Flowing into Jerusalem: the ultra-Orthodox boys at risk are desperate for help, the welfare agencies are collapsing under the burden

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox teenagers look for a place of refuge and find it in the capital city, alongside drugs, alcohol, violence and sometimes even prostitution.

The phenomenon is expanding in the shadow of the upheavals experienced by ultra-Orthodox society during the Corona period, but the Jerusalem Municipality does not have a single body that centralizes the treatment of the youth - and they fall through the cracks

Shlomi Heller

08/17/2022

Wednesday, August 17, 2022, 4:00 p.m

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Looking for refuge.

Orthodox youth, those photographed are not related to the content of the article (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox youth from Jerusalem and the ultra-orthodox cities surrounding it are pouring into the capital city and trying to find a place of refuge.

Some will pick up a job;

Many degenerate into the street, consume drugs and alcohol, participate in violent fights and even degenerate into prostitution.

The boys and girls are often expelled from the natural environment in which they grew up, and come to Jerusalem hoping to find similar and comfortable "basic conditions" for them over the central cities - which are mainly expressed in the large ultra-Orthodox concentrations.

Roi Maari, head of street work at the Youth at Risk Association (Elam), stated in a conversation with Walla that the number of ultra-Orthodox youth who end up on the street is increasing, and their ages are only small.

"Of the 780 at-risk youth we have located in the last two months, 75% are from ultra-Orthodox homes," he said.

"Most of them are 12-15 years old, but during the summer there are even younger ones."

"Last week," Maari shared, "we came across a child who introduced himself as 11 and a half years old, it finally turned out that he was under 10. For several nights we met him drunk on the streets of Jerusalem, the welfare activated all the resources it has to help and we activated an integrated process to help him together with The welfare services of his locality".

My materials see Jerusalem as the "stone of inspiration" for Jerusalemites and the youth of the region.

"For this youth, Jerusalem is a kind of symbol," he elaborated, "it has a positive charge, you can explore yourself there and experiment, do forbidden things, you can be anonymous and still walk around with a kippa. This happens in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv, because it is caught Otherwise with an ultra-orthodox boy."

The social aspect also takes on a heavy meaning for the youth in Jerusalem and its surroundings.

"It's a big city, everyone meets there, you know you'll meet other teenagers there in the same situation as you," explained the head of street work in Baalam.

"The youth can survive in Jerusalem, it is possible to get by cheaply there, and at the same time it has access to other things that are not available in their settlements, such as alcohol, drugs and unhealthy sexual behavior," he added.

"In Jerusalem you will meet other teenagers in the same situation as you."

Orthodox youth, those photographed are not related to the content of the article (Photo: Reuven Castro)

"I spend many hours here, especially at night, there are many guys like me, with the same background and the same mind," said a Jerusalem boy late at night in the city center, far from his parents' house in an ultra-orthodox neighborhood in northern Jerusalem.

"In the middle of the corona virus, I realized that the framework was not suitable for me, I was tired of going to yeshiva, my parents tried to help me, but I was somewhere else."

He testified about the feeling of neglect he felt.

"The most annoying thing is that no one counts us, neither the municipality nor welfare, they offer us sessions at the first grade level or send us to classes in a synagogue, the only ones I meet on the street are policemen who are good at bullying."

When asked where his parents are, he admitted that they are indeed worried - but he hides the truth from them.

"They call all the time and ask, 'Where are you, when are you coming home?', I say that everything is fine, but the truth is that I'm fussy, I sleep with friends, sometimes I'm up all night 'on Paresh,' for almost a year this has been my daily routine, but I'm fine with it," shared.

"Most of the youth here are ultra-Orthodox from home, to say that they only drink alcohol and smoke drugs is simply not true, the situation is worse. There is a large mass of youth here who are extremely bored and there is no one to help."

Another boy, a resident of one of the settlements in the Jerusalem area, shared his personal story.

