Haredi answer to incitement: real data • Fascinating document fascinating

A Behadrey Haredim browser sent the following article to the 'Red Mail', in which he responds in detail on a variety of claims which constantly arise against the haredi public.

He opens his email with a brief introduction: "This document aims to moderate the secular hatred for haredim. The document hopes to find a path of rational and intellectual information, based and 'dry', and mainly backed unequivocally by the official data known to the State of Israel, but which did not come to public attention on the secular side, something which caused the fixating of the haredi "classic" stereotype. The document seeks to challenge what is considered today an axiomatic starting point which can not be questioned – haredi parasitism, idleness, deceiving and exploitation.

"All the data presented in this document, without exception, to the last one, are taken from various publications of the Central Bureau of Statistics, and present exactly to the last percentage and in many cases up to a tenth of a percent. We did not round figures of data up or down if anything, anywhere.

Allowances

The argument of relying on benefits is true, but rather partially. Government benefits are typically only 25 percent of the income of an average haredi family. (Many seculars think that reliance on welfare is 100 percent ...) For example, in 2011, the average monthly income per household in Bnei Brak was NIS10,146. Of these, 6,222 from work, 499 of capital, 892 from pension and provident funds, and only 2,532 from stipends and benefits, with only 1,449 shekels out of the above (approximately 15 percent of the total income of household) come from National Insurance.

Haredim have a lot of property tax discounts. In fact, in haredi cities there are no property taxes, and therefore almost no municipal services (except garbage collection and a clerk who handles the forms of property tax exemptions). For example, the haredi city of Modi'in Illit in 2010 consisted of 48,600 persons, and spent the same year total of NIS 209.539 million, which means an expenditure of NIS 4,311 per capita. Tel Aviv, in contrast, spent 11,633 that year per resident.

In secular cities it is often argued that the secular finance municipal services for haredim, but one must remember that of most municipal services, especially items of culture, education, sports, social and welfare, the haredim do not enjoy a shekel. There is no haredi in municipal libraries and local festivals like performances and sporting events.

Local authorities in 2011 spent a total of 5.23 billion NIS on culture only - Haredim did not enjoy that.
The local government spent in 2012 more than 17 billion NIS on education and welfare.

Now if we subtract 170 thousand haredim living in Bnei Brak, and another 140 thousand more living in hareidi communities (Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit, Elad, Telzstone, Rechasim, Emmanuel), there are 440,000 more haredim who live in mixed settlements (of which 160,000 are in Jerusalem ). Since municipalities and local authorities in 2010 numbered approximately 5.45 million capita after deducting haredi communities, it therefore stems that the haredim that year numbered about 8% of all non-haredi towns and villages.

According to the data in Modi'in Illit, each resident received from the municipality NIS 1,017 in 2010 for education and welfare. If we accept these figures as representing the typical haredi, haredi authorities released the same year about 316 million NIS on education and welfare. Haredim in mixed communities then 'milked' their secular authorities 448 million for education and welfare for their children and families, which constitutes 2.6% of total expenditure on secular education and welfare in non-haredi communities, whereas we noted above that Haredim are about 8% of the population of these communities. The conclusion: the haredi consumption of basic municipal services of education and welfare, even in secular municipalities, is rather limited and is only about a third of the average of the secular resident in those same municipal services.

Moreover, if we take 440 thousand haredim who are living in non-haredi communities, and give each NIS 4,300 a year from the municipality, as seen for the expenditure of the municipality of Modi'in Illit, the haredi consumption of municipal services in 2010 will amount to 1.82 billion NIS. The total local government expenditure that year, in non-haredi communities, on the other hand, amounted to -51.9 billion NIS. That means haredim consumed 3.5 percent of non-haredi expenses municipalities where they lived - the haredi resident's consumption is on average 57% lower than the consumption of his secular neighbor. Now we add to that the fact that the residents paid for only about 67% of local government expenditure, when the rest came to a huge sum of 17.4 billion NIS which came as government support, and add to that about 15 percent of property taxes which an average haredi pays, and we reach the final conclusion:

A haredi in non-haredi authorities gets on account of secular residents only about a third of his urban needs.

