20 Responses

1. The so-called “Jewish” State was happy to bring all these Chazir-fressers from the USSR. They convinced us it was a big Mitzvah. NOW we see the truth (although some of us saw the truth a long time ago). They are against HaShem and his Torah!!! They are Reshaim Gemurim who will have no place in Olam HaBah.

2. How apropos !!! on Purim Katan !!!

3. Do you think Neturei Karta is secretly funding him?

4. Haman the rascha is Liebermann and all the mistakes he makes the terutz are the chareidim.
   But one day he will go like haman the rascha

5. Get rid of the Russian Goyim and Lieberman loses all his votes.

   Bibi and the Likud were idiots for not taking care of the Russian Goyim issue, in fact they facilitated it, thinking it will give them votes.
   It has come to bite them hard

6. Stupid beyond belief. They have an opportunity to create REAL targeted incentives for part-time work options in the Chareidi sector and instead making everything appear punitive. They are squandering their mandate.

7. Move to Aretz! lol

8. To Yussel and y2r: Your attitude toward Russian Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union to Israel shows a remarkable level of ignorance toward life for Jews in the former Soviet Union. Soviet governments since the time of the Russian Revolution were persistent and ruthless in their efforts to prevent Jews from keeping their religion. Bringing Soviet Jews to Israel was essential for the preservation of their Jewish souls and the Jewish world population. With kindness from religious Jews, they will return to Jewish life.

9. Statistically if I was finance Minister I would worry about the same issue of how the growing number of Orthodox Jews can be supported by the government as they have a lot more kids and we know that the population is quickly becoming more and more charedie, he is just not taking the right approach, religious freedom is one of the biggest freedoms we’re allowed to express and practice he should be working with the community not against it. This has to be a conversation with both sides of the table present.

10. huju: I am not ignorant of life for Jews in the USSR. I am aware of the brutality of the Cheka, NKVD, etc adn how the Communist governments, starting with the revolution, tried to wipe out Judaism. That being said, it is a fact that the Jews who came from the USSR and their children after them, SINCE THE FALL OF COMMUNISM, who live in the free countries, have shown no interest in Torah!! HEre in the US they are only willing to send their kids to Jewish schools if they don’t have to pay (which puts the burden on the rest of us). They continue to live as an isolated community, to themselves, with no interest in the broader community. In Israel, they formed their own political party to take care of their own issues which have nothing to do with Torah. I am old enough to remember the rallies and campaigns to save Soviet Jewery and all the appeals that were made to let them out. It turned out to be a huge disappointment.

11. As someone who got the complete charedi education, I never heard anyone explain why charedim expect to have all these privileges and have different laws than the rest of the Jewish people. What is the mitzvah to learn Torah while living off money of people who did not volunteer to support you? Why do they expect any money at all from Israelu government? No government should treat people differently based on their religion. And definitely charedi people demanding that Israel funnel public funds to support their lifestyle is extreme chillul hashem, that has caused terrible rife between the Jewish people and has distanced many from Torah. Russian goyim is a terrible problem in Israel, but it is not related to the chillul Hashem that charedi scisiety creates by not following the basic mitzvah a man commits to under the chuppah – to support his family. Why is there a machlokes about this at all? If charedim would keep the holochos, there would be much more frum Jews in Israel and world wide. Instead they make Yidishkeit disgusting to onlookers, and push people away.

12. Huju, some of them are not Jewish at all. Learn something.

13. Mindful and others:
    All the Zionists need to do is stop being Zionists and allow the Chareidim to work with no worries of the Zionist shmad army. Blanket exemption. Period. It’s that simple.

    The more this idol State hurts – or just tries to hurt – Jews, the sooner it will disappear into the dustbin of history. May it be very, very soon.

14. Firstly, the amount of Chareidim in the workforce is the majoiry of Chareidim. Almost all the wives work, and there are huge numbers of Charedim that work in any number of proffesions, doctors storekeepers,sofrim, batim machers, plumbers, real estate, singers, therapists, etc. etc. just look through the directories, walk through Rechov R’ Akiva, Malchei Yisrael etc. Organizations (think, hatzala, Yad Sarah etc.) , And huge numbers are involved in chinuch; teachers, rabbonim, mashgichim, shochtim, dayanim, secretaries, publishers, editors etc. etc.
    Go into any shul and see how many people are actually in Kollel. All the above are contributing directly to the economy and paying taxes.
    The small percent that are in Kollel, should be in no way worse than any of the other students in any other exotic subject, getting big grants to support massive university grounds, replete with gardens and sculptures etc.. Not all are studying medicine or IT, there is an extensive range of useless subjects out there.

