Hiddush Poll: 78% of the Jewish Israelis support recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee

78% of the Jewish population of Israel support the recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee dealing with integrating ultra-Orthodox men into the work force, enforcing core curriculum, and limiting funding for yeshivas

20/11/2011 11:40

Tags: Stipends for yeshiva students · core curriculum · workforce · economic impact · polls · protest movement · Trajtenberg Committee

Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg, Chairman of the committee for economical transformation, at the committee’s first meeting at the Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem.23.8.2011. Photograph: Miriam Elstar, Flash 90

78% of the Jewish population of Israel, four out of five respondents, support the recommendations of the Trajtenberg Committee dealing with integrating ultra-Orthodox men into the work force. Only 22% of respondents opposed its recommendations, despite the fierce opposition from ultra-Orthodox political parties. Support from secular Jews stands at 90% and from recent immigrants, 85%. Even amongst religious respondents support for the recommendations stood at two-thirds, 67%. 94% of the ultra-Orthodox were in opposition to the Committee’s proposal.

This data was collected in a poll by the Smith Institute on behalf of Hiddush – Freedom of Religion in Israel. The repondents consisted of a representative 500 person sample of Jewish Israeli adults.

The survey posed the following question: “The Trajtenberg Committee recommended a series of steps toward social justice, including measures to integrate ultra-Orthodox men into the workforce, enforcement of general studies in public ultra-Orthodox schools, and the limit of yeshiva subsidies to give years. Ultra-Orthodox parties fiercely oppose these measures, saying they infringe on ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. Do you think the government should implement these recommendations?”

Voters of the major parties in the coalition show extensive support for implementing the Committee’s recommendations to encourage ultra-Orthodox men into the workforce. 75% of Likud voters are in favor of implementing the recommendations, as are 78% of Yisrael Beiteinu voters. Amongst the secular parties in the opposition, support is nearly 100%: Kadima, 98%, Labor, 97%.

CEO of Hiddush, Rabbi Uri Regev: “The community understands what the organizers of the social protest movement refuse to discuss and what politicians avoid: absense of ultra-Orthodox men from the labor market has become an existential danger to the state of Israel.”

CEO of Hiddush, Rabbi Uri Regev remarks “The community understands what the organizers of the social protest movement refuse to discuss and what politicians avoid: absense of ultra-Orthodox men from the labor market has become an existential danger to the state of Israel.”

In the words of Regev, “The Trajtenberg Committee dared do what many before it did not, and made clear that you cannot bring about large scale economic change without helping the ultra-Orthodox community participate in the labor market. The Committee also made clear that this change cannot happen without the enforcement of core curricular studies in ultra-Orthodox schools, such as math, science and civics, and limiting stipends of yeshiva students. If this means there will be a civil coalition without the participation of the ultra-Orthodox parties, the public will only give its blessing. Any government that does not do what is needed to rescue the economy and society as a whole will be remembered as a government knowingly selling our and our childrens’ future for a short-term governmental victory.”