Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Paula Rosas
- Role, BBC News World
-
5 hours
They are known as “the God-fearing ones.”
They live in closed communities, with little contact with the outside world, where time seems to have stopped. Many have no television, no internet and, of course, no social media.
Men devote most of their time to religious study, while women take care of their numerous children and work to support the family.
The ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, are followers of a branch of Orthodox Judaism whose life is marked by religious texts and strict social norms.
In Israel, where they form around 13% of the population, the parties that represent this community have been exercising a minority but decisive influence on politics for decades.
In exchange for their support for successive governments under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ultra-Orthodox have managed to maintain, among other things, exemptions from mandatory military service for those Haredim who dedicate their lives to study and hundreds of millions of dollars for their institutions.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, Haredi men typically dedicate their lives to Torah study.
This has been a cause of tension for years with a large part of secular Jewish Israelis, forced to pay for a long military service and being recruited in successive wars, in addition to paying most of the taxes in the country.
Now, at a sensitive time due to the war in Gaza and fears of a new open conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel’s Supreme Court has ended that exemption, prompting thousands of Haredim to take to the streets in protest.
The decision also threatens the stability of the government, as the two ultra-Orthodox parties that make up the executive – Shas and United Torah Judaism (JUT) – have threatened to leave the coalition led by Netanyahu, raising questions about the extent of the influence of this minority community.
How they differ from other Jews
The Haredim are one of the “four tribes of modern Israel,” as defined by former President Reuven Rivlin, along with secular, religious nationalist and Arab Israelis.
Their outfits, with black suits for men, which they usually wear long curls around the ears, big beards and wide-brimmed hats and long skirts, thick stockings and scarves or wigs on the head for women, make them easily identifiable.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, Haredim often wear beards and hats.
Series like Unorthodox (“Unorthodox”) or Shtisel from Netflix have sparked interest in their lifestyle and customs.
The Haredim are part of the Orthodox world, which is distinguished by its full respect for Jewish law.
Orthodox Jews, Naomi Seidman, a professor at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, explains to BBC Mundo, obey “mainly three key elements: they respect the sabbat (Jewish day of rest), eat kosher (what religion allows to eat) and they practice what is known as the ‘marital purity’ (sleep in separate beds and do not have sexual relations until seven days after having menstruation and after a ritual bath by immersion)”.
A modern Orthodox person, Seidman notes, “will do other things and can be, for example, a lawyer or a police officer, as long as he complies with those elements of Jewish law.”
For the Haredim or ultra-Orthodox, however, these rules are not enough.
His whole life revolves around the Torah, both written and oral law, and all of their life choices, whether work, education, where they live or how they dress, are subject to Jewish tradition.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, Religion influences every aspect of an ultra-Orthodox person’s life.
In the long history of Judaism, the ultra-Orthodox is a relatively recent phenomenon, which was born in the 19th century when industrialization gives rise to a new type of Jew, more worldly and integrated into society.
This caused a split among Orthodox Jews who wanted to maintain a much more conservative, isolationist and anti-secular vision of Judaism, and who organized themselves around various rabbis.
What are your communities like?
Haredim tend to live in enclaves where all their neighbors share their same worldview, and where they traditionally try to minimize contact with the outside to avoid the influence and contamination of their values and practices.
There are significant communities of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the United States and the United Kingdom, although their largest population is in Israel, where they currently make up just over 13% of the country’s population and where their numbers are growing rapidly due to its high birth rate.
Neighborhoods such as Mea Shearim in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak on the outskirts of Tel Aviv are home to a significant portion of this population.
“They usually have very large families and are, generally, poorer than secular Jews and modern Orthodox Jews, who are among the wealthier sectors of the Jewish population and have smaller families,” describes Naomi Seidman.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, In Israel there are neighborhoods where almost all the residents are Haredim.
Each of these communities has its own synagogues, yeshivas or religious schools, and community organizations.
Respect and status in the Haredi world is proportional to Torah scholarship, so rabbis are the great leaders of the community, to whom neighbors turn when they have to make an important decision in their lives, such as whom to marry or what to study.
Most adult men devote themselves to the study of religious texts full-time, leaving their wives to earn the family bread.
The variety of jobs they can access is, however, limited, and families are generally quite poor and dependent on state subsidies.
Despite their isolation, a new, more modern class of Haredim is emerging, Seidman notes: “They lead a Haredi lifestyle, live in Haredi enclaves and dress like Haredim, but instead of working only within the community or in traditional professions like the diamond business, they are teachers or lawyers and use the Internet, something that is frowned upon by the more radical.”
Some of these more modern Haredim sometimes volunteer to serve in the army, where there is currently only one battalion, the Netzah Yehuda, which was created specifically to meet ultra-Orthodox demands for gender segregation, with special food requirements kosher and time reserved for daily prayers and rituals.
