There is a growing feeling that it may be time for chareidi autonomy, perhaps to rethink the role and connection of the chareidi community in the State of Israel. Askan Dudi Zilbershlag feels the Netanyahu method may be correct – those who contribute will receive and those who do not contribute will not. Zilbershlag feels thought must be given to the possibility of not accepting services from non-religious bodies and to launch chareidi alternatives.

This is a most difficult period for the chareidi tzibur in Eretz Yisrael by all accounts. The new national government has significantly slashed funding to yeshivos, avreichim and talmidei yeshivos along with monthly child allowance payments. Simultaneously, the government is finalizing its new chareidi draft law which will compel most draft eligible chareidim to serve instead of continuing limudei Torah. On the education front there is the ongoing attempt to link state funding to the introduction of secular subjects into the school curriculum.

A number of months ago, the Agudas Yisrael affiliated Hamodia newspaper ran a piece presenting the idea the time may have come to declare chareidi autonomy in the State of Israel – to break away from the mainstream. A similar thought was explained by Yated Neeman’s Chaim Walder, as well as by Zilbershlag, a prominent askan and Belzer Chossid.

Speaking to Kikar Shabbat, Zilbershlag feels that first of all, while the cuts in monthly child allowance payments are significant, “we must not become hysterical for we do not live on that money and we will exist without it too.”

Zilbershlag does not minimize the severity of the situation, but he feels panic and hysteria are unwarranted. He warns “we must not fall into this trap” explaining רבי איציקל מפשווארסק in his words to the Belzer Rebbe ZT”L explaining “every generation has their container of manna (צנצנת המן) to sustain it. Rashi explains with the words of Yirmiyahu who chastised Israel for not studying Torah, to which they responded asking ‘how will we sustain ourselves’. He showed them the container of manna and in our generation we know it exists as well.”

Zilbershlag feels that the first time the government enacted a major cut in monthly child allowance payments, in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s first term, the secularists were confident the birth rate would drop among chareidim. “It did not and to the contrary, it has since increased. In addition, the cuts will not succeed in compelling a single avreich to leave yeshiva.”

When it comes to Finance Minister Yair Lapid Zilbershlag is concerned. “His trend is far deeper than any budget cut and far more dangerous. His trend is difficult and very dark. He wants to recreate chareidi education. He is more dangerous than his father Tommy for his father said it out in the open. He hides it and attempts to appear sympathetic and kind.”

“I believe he carries a resignation letter from all his faction members for there is no other way to explain how they tremble before him.”

He is disappointed with today’s Israeli elected officials, adding the chareidi MKs do not appear to have partners among the secular. “We are a sector that must live alone,יבדד ישכון ובחילונים לא יתחשב and therefore the time has come to act.”

He feels we must rethink today’s reality “For in all areas of society there is one set of rules except when it comes to the chareidim.”

He refers to pre-WWII Germany, when the Jews believed by integrating into society they would be accepted. They learned that when the time came, they were the first at whom the finger of blame was pointed. He feels this is analogues to the chareidim in Eretz Yisrael today.

“It is entirely possible that we must build our own system. Perhaps we should stop receiving services from non-frum agencies and build our own. No one calculates how much value added tax we pay and the little we receive in return compared to the non-chareidi community. We do not funding for theater, sports and culture along with the other astronomical funds spent for these things.”

“I am not presenting anything new but simply believe we should adopt Netanyahu’s philosophy of ‘those who give will receive and those who do not will not receive.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)