The emergence of Chareidi-lite

The recent events in Beit Shemesh are noteworthy for several reasons. First of all, they showed emergent faultiness between the religious and nonreligious and the movement of the national religious public into the chiloni community. Secondly, they demonstrate that despite its great power, this Chareidi community in Israel remains vulnerable and besieged. Third, it brings to for the the inevitable coming separation within that Chareidi community itself, between the chareidim "as we used to know them" and  what I call Chareidi-lite.

In America, we know Chareidi-light very well. These are people who dress in black but maintain an ongoing engagement with modernity. They work in secular occupations, their children read English books and they are familiar with and take pride in knowing and being within the mainstream of American society. This is a group that has been growing within the Israeli Chareidi community as well in the recent years. Due to the changing socieconomics, more and more former Kollel men have transitioned into various occupations, have gone through various Chareidi training programs, or simply has wives or children who obtained secular degrees. The not insubstantial Anglo community is also a part of this group as are many chareidi immigrants from other countries. In their own countries, they were Chareidim but here, in Israel, they are Chareidi-lite. They are absorbed and indistinct within the Chareidi communities. Their voices are stifled and their are abilities are not yet known.

What is interesting about the current imbroglio is that for the first time we are hearing the voices of this large and growing contingent. Whereas in the past the community monolithically closed around its members under attack, in the past two weeks we heard many voices that explicitly draw a line of separation between themselves and the so-called extremists. What this heralds is the emergence of a new community, whose name is not yet known. I call it Chareidi-light.

It was as inevitable as it was to be expected. Historical precedent teaches us that all movements divide into four groups:those on the far right, those on the far left and the two near the center, one on the right and one on the left, and they struggle over the center.

So it was from the beginning. When Aguda started, it contained two wings: the wing that shared some of their assumptions and the worldview of MIzrachi and the wing that was more isolationinst, headed by Issac Breuer and Nathan Birnbaum respectively. To its left was the world Mizrachi movement and on its right, were the rejectionists, who rejected any cooperation on engagement with the Zionists or the nonreligious. To its credit, Aguda managed to contain both wings within iself for many decades, although it did lose the Poalei Agudas Yisroel on its left wing. As Aguda had become irrelevant as a political or an ideological movement, the two wings began again to be identified under one banner of Chareidism. This situation could not last and what we are witnessing now is the separation of the two.

This Chareidi world will fracture. One group will be people who reject engagement with modernity, have long beards and long black coats, payos, Yiddish, be poor and who assume geographic and cultural isolation. The other one will consist of people with small beards, fashionable black garments, good Hebrew and English, who value professions and the positive features of the contemporary society and are affluent, and who are much less committed to the authority of Gedolei Torah.

What will this two groups be called? I don't know. Perhaps one will remain known as Chareidim and the other one will adopt a name the denotes both seriousness and flexibility. I do know one thing. It is a wonderful opportunity for the right kind of a Talmid Chacham to emerge as a leader of a popular movement.

 

Comments

[Rabbichaplain.wordpress.com]

Interesting assessment. You might be onto something with the emergence of a stronger American oleh voice among the chareidi community, I recall reading an issue of the Jewish Observer some years ago about the challenges of the American chareidi olim in integrating into the Israeli chareidi society. Some of the challenges included that the Americans were into sports, which the Israeli charedim considered narishkeit. I guess enough have come to Israel to make noise. We will see what the future holds.