Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

Last Thursday the Reut team toured Mea Shearim, an Ultra Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem. The trip marked the culmination of a year long bi-weekly seminar on Jewish Identity and leadership guided by CLI and funded by the Schusterman Foundation.

We were exposed to the transformations undergoing in the sector’s labor market. We visited “Daat”, a college for young Charedi women which focuses on broadening their scope of potential professions, allowing them to move away from traditional occupations like teaching to computer science and accounting.

“Daat” is an important step towards the better integration of the Ultra Orthodox in the Israeli modern economy and can serve to unlock the sector’s huge potential in human capital, a crucial component for socio-economic leapfrogging.

According to the College’s manager, its primary goal is to tackle unemployment that hinders women from fulfilling their role as the family’s bread winner and allowing men to study torah.

If indeed this mindset represents the prevailing perceptions among Ultra Orthodox women, then active labor market policies seeking to reach out to those women should not only adapt to their special needs but should also adapt a language that addresses their true motivations.

Related posts:

The Charedi Challenge to Israel’s Prosperity

The Charedi Challenge: Adaptive not Technical

The Charedi Challenge: Policy Recommendation

Modern Jewish Identity in Israel