Employment


Fair employment for haredim
Many also argued about that haredim do not work. First of all, in 2011, 44 percent of haredi men work (compared to 85 percent of seculars). It is important to add that many haredim are employees of what is not included in official statistics, and this is not due to tax evasion, but due to the fact that occupations in the haredi public are not considered real work for them - many edit Torah books, many work in different Torah institutes, and many are engaged in education . In the grand total, whereas the public feels that 'there are not haredim who work, about half of haredi men work. Regarding women, their work rate is lower than the secular, but higher than similar mothers of families with the same number of children in the secular public and in the world.

Most haredi women who work do not earn anything in the end, after you deduct a nanny and daycare costs, etc. and eliminating reductions and technical problems resulting from work. You can ask: If so, why do they give birth to so many children? Answer: they feel like it. You will not decide for any woman why and how many children to have. Even if it irritates your conscience, to see such dedication and sacrifice for the family cell, which you didn’t have with your first two wives and maybe with the few that come after.

One should also note that there are many secular employers who adamantly refuse to hire haredim. A survey of employers showed that the population groups they would not want to employ are, in order: Haredim, Arabs, Ethiopians, Russians – the haredim encounter a negative and discriminatory attitude in relation to the other groups.

Lack of education
So first of all, haredi men have a broad expertise and knowledge, even if in things which Newton and Einstein did not think of.

Taking a classic haredi loafer – who "does nothing" while his mates are learning in high school. Well, in high school there are 5.5 days of school a week, school day is about 6 hours, after deducting the breaks about 5 hours, and after deducting interference and wasting of time by students - about 3 to 4 hours. However a haredi boy learns a daily average during these years, taking into account lessons, Sdorim and talks - between 1.5 to 2.5 times of the abovementioned amount. Additionally, many learn over the weekend.

And: In 2011, 42 percent of those who graduated seniors in the non-haredi education were not entitled to matriculation, which raises a slight bewilderment what they did in high school. The haredi public does not prepare towards matriculation for ideological reasons, and instead girls go through other tests, with fine achievements.

Many of those who are eligible for matriculation, passed with grades which were between 55 and 70. Let's look at how much they learned: According to the Ministry of Education, a unit translates to about 90 hours of class. Multiply by 21 units of matriculation - we get a total of 1,890 hours. Whoever received an average of 70, shows therefore an output of 1,323 hours of study in high school, that is 441 hours per year, which translates into 12 hours and 36 minutes of class from 35 weeks of study a year (a high school senior each year has 17 weeks off, compared to 9 of a haredi).

Whoever received an average of 55 however, there are quite a few of those, presents an output of 1039 hours of class in highschool, 346 hours a year, and a total per week of 35 weeks of study in which he issued 9 hours and 54 minutes of listening to the teacher. More than 40 percent of those who are not eligible at all, apparently they did not reach that at all.

And: 10.2% of haredim are academics. Not much, but still something. 40% of haredim know English as an additional language, much less than secular (72%), but not so far from religious (55%) and traditional (57%).

And in this regard: the State of Israel, and prominent philanthropic organizations, finance professional studies for haredim and sometimes even a respectable part of a degree. Many secularists resent this fact, claiming: "It's their problem they did not learn anything, why don't they give me such funding from the state?"

In this matter it is important to note how the state saved over 12 years of study of the haredi in institutions which are not recognized. In 8 years of elementary school the haredi child receives only 55 percent of funding. In 2008 the state paid for each secular student in primary school a total of NIS 19,176. For each haredi student the state saved during this year NIS 8629. During 8 years which the haredi child spent in an unrecognized school, the state thus saved about 69 thousand NIS. This is before we calculated what the country saved in the years in which the child attended yeshiva, and not in secondary education, in which for each and every student the state pays every year more than 18 thousand NIS.

The state currently pays 100 percent of a pre-academic preparatory program for haredim, which is worth 17 thousand NIS, and about a third of the cost of academic studies themselves, which is worth about 10 thousand NIS. Altogether a total of 27 thousand NIS, an amount which does not yet reachthe 40 percent of the amount that the state saved on the boy when he was in elementary school.

If you add to that the fact that some state education students, who received 100 percent financing, did not learn in practice and did do much with 224 thousand shekels which state paid for them in 12 years of study (if 42 percent did not reach matriculation, there are probably such ones), we find that these 27 thousand shekels e are quite reasonable expenses.

Army

Today, many soldiers do not do much, and what they do - in fact is worthless. Some secular pencil pushers told me when they were in the army they asked them sometimes even to weed grass in the army base - occupational therapy. And there are some who don't even do that - as a pencil pusher in reserves testified. He saw a soldier who served his country in an original way – he came in at 9 am to turn the sprinklers on, and returned at 5 pm to turn them off.