"I studied in a normal and respectable Haredi yeshiva, because of the harassment of one of the rabbis in the yeshiva who claimed that I was inferior to other guys, I was thrown out of the yeshiva and started walking around. At first I traveled in the north to the tombs of the righteous and later I arrived in Jerusalem, as I, in a white shirt and black pants, arrive in the city center, I remember that I even took a bottle from home Drink to socialize and feel good."

Today, he testifies that he "did everything".

"Everything you can think of, there are many boys and girls from ultra-Orthodox homes who actually came here from all over the country, there is everything here in Jerusalem, there is a situation that it is because we came from a closed society, so we try to break as many norms as possible."

More in Walla!

Poor but own apartments, surf the Internet and use computers: A look at ultra-Orthodox society in Israel

To the full article

"I was thrown from the sitting and started walking around."

Students at an ultra-Orthodox institution, those photographed are not related to the article (Photo: Niv Aharonson)

The drug and alcohol meetings are organized by groups - everyone brings something, shares it together, then separates and walks around.

"There is the majority, that's us, former ultra-Orthodox, and also those who still look like that, there are national religious people who go around in groups and with big caps on their heads," said the boy.

"There are also a few Arabs from East Jerusalem, who are older, who try to blend in, but it usually ends in an explosion."

Another girl testified that she comes to the capital almost every weekend.

"I'm still looking for myself in all the chaos I have and I'm very careful," she noted, "but it's a 'fan', everyone is a friend and wants to help. The hardest is at night, because it's still not the most pleasant for girls, especially from a background like mine. There's not too much to do To do without organizing anything in advance - either I go out with other girls or directly to a yeshiva or an organized party."

"The corona has changed world orders."

Elam activity with young ultra-Orthodox women in Jerusalem (photo: official website, Elam association)

In the Elam association, which aims to help youth at risk and in distressed situations, they are trying to cope with the increase in demand and are recruiting more and more professionals from the ultra-orthodox society.

Here too, Matari emphasized, the corona virus played a significant role.

"The corona has increased the influence of the Internet on ultra-orthodox society," he explained.

"The reliance on the old mechanisms through which they received information and made decisions was broken and undermined, and there was a sense of upheaval - whether to open the schools or listen to the instructions of the Ministry of Health. It changed the world order."

With the corona in the background, the ultra-Orthodox society went through further upheavals, which, according to the professionals, apparently affected the situation of the ultra-Orthodox youth.

"The death that came to ultra-Orthodox society on a large scale as a result of the corona virus has undermined everything that was known," noted Maori.

"The Mount Miron disaster created a spiritual crisis. How can such a thing happen in one of the most significant, most sacred and spiritual Zions? Something was created there that I did not see," he said, "a rift was created with the political leaders of the sector, who demanded a commission of inquiry, publicly visited its leaders and sued You're right. It's not something that existed in the ultra-orthodox world," stressed Mavari.

Another event that, according to materials, shook the foundations of ultra-Orthodox society is the case of Chaim Walder, the children's author who took his own life after evidence was published against him that he sexually exploited women, boys and girls.

"He was a spiritual authority in many ultra-Orthodox houses, this created a conflict within society," explained Maari.

"It was an event that flooded the discourse on sexual abuse on a huge scale."

Shake the foundations of ultra-orthodox society.

The bodies of those killed in the Miron disaster (Photo: Reuters, Yishai Yerushalmi / in the rooms)

When the ultra-Orthodox youth degenerate to the street, they sometimes discard their ultra-Orthodox symbols - but some of them continue to walk around the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and show no signs of distress.

"We have teams that work inside the ultra-Orthodox areas and talk to yeshiva boys who no one would believe are walking around the street and are at risk," said Matari.

"Our ultra-Orthodox teams, who look just like them, make contact with them and try to help them."

The ultra-Orthodox girls, on the other hand, are less on the street and more online.

