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| Charedim in Israel (YWN) |
12 percent of the graduating class of Chareidi students have chosen to leave the Chareidi community. Close to 2,000 people, men and women, left the Chareidi community in the last year, a rise of some 20 percent over the last study conducted which took place in 2012 where it was found that only 10 percent of the graduating class left the fold.
I assume that by ‘leaving the fold’ they mean
going OTD, not just adopting another Hashakfa. This is an unprecedented
situation for the Charedi world in Israel in our day. At the very least it
means that there is hardly a family that does not have a close relative that
has rejected the ways of their parents.
As the CEO of this organization correctly
notes, going OTD is not new. It was a fact of life in the pre Holocaust Charedi
world in Europe. But things are different now. Back then educating the masses Jewishly at any kind of high level was
not possible. There simply were not enough Yeshivos to go around. In a climate of relatively new tolerance for Jews that resulted from the enlightenment
period, under-educated Jews were going to colleges and universities and being exposed to thought systems that were anathema to their beliefs. They were exposed to lifestyles denied them in the past. And thus heavily influenced to
reject their Judaism as incompatible with modern thinking and the modern
lifestyle now available to them.
But that is not the case today. Mass Jewish education has changed everything. There is not a Charedi child in Israel that is not educated
in a Charedi school that does its level best to – not only filter out secular
influence - but to vilify it. They are raised to believe that virtually all of it is against Torah values. That is bolstered
by a near isolationist lifestyle where every
effort is made to shelter them from exposure to it.
There is also very little if any exposure to Limudei Chol (secular studies) in their
schools. Limudei Chol is at best treated as an irrelevant waste of time better
spent on Torah study. Which is what they spend their entire day on. Army service
is vilified in the same way – whom they see as little else than a means of
indoctrinating their young against the Torah by the anti religious forces of the
government.
The question is – if their young are so sheltered from anti
Torah influences, why are so many young Charedim abandoning the faith of their
fathers?
There is no easy ‘one fits all size’ answer in my view. As I’ve
said many times in the past, going OTD has as many reasons as there are people
going OTD. Every person going OTD has their own reason for doing that. In some cases
multiple reasons.
Sometimes it can be blamed on being raised in a dysfunctional family.But that cannot possibly explain the huge numbers that 12%
of Charedi graduates represent. I doubt that they are all products of
dysfunctional families.
I can’t really answer the question but it seems to me that
there are many issues going on in this world that might serve to explain some of
it. For example the elitism that exists in so many of heir schools. The competition
to excel in Torah study is fierce. Not everyone is cut out for that. Even if
they are highly intelligent. They may simply have natural interests outside of
Torah study that remain unfulfilled. And then find that what was seen as an area
of forbidden study or at least a waste of time very attractive, not inherently evil, and not a waste of time at all. Which makes them skeptical about what they had been indoctrinated to believe.
There
is also the fact that a lot of young people fall through the cracks. It is common for teachers to focus on the best and brightest in the class while ignoring
everyone else. That too is surely a prescription for going OTD.
The very thing this community works so hard to
shelter their children from may have the opposite effect on them. At some
point a young student may go out into the real world and find that what is out there is not what has been described. And in many cases
the opposite of that.
That
can surely cause a child to question everything else he has learned.
And then there is the lack of preparation for a financially productive life. There will surely be a time that many will feel they were cheated out of an education. And have been denied something valuable. Catching up with those that had that preparation is not a done deal. In far to many cases they simply are not capable of it for lack of being given the tools.
Then there is the fact that virtually all normal leisure
time activity are vilified as well. Young people are not only barred from
watching sporting events, they are barred from participating in them. All
activities outside of Torah study are considered inappropriate for a Ben Torah.
I once asked a Charedi Kollel student
why so many of them smoke since it has show to be a very unhealthy activity. Ironically he answered that this is one of the few vices allowed
them.
With the very limited forms of legitimate leisure time activity available to them in order to distract them from the pressures of daily intense Torah study, and thereby rejuvenate themselves, life can get pretty tense.
It isn’t not much of a stretch that some people (12%) with this kind of life experience to end up rejecting it all.
I am not saying that these are the reasons. But it should
certainly be food for thought. In my view it would serve the Charedi world
well if they reconsidered the fully sheltered lives they lead and to stop
indoctrinating their children to believe everything outside of their world is
evil.
Just my thoughts.