High percentages are idle in the army, and those who do work can get a boost of efficiency and improve ten times the performance of the army, along with saving many billions in its budget.

And yes, there are also tens of percentages who are busting themselves, and well done to them.

These things do not justify at all the automatic exemption for haredim, but they can make one rethink about the feasibility of combining haredim in the military force, which is already kneeling under the weight of excess manpower. Common sense would send the Haredim to civil service, as is the norm in most Western countries - military service is an option, and most high school seniors do a year of civilian service and go out to life.

Also: Out of Haredi men aged 25-64 who have grown in a haredi home, 14%, served in the IDF, which means that there are haredim who do the army. Though most of them have done only phase II, which is an abbreviated and most basic training, but also many immigrants from the former USSR did no more than that, due to the same personal data (age and families).

Crime


Though the secular headlines are careful to "do justice" with the haredi public and specify for each criminal, the fact that he is haredi, the percentage of haredim is still 12, while the percentage of such "complimentary" headlines is much lower.

One should also take into account, that among haredim who have done proper 'Haider' (not religious and the like), and in addition even learned several years in some yehiva, there is virtually no crime, and most of the haredim in those headlines are not as such.

And now we take the budget for fighting crime - government, national institutions and local authorities expenditures on public in 2010 amounted to -356.3 billion NIS (CBS). Since 34.4 percent of those convicted of this year were Arabs, say roughly the Jewish sector this year is responsible for about 65 percent of the above sum - NIS 231.5 billion. If we imagine a situation in which everyone was righteous and kind and would not need all the expenditure on this section - each of the 5.75 million Jews in the state would receive an annual government grant of NIS 40,260 in spending... For many it is a salary of ten months ... And if we delete the private expenditure of this section - a large part of the population would automatically multiply their income...

This is of course a completely hypothetical situation, but let's say that the expense of this section was for example only 4 percent of the above, then every citizen would receive from the state every year NIS 38,649 for spending. Well, the haredi crime rate is very, very low, and is about 4 percent relatively to secular crime, at least among the youth. Data? With pleasure.

Crime among the 12-18 age group in 2010 was 7,154 criminal cases with students from the Ministry of Education. Among yeshiva students, however, this year there were 37 criminal cases, about a half percent of the cases, compared with 12 percent of boys of this age group. Conclusion: the crime rate of secular aged 12-18 is 24 times higher than haredi crime.

Regardomg crime among adults, it is rather difficult to extract data which will differentiate between haredi and secular Jews, because the Central Bureau of Statistics does not publish such distributions on public order. However, the data show a high correlation between crime among youth and crime among adults, in most social distributions. In addition, one must mention a rather amazing statistic – the percentage of victims of crime in communities belonging to the socio-economic cluster between 1-3 is lower than their counterparts in clusters 4-7, although in most of the indicators, 'human capital' of the lower cluster is much worse than its medium counterpart class. Explanation: the low clusters include the haredi communities, with zero crime rate, which drastically lowers the overall crime rate of clusters 1-3, although most are Arab communities where the crime rate is significantly higher than Jewish communities.

In this section one must also remember that in addition to the dry billions of shekels, crime also has a high social price - psychological suffering, fear of citizens, anxiety, and those have a great impact on the quality of life of society as a whole, in many areas. In addition, higher crime means a higher expenditure on social services - which is not examined in this section.

Also: audaciousness by the media to say "haredi murdered", "haredi stole" while when it comes to a secular they do not indicate his religious affiliation.

One newspaper outdid itself with the headline "Yeshiva boy murdered his friend because of personal fight." The story that emerges immediately: the Shiur Klali of R' David Cohen ended. Moishe and Yanki go down to the dormitory. Moishe pulls out a gun and shoots Yanki. Sad. "What violence in yeshiva boys!" The reader is shocked.
But the truth was these were fresh ba'alei tshuva with a ten cents kippa on their heads, who lived at a facility for men who need both security and psychiatric observation...