"When the ultra-Orthodox girl walks around there, she is exposed twice, because if something happens to her, she cannot share it," explained Matari.

The ultra-orthodox teams of Elam are trying to put more emphasis on girls, because according to them they are more vulnerable, but they are less likely to be found on the streets.

"I have a goal and ambition for the girls to meet the team face to face, because there is an answer and support that can only be given to them directly," said the head of the street work department in their husband.

The Community Security Authority of the Ministry of Internal Security also confirms the worsening in the field.

"The phenomenon of dropping out of school in general and in ultra-orthodox society in particular has expanded significantly after the corona virus," they noted.

"The dropout ages have decreased, today students drop out already in the seventh grade and even at younger ages."

According to the estimates of professionals, about 20% of the youth are on the continuum of dropping out of school.

"The exposure to risk is extremely extensive, both to drugs and to alcohol," added the Ministry of Internal Security, "what used to be more difficult, today is more accessible, too easy."

They also emphasized the cooperation between the municipality and the various bodies in dealing with the phenomenon.

"The detection and treatment teams will be increased, but there are still large gaps in the issue of manpower," they warned.

"If something happens to her, she can't share it."

Haredi girls, the photos are not related to the content of the article (photo: Reuven Castro)

However, according to officials in the police and Jerusalem municipality, there is a phenomenon of the exploitation of the poverty and hardships of the youth by non-official associations and bodies operating in the field.

Against the background of the increase in the rate of ultra-Orthodox youth at risk, the number of organizations seeking to help is only increasing, without the issue being regulated with the welfare authorities and local authorities.

In a discussion that took place a few months ago at the Jerusalem Municipality, a representative of the Israel Police claimed that "there are bodies that trade in poverty, in the plight of those boys", and described how he approached the association that helps ultra-Orthodox girls at risk and offered cooperation that included national service in the police along with adapted housing, but was ignored.

"As if I took away their clients," he slammed.

During the discussion, the holder of the welfare case at the Jerusalem Municipality admitted that "there is one big 'mish-mesh' within the municipality, and within all of this there are dozens of other associations, each of which takes ownership of the poverty and the boys and girls in the situation they are in, this is the most It's as bad as it can be. It's a terrible phenomenon."

According to him, "The whole issue of the associations in Jerusalem should be brought together, and there should be cooperation with welfare, which does the best work in the world. You know how many millions the Jerusalem municipality gives to all kinds, and also to welfare," he claimed.

"There is no one who unites all the forces and we lose them along the way. The situation in Jerusalem is not good, the youth is deteriorating."

Another source present at the yeshiva claimed that "Jerusalem is a city with many associations, they really pop up like mushrooms after the rain all the time."

The police representative at the hearing said that when he was at the Rahat station, he encountered a Jerusalem girl who lived with Bedouins, and when he arrived in Jerusalem, he encountered a phenomenon that he said was "not normal, we are talking about several hundred".

He pointed out that the police are starting a project that treats boys and girls who "sell their bodies, in the east of the city there is really a trade around this", he claimed.

"These guys drink alcohol and you'll find them everywhere. It's sitting on Pandora's box."

"The phenomenon of dropping out increased significantly during and after the corona virus. Professionals' estimates are that about 20% of the youth are on the dropout continuum. The risk exposure is mainly to drugs and alcohol, since access to them is immediate and easy, which was much more difficult in the past. The Jerusalem Municipality and the various bodies dealing with dropout youth , both governmental and private associations, have begun carrying out various collaborations to deal with the phenomenon. A round table is held in each neighborhood with the relevant bodies. The municipality is in contact with several associations, and makes every effort to establish contact and cooperation with every association operating in the city. At the same time, the municipal detection and treatment teams will be strengthened , and new programs and bodies entered the scene in an attempt to provide a diverse response. The Education Administration in the Jerusalem Municipality is working to increase and expand the regulation in the various municipal and non-profit bodies."

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