Who Are the Haredi?
Ever since the Revolutionary French National Assembly divided seating by faction, the words “Right” and “Left” have been crudely used to describe political divisions. This has always been problematic. To an American, Stalinism (Left) and Hitlerism (Right) never really felt like opposite ends of a spectrum; they looked equally totalitarian to us.
And so it is with modern Israeli, where “Right” and “Left” are inadequate descriptors. The Israeli Right in particular is misunderstood, and invoked in the American press solely as Netanyahu’s political base and an obstacle to peace.
The Israeli Right is a coalition. It has many constituents, none of which is more difficult to for us fathom than the Haredi. These people, often described as “Ultra-Orthodox,” are full of contradictions and at odds with mainstream Israeli culture.
The Haredi are against a two-state solution but unwilling to serve in the IDF. They live in complete isolation from modern Israeli society, but are economically dependent on it. And their numbers are growing1. It does not help that the Haredi tend not to speak English, while the Israeli left can communicate directly to Western audiences.
But there is no understanding the future of Israel without first understanding the Haredi on their own terms. Their story is both more interesting and more poignant than the Western press is likely ever to convey.
A History of Heartbreak
In 1989, as the Berlin Wall was being torn down, nearly a million Jews were finally allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. These Jews had lived in the Pale of Settlement, a vast ghetto encompassing parts of Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The Pale was the only place where Soviet Jews were allowed to live, and they subsisted in forced isolation from the rest of society2.
Cut off from any national culture and economy, the Haredi turned utterly inward and devoted themselves to the study of the Torah. The isolation that had been forced upon them became a tradition, and eventually a source of identity and pride. This separatism was validated and reinforced by the Holocaust, during which many of their communities were annihilated. Post-war Russia was better, but only in the way that Jim Crow was better than slavery.
When the Haredi emigrated to Israel, they brought with them their traditions of apartness and intense study. This has caused a major rift in Israeli society, with one part of the population engaged in productivity and national defense to subsidize and protect another part. This is not sustainable, and it will not be sustained.
The current generation of Haredi leaders was born and raised in the Pale. They are fighting to maintain their old ways, including current efforts to resist conscription in the IDF. But their youth is evolving. October 7 was a catalyzing event for them in the opposite way the Holocaust was for their grandparents. Their willingness to volunteer for the IDF is increasing.
Fears that the ever-growing share of Haredi population in Israel will tear the country apart are misguided. They are currently projected to comprise 32% of the Israeli population by 2065. Given the amount of influence they have today at only 14%, this causes great concern among those who care for the future of Israel. But the Haredi of 2065 are unlikely to be the same as the Haredi of today.
In the meantime, we should insist on empathy for people whose eccentricities were forged in the Pogroms and Crematoria.
Their growth rate is 4% annually, the highest of any group ion Israel.
This is an absurdly condensed and simplistic version of a complicated and rich history.