One year ago, a group of wealthy chareidi Americans led by
Agudas Yisroel of America Chairman Rabbi Shmuel Bloom arrived
in Eretz Yisroel. They met with numerous figures, but their
most important meetings took place in the homes of gedolei
Yisroel.
"We asked the rabbonim what we could do here in Eretz Yisroel
to help the chareidi public," recounts Rabbi Bloom. The goal
was to recreate the working methods of chareidi activists in
the US, where they maintain public lobbies.
"After presenting a range of options, gedolei haTorah
told us they encounter tough legal problems when it comes to
chareidi matters. Everything that comes to court is sentenced
to immediate and sweeping failure." It was decided to set up
a professional legal organization to fight legal battles over
chareidi issues that come to court. Thus Betzedek was
founded.
The director of the organization is a young, energetic lawyer
named Rabbi Mordechai Green. During the course of the past
year, Attorney Green has shown he is not afraid to wage
battles in court. He has posted numerous achievements, most
notably in the area of having various non-government
organizations officially recognized for budgeting purposes.
According to Rabbi Moshe Gafni, in fighting legal battles
Betzedek employs the same legal methods used up until now
against the chareidi sector.
This year, the same delegation returned to Eretz Yisroel to
take part in Betzedek's first conference. "After having
succeeded on the first issue," said Rabbi Bloom, "we decided
to set up a financial organization to complement Betzedek,
helping through these same men of means to find and create
sources of employment for the chareidi public, assistance
with the housing crisis and searching for ways to extract the
chareidi public from its economic crisis." Once again they
went to visit maranan verabonon to receive
brochos.
Two of the delegates, Rabbi Abish Brodt, known in the US as a
businessman and activist and for his singing, and his son-in-
law Rabbi Ika Rosenbaum, came to contribute their experience.
Both of them had invested in Israel previously, setting up a
Citibook branch in Modi'in Illit. The company employs dozens
of women who sit at phones providing information. The two
have been running a similar setup in the US for six years.
The Modi'in Illit branch has been in operation for one
year.
"We came to Modi'in Illit Council Chairman Rabbi Yaakov
Guterman after he contacted us to propose we set it up in his
city," says Rosenbaum. "He was prepared to take action right
away and he even offered the [temporary] use of his offices.
We are very pleased with the work and hope others will set up
places of employment for the wives of avreichim."
In the final meeting of the group in Israel, he presented the
matter to all of the participants. "After all the
proclamations, action must be taken to assist in practice. We
can contribute our experience."
American Chareidim Take Over the Jerusalem City
Council
The balcony of the Jerusalem Municipality at Safra Square was
specially decorated last week. On this balcony, with its
breathtaking view of the city in all four directions, Mayor
Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky receives the most distinguished
delegations.
Last week, Mayor Lupoliansky hosted the Betzedek delegation
on this balcony. A violin-clarinet duet played and the Mayor,
who hosted the delegation throughout its stay in the country,
went out of his way to make their visit as pleasant as
possible.
The organizers of the visit adopted a practice of New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who poses for a picture with
his visitors upon their arrival for a meeting and hands them
the photograph with his autograph as they leave. Thus the
delegates were photographed with Mayor Lupoliansky and given
the picture along with individual gifts at the end of the
visit.
The delegates were invited to the city council's plenum hall,
the most attractive in the country. Like the rest of the
building, the hall was built at Teddy Kollek's initiative,
but Kollek never set foot inside. A few days after its
completion, he lost an election to Ehud Olmert. Rabbi
Lupoliansky took over after Olmert moved on to national
office.
The delegates sat down in the council members' seats,
listening to the speakers and watching a presentation on
Jerusalem. Kollek would not have believed his eyes had he
seen the American chareidim in the plenum hall.
When Netanyahu took the speakers' podium he noted Jerusalem's
large, concentrated chareidi population and called for
initiatives to start new business to provide them jobs.
"This city has a mayor who is a very formidable negotiator in
the Finance Ministry for the sake of Jerusalem. He just met
with us to obtain aid and funding to encourage the Jewish
population to remain in the city. We honored his requests. I
won't state the amount we recently decided to approve for
him, but you have the ability to assist in this."
Why the Bare Head?
During Binyamin Netanyahu's term as prime minister he made
sure to wear a yarmulke at every religious event he
was invited to and when speaking at conferences at which
chareidi figures took part. In those days, Netanyahu had
several different yarmulkes in his pocket (or glove
compartment), whisking out the right kind at any given event.
If attending a nationalist-religious event he would take out
a knitted kippah, whereas at a chareidi event he would
fish a black kippah out of his pocket.