    Besides all that, the yeshovos & kolleim contribute directly to the country & to the economy in a number of ways. Firstly, the charedi way of life, gives the whole country it’s Jewish culture. Without the charedim, what would the Kosel look like, a forlorn stone wall. Not much to see. What would Kever Rochel be? Lag b’omer would be extinct. Simchas Beis Hashoeivas would be non-existent. These are just a tip of the ice berg. The aforementioned sites and events (think Rebbishe chasunos) bring in huge revenues especially in tourism, and make the Israeli experience something to come for.

    The charedi sector creates and exports in a big way too. From Judaica, to Arba minim, to matzos and kosher food, to seforim, shoforos, tefilin, mezusos and other stam etc. etc.
    In addition, each and every Charedi mosad brings in thousands in pure profit. Exports to a lot for a country’s economy, but only a sliver of the income is actually profit. The pheonominal ammounts of charity that each Yeshiva and Kollel brings in, is pure profit to the country. For jsut the cost of a return ticket, each meshulach is literally pumping the country with foreign funds. Each chutznik yungerman who learns here, each bochur who learns in The Mir, or Brisk etc. each seminary girl, is bringing in huge amounts to the country. And what do they get in return a few hundred NIS of datot, and pitiful child benefits.

    The charedim cost the country far less than any other sector. For a start, the crime rate is almsot 0%. That means a million people (or more) requiring almost no police officers, detectives, prison facilities. etc. etc. Each murder costs the goverment a fortune, and the same goes for other crimes. Charedim use public transport, and save on pollution, congestion etc. etc.

    Charedim donate of their time and money to relief organistions and help the whole population boht financially and as a society. Zaka, Hatzola, Ezer Mitizon, Yad Sara, Chasdei Naomi, Yad Eliezer and the many gemachim. They donate to charity proportionally way more than any of the other sectors.

    This could be a twenty page article, but these few paragraphs are a good start.

15. Mindful – You are clearly unmindful! you clearly did not get a proper chareidi education. you probably were not too serious as a youngster in yeshiva and are fulfilling the words of chazal parashas bichukosai: מתוך שלא עמל בהם … סופו שונא חכמים וכו

16. The wicked apikorsim in the government were scared the the Chareidi birth rate would tip the balance of power in the electorate. So they calculated that by bringing in tons of Russians, without regard to their Jewish yichus, they would tip the balance the other way. But among this refuse we were zocheh to get some very dear wonderful Yiddishe neshamos. HaShem has his ways and it will all come out for the good in the end. Let us hope and pray to see a Purim yeshua with the mapolah of the reshoyim.

17. Israel has a lot of heartache but we love her the same. Remember how the whole desert generation died & didn’t make it to Israel? One can take the Jew out of Egypt but maybe not the Egypt out of the Jew. Generations of suffering in USSR doesn’t disappear in one generation. Yes many Russian Israelis aren’t Jewish halachically. Their grandparents were & there’s a promise One that has Torah in their family for 3 generations, Torah will always come back. I hear Lieberman’s kids are frum. Chareidim & others get handouts in USA so they expect it maybe in Israel. I agree Jews can lean and work, Gemara was written by sages who were businessman. One can manage both. Jews are smart enough! Am Yisroel Chai! 🇮🇱 ✡️

18. This argument is not convincing me: Someone who studies ancient Chinese or anthropology – that’s okay but learning Torah is not?

    Hopefully, most college students learn productive professions. If not, they should be cut also. People can pursue their interest in Chinese at their own expense without subsidies.

19. Yussel: HEre in the US they are only willing to send their kids to Jewish schools if they don’t have to pay (which puts the burden on the rest of us). They continue to live as an isolated community, to themselves, with no interest in the broader community. In Israel, they formed their own political party to take care of their own issues

    For a moment, I thought you are denouncing our holy community, but, no, you are talking about Russians who behave in a similar way!

    Seriously, it was our obligation to save them (those who survived). And what do you expect then from people who went through 70 years of oppression. I saw opinion polls from 1970s when first Russians were coming to US – most of them reported being alienated when coming to shuls, without knowing what is going on there and without getting a lot of understanding from the “American” Jews (in reality, same Russian or Polish, just came two generations earlier). Maybe e need to go talk to them and see where we can start understanding each other instead of mutual denouncements in the press. At the end, did Liberman sit shiva for his son becoming a dati? I don’t believe so. That means, he has some relationship with the community, and some of his opinions, like encouraging people to earn a living, relate well to Gemora and poskim, even if they are not popular right now.

20. I am going to have to disagree with alot of you. Israel is not a frum country. It is a Jewish country that has alot of frum people. Having people in kollel is important (my son and my my son in law were in kollel for a few years), but the govt shouldn’t be paying for it. If you say that chareidim give plenty in taxes to the govt, I will say that not all chareidim agree with subsidizing kollel.