The Haredim: aka the "Ultra-Orthodox"

In Israel there are those who are Jewish, those who are “Jewish-Jewish”, and those who are “Jewish-Jewish-Jewish”. (175). What does this mean? Technically, someone is either Jewish or they are not. However, this description is quoted by a Haredi boy living in Jerusalem who is referring to himself as one who is “Jewish-Jewish-Jewish”. The reference here to being “Jewish” refers to essentially all Jews, no matter what the level of their religious observance. Those who are “Jewish-Jewish” refers to the Orthodox, who live their lives relatively the same way most people do, just with the exception that they are observant of Shabbat, keeping strict kosher, and other limitations that are imposed by the rules of the Torah. Then there are those who are “Jewish-Jewish-Jewish” which refers to the Haredim. The term Haredim translates to one who trembles before G-d. The Haredim live their lives by more than just following the laws of the Torah. They engulf their entire lives and devote themselves to the laws and scriptures of the Torah.

The Haredi men do not have regular jobs with incomes, instead there days are spent learning and studying Torah. As a result, the Haredi women typically will work for an income by doing something that would be permissible under the Haredi way of living. An example would be from Rosenthal’s The Israelis, where the Haredi woman named Sarah sells Sheitles (Yiddish for wigs) for a living. (117). This is permissible because under Haredi customs, as well as most Orthodox, married women are supposed to keep their hair covered in front of anyone other than their husband, as to not stir arousal in other men. They survive primarily on tax exemptions, government grants, and charity organizations. There are many charities, for example, who deliver a large amount of food every late Thursday night to the doorsteps of needy families so that they may have enough food for their large families on Shabbat. In addition, the Haredim are not required to be drafted into the Israeli military, while every other Israeli citizen in Israel is drafted at the age of 18. These are some issues that cause quite a stir amongst Israelis.

These are issues to people because many Israelis feel that there is an imbalance in rights amongst them. The argument is that not only do the Haredim not contribute financially to the overall economy of Israel, but they are being supported by government funds which actually pulls the economy down. And on top of that, they do not serve in the military like everyone else. And on top of that, they do not serve in the military like everyone else. This angers non-Haredim with the argument asking why the Haredim believe that their lives are worth more than everyone else’s. The response of many Haredim is that their praying and learning all day does as much, if even not more, as the soldiers who serve do as a means to protecting the land of Israel and its people.


The Haredim spend almost all their time learning and praying. Their communities are essentially closed off to the rest of the world. Their children play in the street and they have virtually no fear because they know how devout and trustworthy each of their neighbors are. Despite all of this, there is the other side of the Haredim that is surprising since they lead such humble and caring lifestyles. This side is the side anger that comes out when they feel that other Jews are disrespecting them, and disrespecting G-d by not being “good” Jews and following all the commandments. It can be seen on a Shabbat if a car were to drive through a Haredi neighborhood. They will yell, chase after, and throw rocks at the car.

Similarly, just a couple days ago, Haredim led a protest against the computer chip company, Intel. They were protesting against the newly plant that was just built near the Haredi community because the plant is open and running on Shabbat, which is against Jewish law. According to Haaretz, although there are no official negotiations underway as of yet, there is talk that they will come to some form of agreement under the understanding that there will be a limit on the hours worked on Saturdays, as well as the Jewish workers being switched for non-Jewish workers on Saturdays.

Despite all the issues between the Haredim, the other non-religious Israelis, and the government, the Haredi Jews of Israel are one more part of the country that makes it so great and diverse with all kinds of peoples and cultures.



The article from Haaretz.com was written by Nir Hasson and can be found at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1128392.html.

The Mizrahim

The Mizrahim are Jews who fled Arabic countries during the diaspora. The word Mizrahi is Hebrew for East, referencing that these Jews were not Jews of Europe or the Americas and rather being from the eastern part of the world. After Israel became a Jewish state, Mizrahim from all over the Middle East and Northern Africa fled their countries of persecution to come to Israel. As stated in Rosenthal’s The Israelis, “From 1948 through the 1960s, 870,000 Mizrahi Jews fled Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Iran, and Afghanistan; more than six hundred thousand refugees came to Israel.” (Rosenthal: 115)

A large number of these Mizrahim came from Yemen and Iraq. The conditions for Jews in Yemen got so bad after it adopted Islam in the seventh century that as soon as the birth of Israel, nearly all sixty thousand Jews spent weeks journeying to the airstrip within the British protectorate, during which thousands died. In Operation Magic Carpet, the over fifty thousand survivors were flown on more than four hundred flights using war surplus planes to Israel. For the Iraqi Jews, it was even more difficult for them to leave than for many others because they felt a close connection to that land that goes so far back. Iraq was the Babylon that is referred to in the Bible and Talmud. It was where the Jews escaped to during their first exile after the destruction of the first Temple.

