakthroughs, and in others – retreat and retrenchment, as happened in Israel during the first 50 years of statehood.
Second, while it is true that Haredi society in Israel has not permitted general studies among men for the purpose of learning a profession, it has sustained for many years a system of general studies meant to prepare women for work.
Third, since 1996 there has been a change in the Haredi attitude toward vocational training and academic studies for men, and at the same time the areas of vocational training for women have been broadened beyond the traditional teacher training that had been their lot.
The aim of this study is to survey the situation today in Haredi society with regard to the mixing of religious and secular studies, in the light of historical and ideological processes – and particularly those that have unfolded in the modern period. The further I investigated the subject the clearer it became that it embraces a variety of ideological and halakhic positions and that it is shaped by a chain of historical circumstances. The attitude of Haredim to this matter today is greatly influenced by the way of life of the society of scholars as it developed in the State of Israel. This attitude is bound up with economic considerations, political stances, and halakhic positions, particularly of the rabbinic “sages”.
The Haredi attitude to secular studies is the main factor determining their integration into Israeli society and the economy. Israeli governments of the past tended to reconcile themselves to the fact that most Haredi men did not enter the labor market and were prepared to pay the price. This situation persisted until recent years; however, after the Knesset elections of early 2003, new political circumstances arose that enabled the government to come out and say, “No more money”, for direct financial support of broad sectors of the public, including yeshiva and kolel students. Today this issue ranks high on the national agenda, preoccupying both the secular and Haredi populations. Haredi leaders fear that combining secular and religious studies will produce far-reaching changes in the Haredi way of life. On the other hand, they cannot deny the need for change given the sorry economic condition of their community. Today most accept with reservations the trend to encourage vocational training and academic study in the Haredi sector, at the same time trying to regulate the process.
In this study I have attempted to clarify the processes that have been unfolding in recent years in Haredi society in Israel, from a historic, economic, and social perspective. It has been written from the point of view of an academic re-searcher who does not belong to the Haredi community and is intended mainly for decision makers. At the same time, it is my hope that Haredim too will read it and that the findings will strike a responsive chord.
It is my feeling that at this time the society of scholars and with it the Haredi community as a whole is at a historic crossroads and must keep moving in the direction apparent since 1996, that is, encouraging greater integration of secular and religious studies. This change is vital in terms of what it can contribute both to Haredi society and the Israeli economy.
I would like to thank, first of all, Prof. Amiram Gonen, who showed the way in his book From Yeshiva to Work. Prof. Gonen encouraged and guided me in writing this study. Likewise, I wish to thank the Floersheimer Institute and its staff for the help extended during the work.
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