Culture


Orthodox celebrate independence. Photo: Kobie Har Tzvi

The cultural section – the right of Haredim to live in their culture, and by the way, it's hard, very hard. The average haredi has no clubs, pubs and parties, there is no cinema, no Shabbat at the sea, no television, no genuine restaurants, no festivals and almost no entertainment at all, most Haredim have no smart phone and therefore can not use the internet on the go, something which secularists can not understand how you can do without, even to obtain information such as travel times public transport, banks, businesses, government services and more. And above all - the Haredi boy or girl have absolutely no mate before the wedding - parts of the haredi youth experience great hardship, and most haredi youth, and indeed adult haredim until they get married, suffer of this detachment, more or less. We are not made of plastic, our physiology is identical to yours, but different from you, we are forced to bear it and keep quiet.

When it comes to culture, and many of the secular claims are as such, there is no room for discussion, and not just because you can not change culture, but also and especially because it's not legitimate to change a cultural. It is rude to reach out for the other's culture, because it hurts his soul which is the most serious injury, particularly in circumstances where intervention is institutionalized.

In general, the secular love to moan about the Haredim trampling symbols of the state - and it is important to remember that secular people are trampling religious symbols on Shabbat, Tisha B'Av, Pesach and daily with their behavior on the street, which in the eyes of the haredim is often nasty.

But the truth is that both sides do not trample anything - each side lives with his culture; for the haredi to barbecue on Holocaust Day (tens did so), is like for a secular to grind shawarma on Tisha B'Av (thousands do). No party can come claiming against the other side - culture is taboo.

Haredim have no interest in doing "davka", what is generally perceived as an attack or remission in secular eye, is due to a lack of awareness of haredim, because of the different culture. With few exceptions such as walking demonstratively during the siren to get attention from the secular cameras (many secular people, by the way, do not stand for the siren, not only at home), the vast majority of cases, including the dozens of yeshiva students who made a barbecue on Holocaust Day, are done out of lack of attention. None of those boys did not do so "davka" and in fact most of them did not even know that today was "Holocaust Day". Do not worry, even most secular Jews should look at the calendar to check what date, Gregorian of course, applies to Tisha B'Av, seventeenth of Tamuz and other mourning dates. And not in order to mourn on them, but to know the kosher restaurant across the street will be closed and they will need to go to a different restaurant.

About the fallen soldiers of Israel – there is no way any haredi does not feel the pain of the fallen, the haredim define them as those who "died as martyrs", which in Judaism is top notch, and some even light a candle on this day, in their private home.

And more on the same matter: Haredi culture can sometimes serve as a model. This data compilation is from the CBS Social Survey from 2009: 40% of haredim are engaged in volunteer work, half of them for more than 10 hours a week. Only 16% of the secular engage in volunteer activities, and only 41 percent of the volunteers devote to this activity more than 10 hours a week.

87% of haredim donated money in 2009, compared to 66% of seculars. And that is while the income cut of Haredim is the lowest in the country. The figure is even more amazing when considering the amount of contributions: 48.2% of the secular were satisfied with a donation of less than 100 NIS that year, but only 11.1% of haredim thought this is a sufficient amount. 14.7% of haredi donors contributed between 500 to 1000 NIS, while only 7.4% secular agreed to shed out of their own pockets this amount. Not less than 44.8 percent of haredim who donated, have given over 1,000 shekels compared with only 7.2% of the secular.

These figures are remarkable especially when considering the average income of the haredi public: 78.1% of haredim earn less than 2,000 NIS a month per capita, compared with only 15.5% of the secular. 51.5% of seculars have a bigger revenue than 4,000 per month per capita, compared with only 7.4% of haredim.

Let us therefore present the full picture of reality, based on the above data, emphasizing the contribution of the haredim vs. secular:
100 haredim face 100 secular.
From the haredim, 78 live on NIS 1,800 a month, 15 live on 3000, and 7 live on 5000.
Of the secular, 16 live on 1800 a month, 33 live on 3000, and 51 live on 5000.
Total annual income of the haredi group: NIS 220 thousand. Total annual income of the secular: NIS 382 thousand.
87 people of the Haredi group and 66 of the secular saw a need to donate money.
11 haredi donors gave NIS 90, 20 gave NIS 300, 14 gave NIS 750, and 42 gave NIS 1200.
32 secular donors gave NIS 90, 24 gave NIS 300, 5 gave NIS 750, and 5 gave NIS 1,200.
The haredi group donated a total of NIS 67,890, about 31% of its income.
The secular group donated NIS 19,830, only about 5.2% of its income.

96% of haredim are satisfied with their lives, compared with 87% of seculars.
67% of haredim think in the coming years theor situation will be better, compared with 58% of seculars.
26% of seculars said they felt lonely often or sometimes, compared with 13% of haredim.

