After the Haredi Public’s Defeat: Change Must Come from Outside

The Haredi Public party (HaTzibur HaHaredi) suffered a resounding defeat in last week’s Israeli elections. United Torah Judaism and Shas together won 612,000 votes, while the new party received just 10,599 – less than 2% of their combined total. And since the number of eligible Haredi voters is larger still, support for the party among the constituency it sought to represent was negligible.

This is a truly disappointing outcome. For decades, rabbis and political functionaries have controlled Haredi politics. Then came an authentic Haredi party seeking to challenge that grip. More importantly, it championed precisely the changes Haredi society so badly needs – and whose absence comes at a heavy cost to Israel. It called on Haredim to take responsibility for themselves and for the country; to regard work and earning a living as a worthy way of life; to acquire a general education and integrate into state institutions. No less important, it called on those who do not devote their lives to Torah study to serve in the military.

These are precisely the changes Israel has been asking the Haredi community to make for decades.

The party inspired considerable hope among many Israelis. It seemed that, at last, there were Haredim who understood the importance of taking part – and that the call for integration was no longer coming only from outside the community. But the higher the hopes, the deeper the disappointment. It turns out that an overwhelming majority of Haredim have no interest in participating in the economy or the military, or in assuming shared responsibility for the state.

Part of the party’s failure can clearly be attributed to the campaign waged against it by Haredi power brokers and rabbis who feared losing control over the community. But the problem runs much deeper.

For years, the state and philanthropic organizations have invested heavily in Haredi integration: employment programs, preparatory programs for higher education, tailored military service tracks and substantial funding. Yet little has changed.

Over the past decade, the employment rate among Haredi men has not risen. The share of students studying core subjects has not increased, nor has the number completing a proper secondary education. Military service rates have barely changed. The modest increase in Haredi enlistment can largely be attributed to fear of enforcement and economic pressure in the absence of a conscription law – not to any fundamental shift in outlook.

The Haredi Public party advanced a clear thesis: the best way to integrate Haredim is from within – Haredim leading change among Haredim. On its face, the idea made sense. Change that comes from within a community is deeper and more durable than change imposed from outside.

But that idea was tested at the ballot box, and it failed. An overwhelming majority of Haredim do not want this change. They remain under the sway of the community’s political power brokers and defer to them.

The numbers are familiar. The share of Haredi students in Israel’s Hebrew-language education system is growing year by year, and within three years they are expected to constitute a majority. An economy in which a growing share of men do not work, and a military in which a growing share of young people do not serve, cannot sustain the country indefinitely. Without significant change, Israel will collapse from within.

The integrated Haredim whom the Haredi Public party sought to represent have an important role to play as trailblazers. But if many more are to follow their path, the strategy must change.

Change will come only from outside, through government policy.

This does not mean imposing values on Haredim. It means ending state support for the Haredi way of life as it exists today. Everyone is entitled to choose how to live, but the state is not obliged to finance every choice. Those who do not complete secondary education, do not serve in the military and do not work should not receive state support to maintain that way of life.

When the next government drafts its governing guidelines, this issue must be at its core. This is not only about military service. It is also about secondary education, higher education and employment.

Without these changes, we simply will not survive.

Dr. Shuki Friedman is Director General of JPPI – the Jewish People Policy Institute – and a lecturer in law at the Peres Academic Center.