How Not to Help the Ultra-Orthodox

In the short space of 66 years, Israel has established a kind of polity never before seen in the Middle East, a polity that promises all citizens individual freedom and equality before the law. To an astonishing degree, particularly given the exceedingly dangerous neighborhood in which it dwells, the Jewish state has succeeded.

Not that the dangers, either from without or from within, should ever be discounted. Those from without (Iran, terrorism, the collapse of the Arab state system, stalemate with the Palestinian Authority, and so on) are well known; less so, those from within. Although the Israeli economy has made great strides in shaking off the remnants of its socialist roots, large sectors continue to underperform as government’s heavy hand impedes innovation and stifles competition. In addition, a restive Arab minority, approximately 20 percent of the citizenry, though generally aware that it enjoys the same freedoms enjoyed by Jewish Israelis—freedoms of which Arabs elsewhere in the Middle East can only dream—is increasingly impatient with the underfunding of its communities and its outsider status.

As if all that weren’t more than enough for any small, young liberal democracy to contend with, Aharon Ariel Lavi has clarified the critical internal challenge presented by Israel’s haredi or ultra-Orthodox community. As he writes in his provocatively titled essay, “Are the Ultra-Orthodox the Key to Israel’s Future?,” the haredim account for approximately 10-15 percent of Israel’s Jewish population and their political parties hold about 15 percent of the seats in the Knesset. Yet they are generally exempt from military service and, thanks to major state funding of their religious academies, many adult ultra-Orthodox men opt out of the labor force in favor of lifelong Torah study.