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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu |
1999.07.02, The Jerusalem Post, p. B1 – "The signing of the coalition agreement with One Israel by the United Torah Judaism Kha•reid•imꞋ political party signals a monumental shift in their orientation – from social parasite to the beginnings of developing a work ethic within the Kha•reid•imꞋ community.
The coalition agreement provides that the age of draft exemptions for yᵊshiv•âhꞋ students, mostly Kha•reid•imꞋ, drops from 40 to about 25.
Without discharge papers from the TzaꞋh"l [or alternative national service as a teacher's helper, etc.], employers cannot hire.
Government subsidies of Kha•reid•imꞋ yᵊshiv•âhꞋ students coupled with Kha•reid•imꞋ avoidance of TzaꞋh"l service combined to serve the insularity treasured by Kha•reid•imꞋ leaders. Young Kha•reid•imꞋ men were paid to remain in the insular environment of their yᵊshiv•âhꞋ where they could learn nothing but what their Kha•reid•imꞋ rabbis told them and, as a result of not serving in the TzaꞋh"l [or alternate national service] could not qualify for legal employment. Those who wanted to leave found themselves trapped in poverty and squalor with no way out. Young men attracted by guaranteed income of government subsidies without having to work or serve in the TzaꞋh"l, flocked in – and then could never leave.
Agreeing to send all of these men between 25 and 40 to serve in the TzaꞋh"l, entitling them to then find legal employment, “‘is a huge change, because the feeling up to now has been that [Kha•reid•imꞋ] don't have to work, only learn [rabbinic casuistry], and that the money will come from God [=Israeli government]' – Yishai Weiner, editor of a chain of [Kha•reid•imꞋ] local newspapers… More accurately, that the money would come from God via the state…
" 'While the student is still in the yᵊshiv•âhꞋ, or the ko•leilꞋ, he is dependent on the community, on the rabbis. When that dependency weakens, the power of the leadership also weakens,' [Yo•seiphꞋ Shil•khavꞋ; an urban geographer at Bar-I•lanꞋ University who studies the Kha•reid•imꞋ community] says. ‘When he goes outside and works he is less dependent on community, and will be more open to the world.' "
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