Commitment to the family unit:
65% of seculars believe that divorce is the best solution for couples who are unable to manage with each other, compared to 29% of haredim.
40% of seculars believe that a single parent can raise his children as well as a couple of parents, compared to 10% of haredim.
31% of seculars think that being a housewife is a satisfying role at least like paid work, compared with 67% of haredim.
32% of haredim in 2009 experienced disagreements with spouse / partner, compared to 45% of seculars.
17% of haredim this year experienced problems with children, compared to 21% of the secular (despite the fact that the average secular family has 2.07 children compared with 6.53 in a haredi family).
8% of haredim have experienced problems with parents (not health problems), compared with 19% of seculars.

Mehadrin lines:

The separation agreement in public transport is a much criticized goal from the secular. Well, the culture of the haredim is hard for them to understand. But it is important that they know some interesting things:

A. A secular woman can get on a Mehadrin and sit in the front of the bus, period. I'm not talking about violence or shouting - a word she will not hear. As a Jeruselemite I went last year probably about 100 and more on Mehadrin lines. Many times there were women (even haredi, by the way) in the front, and no one thought to touch them. They actually benefited – on secular buses there is daily ugly harassment of various kinds, on haredi buses the chances of this happening are much lower.

B. It is interesting to note that on the long buses of Egged of the new type, there are 14 seats in front, eight additional seats in the middle, and 16 seats in the back. Usually, the 'middle' is taken over by women, even a few, who make this area closed to men. The fact that these women are haredi indicates that they have not heard much about the exclusion of women. So that the men, who make up 50 percent of the passengers, quite often are satisfied with a third of the seats, and a quarter of the total area of the bus. And that is while these three or four women sitting in the middle part can benefit from many available seats in the back. Absolute silence! No one said anything to them. Silence in such cases is particularly striking when a woman sits in the 'square', in the front, which subtracts 4 more seats from the men, leaving them less than a quarter of the total number of seats of the bus. Even then men do not say a word!

Don't believe? Go up and check

Demonstrations

Demonstrations. Most of the demonstrations are organized, implemented, and earn legitimacy in a minority faction called the Eida Hareidis, based in the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem. It should be noted immediately that even among this faction, pathological protesters are a minority. Most residents of Mea Shearim hate the protestors despise and would like to be released from their yoke.

Personally as a young haredi Jew, I never knew a man of my extended family on both sides, one of my neighbors from the building, and no frequent visitor to my synagogue, who even once took part in a demonstration, except mass rallies which were organized e.g. during the Immanuel affair and a number of massive gatherings which are rare and non-violent, whose number in the last decade can be counted on one hand.

No Rebbe calls for violence, including the Rebbes of Toldos Aharon and Toldos Avraham Yitzhak, the prominent leaders of Mea Shearim. Most of the hundreds of posters which are smeared on the walls of Mea Shearim, end with tens or a few hundred people who gather around the hoarse speaker in one yard or another in the area of Mea Shearim, and hear a whining drosha from some personality. Yes, those are most of the "huge protests" which the pashkevilim of Meah Shearim herald.

It is comfortable to shoot 80 or 150 haredim, some boys, raging, throwing stones, burning garbage bins and cursing policemen, it photographs well and is threatening, but they have no right to throw guilt on the other three quarters of a million Haredim who live in Israel.

The fact that the haredi leadership does not issue official protests against the acts, is due to the fact that the protesters not only do not come to seek its advice, but they also curse, offend and fight with obscene violence against the entire Haredi leadership, without exceptions. Not only 'regular' Litvaks and Chassidim, but most of the leaders of the various factions in Mea Shearim, absorb humiliations, abuse and harassment from the same bullying group.

Even Toldos Aharon chassidim, the world's most extreme group apparently, objected publicly and unequivocally to those violent after large parts of the Haredi public, routinely identified the same violent group with the Chassidus. Before Sukkos of last year, Jerusalem was full of ads in which the Chassidus emphasized, in fluent Hebrew that violence in Meah Shearim are unacceptable to it and that it has reservations about those violent people.

And thanks to ...
Secular, stores, snack counters, doctors, counseling centers, nurses in hospitals, civil service and more, who in the vast majority treat us with courtesy and patience and give equal service, welcoming everyone, regardless of our religious affiliation. We know it's not always easy for you, and we salute you!

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!