The participants at the Betzedek conference were puzzled by
Netanyahu's bareheaded appearance. The American guests
recalled Netanyahu during his time as prime minister and
earlier when he served as the Israeli ambassador to the
United Nations. They were sure the finance minister, unlike
previous guests such as Peres and Olmert, would arrive at the
conference with his head covered. When he entered via a side
door he quickly took his seat at the speakers' table. "Why
isn't he wearing a hat?" people whispered. Netanyahu didn't
hear them (or pretended not to hear them).
Later he also failed to please. The guest did not deliver the
goods in his emotionless speech solely on economics,
explaining how he had decided "in an exceptional and
courageous step" to cut the allowances and encourage the
chareidi sector to go out to work. (That there is no work is
apparently not significant.)
Rabbi Bloom asked Netanyahu to offer the guests
recommendations on how to invest in Eretz Yisroel and how to
help the chareidi sector.
The finance minister recalled how a year and a half ago, when
a group of European investors insisted he make
recommendations for investing in Israel, he told them to put
their money in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. They snickered at
the idea but that same year the Israeli stock market shot up
to new records. "I do not intend to make specific
recommendations once again," said Netanyahu, speaking only in
general terms. He suggested the delegates work to create
sources of employment and training to assist chareidim who
elect to enter the job market.
He then began to explain how cutting allowances prevented
economic collapse and spoke in detail about his war against
monopolies and his insistence on nationalizing government
companies to create competition in the market, thereby
stimulating growth. But all this was just an introduction.
Meeting the Dead
"I would like to present you with an interesting figure,"
continued Netanyahu. "The primary indication of poverty is
the number of people employed in the family. If two people,
the father and the mother, work the chances of poverty in the
family are 2 percent. If neither works the chances rise to 70
percent. If one works the chances are in the middle, 35
percent."
Netanyahu's theory on why economic problems struck the
country were interesting to hear, since for the first time he
pointed toward Russian immigration. "The number of welfare
recipients rose constantly. The population grew by 30 percent
because of immigration from the former Soviet Union and the
number of stipend recipients rose by 600 percent, twenty
times the population rise. This was one of the things that
caused the collapse.
"We had anticipated that if welfare was given at such a
level, one would hope poverty would decrease. Yet precisely
the opposite took place. The receipt of allowances did not
lessen the inequality in the population. These allowances
foster poverty and guarantee its continued existence for
generation after generation, in all sectors, whether chareidi
or not. This continues and gets passed on from one generation
to the next. There is no alternative."
The finance minister noted the main tool with which to
extract people from the cycle of poverty is the creation of
work, which must be accomplished through the private sector.
"The government's role is to provide a good environment to
allow private entrepreneurs to invest and generate profits.
During the past 12 months, 91,000 Israelis have joined the
job market, most of them in jobs replacing foreign
workers."
The listeners were doubtful. The audience included several
activists from Israel and when their turn came to ask
questions one said both he and his wife work, but only the
allowances made it possible for them to get through the
month. Another told Netanyahu, "Instead of encouraging
population growth in Eretz Yisroel from within, you promoted
external immigration, the majority of which is not
Jewish."
The finance minister replied that if a household with two
breadwinners faces poverty, a program should be created to
look into the possibility of tax benefits, income
assessments, etc. to assist such families to make ends
meet.
"And what in the meantime?" Netanyahu was asked repeatedly.
"While you are arranging these benefits, people are dying of
poverty."
"I don't know of any people who died!" retorted Netanyahu.
"I'd be very interested to meet them." (He did not say if he
would go to the cemetery or expected them in his office.)
Slipping out the Side Door
Behind the scenes of the Betzedek economic conference, a
debate went on at length over just what the finance minister
said regarding the status of yeshiva students. Had he totally
changed his stripes and adopted the stance of his government
colleagues from Shinui or was he speaking only about those
who had decided to enter the job market?
His speech, delivered in English, left room for certain
ambiguities that worked to his advantage. The next day's
headlines dealt exclusively with his remarks about cuts in
allowances. But there's no smoke without fire. When he said
yeshiva funding was cut by just 25 percent, his listeners
went up in arms.
"These figures are unfounded," Betzedek Director Attorney
Rabbi Mordechai Green told the finance minister,
demonstrating the cuts were actually far steeper.
At first Netanyahu announced he would speak briefly since he
was feeling under the weather. Though the speech was short,
the questions and responses lasted longer than the finance
minister expected and reflected disappointment in him and his
policies. It was hard to believe he had once been considered
a friend of the chareidi sector, which had supported him in
his race for prime minister when many others turned their
backs on him.
As soon as he had finished speaking, several of the
participants still gathered around to shake his hand. Some
asked him to solve various problems related to the yeshiva
budgets. Netanyahu mentioned the names of his assistants,
saying, "They will listen and try to help." He shook his way
free, rushed out the side door through which he had entered
and vanished from sight.
"I really don't know why we had to go up to him at the end if
he talked like that," one of the participants said.