What relationship do they have with other Israelis?
Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Paula Rosas
- Role, BBC News World
-
5 hours
They are known as “the God-fearing ones.”
They live in closed communities, with little contact with the outside world, where time seems to have stopped. Many have no television, no internet and, of course, no social media.
Men devote most of their time to religious study, while Women take care of their numerous children and work to support the family.
The ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, are followers of a branch of Orthodox Judaism whose life is marked by religious texts and strict social norms.
In Israel, where they form around 13% of the population, the parties that represent this community have been exercising a minority but decisive influence on politics for decades.
In exchange for their support for successive governments under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ultra-Orthodox have managed to maintain, among other things, exemptions from mandatory military service for those Haredim who dedicate their lives to study and hundreds of millions of dollars for their institutions.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, Haredi men typically dedicate their lives to Torah study.
This has been a cause of tension for years with a large part of secular Jewish Israelis, forced to pay a long military service and being recruited in successive wars, in addition to paying most of the taxes in the country.
Now, at a sensitive time due to the war in Gaza and fears of a new open conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel’s Supreme Court has ended that exemption, prompting thousands of Haredim to take to the streets in protest.
The decision also threatens the stability of the government, as the two ultra-Orthodox parties that make up the executive – Shas and United Torah Judaism (JUT) – have threatened to leave the coalition led by Netanyahu, raising questions about the extent of the influence of this minority community.
How they differ from other Jews
The Haredim are one of the “four tribes of modern Israel,” as defined by former President Reuven Rivlin, along with secular, religious nationalist and Arab Israelis.
Their outfits, with black suits for men, which they usually wear long curls around the ears, big beards and wide-brimmed hats, and long skirts, thick stockings and scarves or wigs on the head for women, make them easily identifiable.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, Haredim often wear beards and hats.
Series like Unorthodox (“Unorthodox”) or Shtisel from Netflix have sparked interest in their lifestyle and customs.
The Haredim are part of the Orthodox world, which is distinguished by its full respect for Jewish law.
Orthodox Jews, Naomi Seidman, a professor at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, explains to BBC Mundo, obey “mainly three key elements: they respect the sabbat (Jewish day of rest), eat kosher (what religion allows to eat) and they practice what is known as the ‘marital purity’ (sleep in separate beds and do not have sexual relations until seven days after having menstruation and after a ritual bath by immersion)”.
A modern Orthodox person, Seidman notes, “will do other things and can be, for example, a lawyer or a police officer, as long as he complies with those elements of Jewish law.”
For the Haredim or ultra-Orthodox, however, these rules are not enough.
His whole life revolves around the Torah both written and oral law, and all of their life choices, whether work, education, where they live or how they dress, are subject to Jewish tradition.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, Religion influences every aspect of an ultra-Orthodox person’s life.
In the long history of Judaism, the ultra-Orthodox is a relatively recent phenomenon, which Born in the 19th century when industrialization gives rise to a new type of Jew, more worldly and integrated into society.
This caused a split among Orthodox Jews who wanted to maintain a much more conservative, isolationist and anti-secular vision of Judaism, and who organized themselves around various rabbis.
What are your communities like?
Haredim tend to live in enclaves where all their neighbors share their same worldview, and where they traditionally try to keep contact with the outside to a minimum to avoid the influence and contamination of their values and practices.
There are significant communities of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the United States and the United Kingdom, although their largest population is in Israel, where they currently make up just over 13% of the country’s population and where their numbers are growing rapidly due to its high birth rate.
Neighborhoods such as Mea Shearim in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak on the outskirts of Tel Aviv are home to a significant portion of this population.
“They usually have very large families and are, generally, poorer than secular Jews and modern Orthodox Jews, who are among the wealthier sectors of the Jewish population and have smaller families,” describes Naomi Seidman.
Image source, Getty Images
Caption, In Israel there are neighborhoods where almost all the residents are Haredim.
Each of these communities has its own synagogues, yeshivas or religious schools, and community organizations.
Respect and status in the Haredi world is proportional to Torah scholarship, so rabbis are the great leaders of the community, to whom neighbors turn when they have to make an important decision in their lives, such as whom to marry or what to study.
Most adult men devote themselves to the study of religious texts full-time, leaving their wives to earn the family bread.
The variety of jobs they can access is, however, limited, and families are generally quite poor and dependent on state subsidies.
Despite their isolation, a new, more modern class of Haredim is emerging, Seidman notes: “They lead a Haredi lifestyle, live in Haredi enclaves and dress like Haredim, but instead of working only within the community or in traditional professions like the diamond business, they are teachers or lawyers and use the Internet, something that is frowned upon by the more radical.”
Some of these more modern Haredim sometimes volunteer to serve in the army, where there is currently only one battalion, the Netzah Yehuda which was created specifically to meet ultra-Orthodox demands for gender segregation, with