Haredi MK's were quick to respond to the hateful statements made earlier on Wednesday by outgoing Bank of Israel Chairman Stanley Fischer. This is the from the first link.
"Blessed is the hareidi birthrate," stated, Member of Knesset Meir
Porush (United Torah Judaism Party) on Wednesday. "This preserves the
demographic balance of the Jewish State of Israel. It should be
encouraged," he added. MK Porush made the comments in response to a
speech by outgoing bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer. On Tuesday
Governor Fischer stated at an economic conference at
the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya that he was concerned about the
high birthrate of hareidi Israelis. He also commented on poverty and
unemployment within the hareidi sector. MK Yaakov Asher (United Torah
Judaism Party) added that Governor Fischer's words could be construed
as derogatory against the hareidi public. He stated, "demographics are
not always built according to the preferred economic data of the Bank of
Israel or Finance Ministry."
MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Yaakov Litzman stated “He is violating the
traditional and legal status of the bnei yeshivos who have declared
Torah study as their profession”. Litzman added that despite efforts to
set quotas and limit the number of talmidim who may continue learning,
“The Torah world of the yeshivos will continue flourishing
quantitatively and qualitatively and there is no power that will succeed
to harm those who are committed to a life of Torah.”
MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Meir Porush added “Anyone with a hand or a role
in the new arrangement that intends to harm bnei yeshivos and the
current arrangement, the arrangement that existed to date will be
remembered for eternal disgrace.”
“The eternal Jewish People have stood firm throughout history in the
face of many trials and tribulations. There is no doubt that we will
succeed in the face of these gezeiros as well,” he concluded.
Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev called Bennett’s plan “utter nonsense”,
confident it will not be implemented as Bennett plans. Ze’ev feels it is
impossible to limit of number of lomdei Torah to 1,800 annually,
questioning how such a regulation will be enforced. “There is no way the
Torah world and roshei yeshiva will agree to permit implementation of
the program. The idea of a quota system is undemocratic and reminiscent
of regimes of the past. There is a historical relevance to these
decisions.”
Indeed, the problems with this system are entirely foreseeable. Which yeshivas will have the right to designate how many of their students? What criteria will be used? Based on past experience in this country, it is likely that many of the slots will go to students in non-Haredi yeshivas, that the slots will be handed out based on protectzia (connections), and possibly that the Haredi yeshivas will all be told by someone on the level of R. Aaron Leib Steinman or R. Chaimn Kanievsky not to participate.
But what's worst of all is that this system is not the answer to the country's problems except for those who seek to destroy the yeshivas. Reader Aryeh Z, whose sent me the link to this article, had some very pertinent comments about it, which I am reproducing below.
Twenty-five or is it already thirty years after the IDF professionals requested that the draft be ended and that it be made into a professional army, we still have the draft. Let it be clear, there is no military need for a draft. The draft exists as a means of political and social control. It wastes Billions of Shekels and tens of thousands of people every year.
There is constant bantering about how the Hareidi community needs to change due to changing circumstances. Nothing is said about the need for the Secular elites changing due to changing circumstances. And that is the real problem. Israel’s elites have yet to abandon their dream of creating a Communist utopia in Israel. A utopia populated with a docile and obedient proletariat that will work their fields and factories. For the most part, they do not have any theological or philosophical problems with Torah. It is just that it gets in the way of their plans. That is why they are willing to throw a bone or two to the Torah community in the hope it will help keep them docile.
So let us focus on the real issues. It is not the draft, it is not the Hareidim, it is not the economy, it is tyranny. It is on the desire of the few thousand “aristocrats” desperate to maintain their privileges and high standard of living. This is not all that different from what is happening in Syria, Egypt, Iran and North Korea. We are fortunate that, so far, our “aristocrats” have not resorted to mass murder to retain power.
Divide and conquer? Bennett suggests to UTJ to join government without Shas, UTJ blows him off
In a bid to separate United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett has suggested to UTJ that they join the coalition alone, according to the Haredi website Kikar Shabbat (link in Hebrew). MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman (above) was offered to keep his position as deputy Health Minister (in a ministry where there is no minister - that's how UTJ always takes portfolios. But UTJ turned it down.
According to Kikar Shabbat, Bennett's motivation is an effort to change his party's image as an enemy of the Torah world. Jewish Home is also looking for a Haredi public relations adviser to assist in an approach to the Haredi community. Bennett also made a video for the Haredi community on Wednesday night.
Let's go to the videotape (sorry, Hebrew only).
Why is Bennett doing this? Recall that UTJ got 17% of the vote in Judea and Samaria, and Shas got another 10%. While I would bet that much of that vote came from the Haredi cities right along the 'green line' (Kiryat Sefer and Beitar), it's likely that there are also a lot of people in those towns who voted for Bennett, and he's afraid that if he pulls all their sons out of the yeshivas, they won't vote for him again.
In the meantime, UTJ Knesset Member Rabbi Meir Porush has challenged Bennett to disclose his understandings with Yair Lapid (link in Hebrew), with respect to maintenance of the religious status quo. Porush argues that much of the national religious public would also like to know what understandings have been reached by Bennett and Lapid, particularly with respect to issues like public transportation on the Sabbath (there currently is none within any city that had a Jewish majority in 1948) and (although this isn't mentioned in the article) civil marriages (currently, the only marriages legally performed in Israel are religious marriages).
Porush is hitting a very sensitive point here. While the Haredi community would flee the organized Rabbinate and run its own sifrei yuchsin (genealogy books) in a second, the national religious community places religious significance on the state itself, and not just on the land. Changes in which the organized Rabbinate was rendered meaningless as an institution would not go over well with the national religious public.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