Prior to the great immigrations of Mizrahi Jews to Israel, Israel was 80% Ashkenazi (European Jews). But, by the 1960’s over 60% of Israelis were Mizrahi. This transition was not easy one for either the Ashkenazi or the Mizrahi Jews. The reason for this is that the Mizrahi customs and overall ways of living are very different than that of the Ashkenazim. Simply put, it was the difference between the western world’s standard of living versus Northern Africa’s and the Middle East’s standard of living. There are differences in the food, the language, the clothing, the gender roles, and the levels of religious observance. Individually, these differences would be easy to overcome, but when all combined it is needless to say there was some culture-shock. A big issue with this is that most of the Ashkenazi Israelis behaved as though they were superior because they could speak the language of the land, Hebrew, and had more experience with farming and improving the land. Additionally, the history being taught in the schools were all about the European Jewish history and didn’t have any history from the Mizrahi perspective. Simply put, prior to these immigrations, most Ashkenazi Jews knew nothing about Mizrahi Jews, and Mizrahi Jews knew nothing about Ashkenazi Jews.

As reported by Arutz Sheva, the Adva Center did research and found that “Ashkenazi Jews—those of European origin—earn an average of 40 percent more than Jews of Middle Eastern descent (Mizrahi Jews).” According to this finding, there is still a high amount of prejudice going on in Israel with regard to Ashkenazim Jews not treating Mizrahi Jews as complete equals. Whether these numbers are actually statistically proven or not, it still appears that there are issues regarding equal rights occurring. It is amazing to find that even with all the issues that the Jews in Israel have with the Muslim Arabs, the Israelis still cannot see each other without seeing color-differences. This goes back to the 1950’s when all the Mizrahi immigrations were occurring and the Ashkenazim Jews looked down upon the Mizrahim as being less knowledgeable and less sophisticated, based on their own ideals of what it means to be sophisticated and educated. Although, this is not the perspective anymore, the fact that there are still issues between Israeli Jews about where their families immigrated from is saddening.

←Mizrahi

←Ashkenazi

(The above video is video 1 of 5 in a series. The rest of the videos can be seen

HERE)

The information from Arutz Sheva can be found at:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/157402

Dating and Mating in the Holy Land

In Israel, the dating scene is different than most would expect from the “Jewish State”. Over two thirds of the Jewish population in Israel is secular. That being said, the Jewish stereotype of the ‘matchmaker’ being the only way that Jewish singles find each other and get married right away is mostly exaggerated. Now, this is still true to a certain degree in the orthodox Jewish world, but definitely not in the secular Israeli world. The attitude of most Israelis is an open mentality in regards to dating and sexuality. To quote Family Therapist Rachel Biale (found in The Israelis, by Donna Rosenthal):

“Israelis tend to have a macho bravado in dating and everyday life and reassure themselves that everything will be fine even if it won’t. This denial may also be a response to the uncertainty of life here. On a deeper level, it may be a response to our parents’ or grandparents’ helplessness in face of the Holocaust.”

There are many contributing factors as to why the Israeli outlook on dating and sexuality is so open and loose. One major contributor is the military; every male and female Israeli citizen, with the exception of the ultra-orthodox, is drafted into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the age of 18 for a two to three year service term. Therefore the popular mentality is to try to experience as much as possible before getting drafted because there are no guarantees for what could happen to one. In addition, the result for those who have already served in the military is that they typically don’t like to be told what to do or how to live their lives, since they got enough of that in the service. A second contributor would be the threat of suicide bombings or any other terrorist attacks that could happen at any given time. This is a certain outlook on life that those of us who live in the United States or other Western European countries cannot understand. The amazing thing about it is that Israelis are not fazed by this; they understand their daily risk, respect it, and make sure as to not let themselves live in fear. Now, this knowledge results in the mindset that one should eat their desert first because they don’t know if they’ll get to finish their meal.

The average age for Israelis to get married is 27 for men and 25 for women, as found in an LA Times Blog from December 2007 about Israeli marriage. With this being the average, and keeping in mind that the ultra-orthodox age is closer to 20, the average age of marriage for secular Israeli Jews is actually slightly higher. This goes to show that most of these young adults are not in any rush to get married even after having served in the military. They want to be able to enjoy life and for the most part do not even consider their dating habits as a means leading to marriage until they are actually ready for marriage. To quote Vered, a young Israeli woman, when speaking about her boyfriend, “He’ll make a very wonderful husband-for some other woman.” Vered is realistic and didn’t mind that her boyfriend at the time was not the man she was going to marry.

Israeli orthodox Jews, however, are much different in their dating habits. Most of them do not engage in premarital-sex or even come in any physical contact prior to marriage. This is known as being shomer negiah. Besides no physical contact, the main idea behind the dating in the first place is strictly to find a spouse; the complete opposite for most secular Israelis in their early twenties. When meeting each other, they would typically go out on a few dates as a way to make sure if they are compatible or not. Within less than a dozen dates they will know if this is somebody that they will marry or not. It seems odd from a secular perspective to get married to somebody within only a couple months of meeting them, but when considering that there is no premarital physical contact and the sole purpose for dating is to get married, it actually makes sense.


Despite these two very different methods to dating and marriage, Jewish Israelis from one extreme to the other, and everything in between, coexist in the same cities and towns and have a mutual respect for their differences