With the publication of population statistics by the Central Bureau of Statistics coinciding with Independence Day, MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Rav Meir Porush points out there is a steady increase in the natural birth rate in the chareidi community.
He points out that his party and Shas received a combined 528,000 votes in the last general election, representing about 200,000 families. He adds that if one churns the population stats, one can extrapolate that those 200,000 chareidi families include 1.3 million children under the age of 18 since the CBS reports an average chareidi family has 6.5 children.
He adds “To my sorrow, as per the coalition agreement signed on 4 Nissan 5773, March 15, 2013, the fate of these 1.3 million children was sealed, including the possibility of the children going hungry as a result of paragraphs included in the agreement that will compromise the income of their parents.”
Porush feels the CBS should add this alarming statistic in its Independence Day report, that over one million chareidi children will go hungry if the government approves the proposed 2013-2014 state budget.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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21 Responses
I believe that much of the coalition considers this a feature rather than bug. Most members of the current coalition are economic conservatives who want people to rely less on welfare and more on work. Note that this has nothing to do with the issue of the conscription of yeshiva students, but rather with the overall Israeli welfare-state policies. If the Hareidi parties object to how things are going, they should consider forming an alliance with the socialists, as the socialist parties are also in favor of a welfare state.
“compromise the income of their parents”
Rabbi Porush is making one mistake and its a big one.
The money is not income. It is welfare.
Rabbi Porush needs to realize that these parents need to make income so their children dont go hungry. Its their responsibility not the government.
This is the crux of the problem
The Chareidi shita backed by the gadloei hador is that welfare state or capitalist state is no matter. Either is totally legit. The goal is simply to get as much funding as possible from the State. At the end of the day the state is usser and Hashem is the sole protector of jews. If the state dissolves because it goes bankrupt from socialism and from being a welfare state that can no longer pay its bills, then so be it. This is our shita.
I defiantly missing something. Dos new budget ban people from work? Many people if they not working will Go Hungry(except US , when they have food stamp)
It is scary how the chareidi politicians continue putting up straw men and apocalyptic scenarios if they don’t get more money. (and people like rebbenachamn swallow this, hook line and sinker). Do they think that the other five million Jews will be susceptible to such scaremongering?They go out and try to fend for their families as much as possible. The biggest scandal is that what Porush says is a lie. No child will go hungry if different budgets are implemented. Israel will still be a quasi-socialist state with an extensive social network.
Then maybe one should –
1) Work.
2) If one already has a son and a daughter, one should not have more children if one does not have the financial resources.
I’m probably going to be executed for saying this.
1. There are, by all accounts, considerably under 1 million charedim in Israel. According to the interesting math of the learned MK, 1.3 million of them are children under the age of 18. Fascinating.
2. Your children are hungry? Get a job. Welfare is for those who cannot provide for themselves, not for those who can but choose to sponge off of society.
#3 – That is a deeply evil ‘shita’. Accordingly, the state has no intention of dissolving itself in order to serve it.
In every european country child benefit is much higher than in israel. The point is that the goverment want to be like all western countries, except for when charadim will benefit, and that’s the bottom line
Do you know that there are chadorim in Israel that will not accept your child if your father is not an avreich?
#7 –Very unfair. You know they don’t study math in yeshivos. And for the most part, they don’t study math in where ever they train politicians. Ability to do basic math is clearly not desirable in the skill set for politicans.
Oh come on, who can believe these statistics?
1.3 million charadi children? come on, we don’t have that many charadim in Israel counting the mommies, taties, and bubbies and zaidys too!
Meir Porush is trying to fool us as usual with his absurd talk. If you believe his figures, you deserve him as a leader!!
I don’t think R. Porush is talking about welfare. Not all of the voters for his party and for Shas receive welfare. Many of them work. So if he thinks that all their children will go hungry because of the coalition agreements then he must mean something else.
Maybe he means that as a result of the requirement to teach “core subjects” to be funded then all chareidi schools will lose their funding (since the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah has announced that they will not compromise on that). Or that funding will be lost because of sanctions when Yeshiva students refuse to be drafted. In both cases the missing funds will have to be covered by raising tuition and cutting salaries (as well as additional funding raising). That would certainly affect many families budgets.
