Avishai Ben Chaim, Channel 10's jounralist responsible for reporting on the Haredi community, has put together this report on the staggering numbers of Haredim "leaving the fold" and considers it a great threat to the Haredi community.
I haven't had time yet to watch the entire thing, but one interesting statement made is that Haredim are birthing more secular children than secular parents are.
another interesting statement is later in the video when talking about the issue of technology, someone says that when the haredim talk about the threat of smartphones, they talk about pornp... nobody goes off the derech because of porno. haredim and chiklonim can watch porno just the same. people go off because of Wikipedia and Facebook...
It is knowledge that is the biggest threat..
and even Yosef Mizrachi makes an appearance, though when he says something I don't think it can be believed...
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
Yes, pr0n is bad for all and certainly can harm the Haredi family, but so is Facebook and Whatsapp. A Haredi business owner I know recently had to put a top employee on leave for several weeks because he was spending too much time on his phone. He's back, but the issue still exists albeit at a lower level.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's not the knowledge that is a threat but rather the freedom to explore. As Haredi/religious Jews, we are told that the Jewish world is our realm to explore. IMO, it's a pretty cool world, but frankly, the rest of the world is indeed 'cooler' and so very interesting to explore, physically and also in ideas. That is the risk.
as always, great comment. thanks for that point
ReplyDeleteRe the claim that "Haredim are birthing more secular children than secular parents are":
ReplyDeleteAccording to the very same piece, one in ten is "going off". So even if we say the average haredi family has 10 kids(they don't), so one becomes hiloni. The birth rate among hilonim is over 2. Hmmm... I guess they really must have grown up haredi if they don't know that 2 is more than 1.