The gap between the ultra-Orthodox public and Haredi politics and the establishment has never been more pronounced. Haredi society joined the war effort to the best of its ability. In the past month, we have seen extensive ultra-Orthodox volunteering on the home front, an influx of haredim for shortened military service, and haredi partnership in worrying and praying for the success of the war against Hamas.
In contrast, Haredi politics and the establishment act as if nothing happened. As far as the haredi establishment is concerned, a different campaign is currently underway: preserving coalition funds in general, and the inclusion of the haredi networks in the "New Horizon" agreement in particular.
A New Horizon in Haredi Education
A brief reminder: The "New Horizon" agreement in state education includes diversity in the professional mix of teachers, i.e., individual hours and continuing education courses, in return for a raise in their salaries. The ultra-Orthodox parties anchored in the coalition agreements a commitment to apply the agreement in the immediate term to the non-state ultra-Orthodox educational networks, and in the long term to most haredi schools.
Yeshiva students, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
This arrangement, which is included in the coalition funds in the state budget, eliminates one of the main advantages that state schools have over private schools, an advantage that exists in most countries around the world. In addition, the level of supervision of Haredi schools is very low, so that many resources are supposed to be transferred without proper supervision. Indeed, in practice, no Haredi network teaches full English for boys, and in all of them, basic English studies for boys stop as early as eighth grade.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni are currently campaigning to transfer NIS 1.1 billion to introduce "New Horizon" in the ultra-Orthodox networks. All this even before they properly reported the completion of the program. And in war as in war, all means are legitimate.
The Independent Education Network and the Bnei Yosef Network (El Maayan) did not transfer salaries to the network's teachers earlier this month. It is important to understand that the regular budget of the network was transferred by the Ministry of Education as every month, so that the delay in payment was done by the networks as an exercise on the backs of the teachers solely for the purpose of exerting political pressure.
In a letter to employees of independent education, Director General Rabbi Eliezer Sorotzkin notes what campaign he is currently undergoing: the campaign to implement "New Horizon" in Haredi education. He concludes his letter by wishing his employees to lead the ship to its fortified goal: increasing their wages.
It is difficult to point to a greater disconnection of activists and elected political representatives from the public and from the needs of the economy these days. The state of emergency in which we find ourselves requires transcending political considerations and focusing on the needs of war and the economy.
Accordingly, Education Minister Yoav Kisch called for a similar step with regard to Haredi coalition funds, cutting the yeshiva budget, which almost doubled in the last state budget, and holding a discussion in the government regarding "New Horizon" for the ultra-Orthodox. The finance minister and the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox parties, on the other hand, continue to play political tricks and try to approve the budgets in the dark of night. Your brothers will go to war, and you will take care of the budgets for the sector?
The writer is head of the Haredi program at the Israel Democracy Institute
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