But if that is what he means, then I don’t understand the last where it says “chareidi children will go hungry if the government approves the proposed 2013-2014 state budget”, since these sanctions are not yet part of the budget.
So this entire report is confusing, and I wonder if it’s accurate.
Can anyone clearly state what exactly is changing in this years budget
Countries either try to reduce their deficients or increase them. The most likely way to reduce spending is to reduce or stop “entitlement programs”. This is the world of economics!
to #12 (idachgiss): You are missing the point. In a welfare state, the idea is that everyone receives some forms of welfare so that everyone ends up being dependent on the government (and therefore subject to the governments control). Welfare programs aimed only at the poor and unemployed would fail to accomplish the goal of making everyone dependent on the state, and thereby allowing the state to surplant the community, clan or family as a social institution. It’s sugar coated poison, and we’ve been taking it.
Even in the United States, a large percentage of the population receives welfare. Almost everyone either gets their medical insurance from the government or has it subsidized (primarily through tax credits). Programs such as WIC and Food assistance reach almost half the population. Most people use heavily subsidized public transportation, subsidized highways, and go to government subsidized schools (even yeshivos get massive tax expenditures as well as Pell grants).
According to Rabbi Porush: “there is a steady increase in the natural birth rate in the chareidi community”
He states this as if this is an unavoidable phenomenon. It is not a “natural” phenomenon. It is simply people who do not make even the slightest effort to live responsibly. Stop hiding behind euphemisms like “natural increase!”
making everyone dependent on the state, and thereby allowing the state to surplant the community, clan or family as a social institution.
Maybe enlighten us to how when we use subsidized transportation, highway or receive textbooks grants from the government we become DEPENDENT on the state and how this is a poison to our existence??? When you write or claim a fact, there is a necessity to back it up with examples that FIT!!!
#17. The article illustrates the problem. As people become accustomed to relying on the government, they lose the ability to fend for themselves. The hareidim communities in Israel got along before there was a welfare state but they are used to it now (some would say addicted), and all the government has to do is cut them off and they panic.
We see the same in America, where much of the “lower class” is so used to receiving something for nothing (receiving welfare, without earning enough to pay income tax), they can can’t relate to the government other than as a “give me”. This was a major issue in the last American election (the “give me” party won over the advocates of fiscal soundness).
Of course, if you are a good Obama supporter (such as most Brooklyn Democrats), the above is something to be aspired to, i.e., that government exists to “give” things to people (disregarding the implications and costs).
The hareidim communities in Israel got along before there was a welfare state —
1. Before the Begin days (welfare in huge #)less Charedim were in full time learning and a majority were learner/earners.
2. Plus before that the huge influx of $$$$ was tzedakah from chu”l. Who doesn’t remember the tzedakah boxes to support the ‘Lomdai Torah” in Palestine/Israel? It was welfare from non-government sources.
#15
The point I was trying to make is that “going to work” will not solve this problem. We’re not talking about welfare for non-working people. In fact, in most Chareidi families at least one person is working, either the husband or the wife. Incidentally, National Insurance child allowances are not welfare. They are paid to workers as well, and are equivalent to tax exemptions for dependents. That might be what he’s talking about.
The issue of even one child going hungry is a massive concern. And of course it is the Torah of the many Haredi Yeshivas that provides much protection to Israel. At the same time the enormous Hishtadlus of so many secular and Mizrahi young men to join the army and defend millions of Jews, including SATMAR and other Haredi and all Jews, against so many armies and terror groups out to destroy them, and there are indeed HAredi that do not stay in Kollel or Chinuch all their lives. There ought to be a balance possible. Including of course not calling soldiers and police “Nazis”, on the contrary those that join with Iran and Palestinian terrorist supporters are like Nazis. And those that do must be clearly loudly condemned. To at least show not joining the army does not mean they are Enemeies of the millions of Jews living in Eretz Yisroel.