Senior coalition members Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid cannot pat themselves on the back enough as they have each boasted their successes during the first year in office. These successes include the new draft law and legislation to entice and compel chareidim to join the workforce. The most recent factor comes from the judicial and not legislative branch, Sunday’s Supreme Court ruling that eliminates supplementary income payments to avreichim.

The chareidim are blaming the government and anti-chareidi atmosphere that prevails in Israel for the sharp drop in the number of chareidim registering for a higher education.

According to a report released in The Marker, after years of a continued increase in the number of chareidim entering the IDF and the workplace, the chareidi community is secluding itself once again. The Council for Higher Education is concerned over the sharp drop in the number of chareidim registering for classes in 5774, calling it a “catastrophe”.

A senior official in the Council of Higher Education confirms there is a sharp decline in the number of male chareidim registering for bachelor degree programs. It is reported the Chareidi College in Jerusalem reported 60 men registered last year for their “Mechina” prepatory program to prepare them for advanced studies. Not a single chareidi male registered this year.

At the Strauss Campus, the largest center for chareidi learning, there were 120 students in the Mechina program last year and this year only 40 are in the program.

According to The Marker, Professor Manuel Trachtenberg, who heads the Council of Higher Education, there has been a 20% decline in the number of chareidi students compared to last year.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)