Quote Of The Day
Already in 2003 there was a recommendation to divide the city [of Bet Shemesh], and already then I said that this would not be the correct solution. A haredi city would have no income, no taxes, with no production. It would not be correct to do this.
-- Minister of Interior Eli Yishai
While some haredim work, and perhaps those numbers are even increasing slightly, it seems that the numbers as seen by both the Minister of Interior and the mayor of mostly haredi city of Elad Tzuriel Krispel who confirmed Eli Yishai's thoughts on the same radio program and added that 80% of haredim get maximum discounts from arnona payments, show that the vast majority still d not and a haredi city could not survive on its own. How Beitar and Modiin ilit do it, I don't know... I would like to hear an explanation why they can and others cannot.
Perhaps it own indictment is what Krispel said further. Krispel added that another reason not to split a city and create a haredi only city is because the fights the haredim have with the secular are nothing compared to what the fights the haredim would have with each other in a haredi only town. He seems to think Haredim cannot get along with anybody - even with other haredim!
Yes, how do Modiin Illit and Beitar do it? I wonder if MI cadges money off of Chashomaim, which it seems to butt up against.
ReplyDeleteGiven R' Elyashiv's latest comments about working and the army (R' Elyashiv's No's - No to Nachal Charedi, No to Charedi colleges, No to Charedi job programs ), the Charedi financial situation situation is not going to get any better.
ReplyDeleteRe: R. Elyashiv's letter, while personally I disagree strongly with it, in all fairness I don't think the rav said anything about not earning a parnasa per se. It is possible to make a living (take a job, sell stuff, even open a small business) without entering into a college or job training program. Though again I agree that lack of education and training is a seriously limiting factor. Chaval.
ReplyDeleteModiin Illit has no political connection with Chashmonaim.
ReplyDeleteA resident of Beitar told me that the government pays the iriyah to make up the shortfall when the avreichim get 90% arnona discount... (ie, the burden yet again falls on the same hard-working taxpayers).
ReplyDeleteThe iriyah gets the money anyway, so they don't care how many people get the discount, it doesn't affect their income.
rw - so then why cant a haredi-only survive, according to Yishai and Krispel? how many people get discounts is irrelevant according to what you say.
ReplyDeleteModiin Ilite has "ganei Modiin Ilite", where apparently most work and pay full arnona. They don't get from Chasmonaim.
ReplyDeleterw comment is quite interesting. You would think that the secular media would jump all over it!
Yitz:
ReplyDeleteGanei Modiin is maybe a few hundred families, and most of them are not very well off (as opposed to Chashmonaim, b'li ayin hara, which I believe is more upper middle-class). Modiin Illit is over 4000 families, so I don't think that Ganei Modiin is supporting them.
You people are missing the major difference. Over the line. A hareidi town can survive over the green line because of all the subsidies flowing there on account of its location. Not so with RBS.
ReplyDeleteBut it's not like they don't have problems. As I understand it, Modiin Ilit is, like many hareidi areas, overbuilt for the original infrastructure.
Even the HAREDIM admit that they don't pay taxes. This is new development - usually the official response to statements of haredim not paying taxes is "yes we do - this is more incitement against us."
ReplyDeleteNow why would any city in their RIGHT MIND want to invite in large numbers of non-taxpayers who demand services??? And what incentive does Mayor Aboutbul have to keep taxes low if his voters don't pay them????
I submit that if other cities are smart, they will look at what happened in Beit Shemesh and do EVERYTHING they can to avoid building haredi neighborhoods in their cities. Why shouldn't they ??
PS If they charge 'anti-haredi incitement' the other cities can simply quote Minister Eli Yishai
wow. this admission by Eli Yishai and that mayor Krispel is amazing. I was in a shul once not too long ago and the doresh spoke about "the numbers". He was talking about to common accusation of charedim not working.
ReplyDeleteHe said he would go through the numbers, which by themselves prove how stupid the accusation is. They prove it because the continued charedi existence doesnt make sense unless you believe these numbers. He went on to make up a bunch of numbers, claiming the percent of working charedim is much higher than reported (I do not remember his numbers). After all, how could so many people survive on so little? They must be working!
he then extrapolated that to how much taxs and arnona they pay.
Of course his numbers were based on nothing. he made them up. His point was well made and very logical. Except for the fact that Eli Yishai and the mayor of Elad surely know more accurate numbers than the esteemed doresh or anybody else. It turns out 80% do not work and do not pay taxes.