Haredim Must Take the First Step Towards Participation in Civic Life

A few weeks ago, I attended an election-related event in Petach Tikva. It was a mixed gathering including haredi, religious-Zionist, and secular participants. At the end of the evening, a middle-aged religious-Zionist man approached me and asked whether he might “unload” (lifrok). I said I was there to listen.

He had spent hundreds of days on reserve duty, he explained, and had developed what he called a “dark patch” in his heart concerning haredi society. His resentment had become so bitter that he used the word hate—though he felt terrible guilty for it. Before leaving, he thanked me for offering a ray of hope.

A man who had overheard us said he felt much the same. For nearly two years, he had been unable to bring himself to join a predominately haredi outdoor minyan, originally established during the coronavirus pandemic. A third described an estrangement from his wife’s haredi extended family; even the children refused to attend family occasions. Nor was a conversation with a secular acquaintance from Tel Aviv more encouraging. “My friends and I have resigned ourselves to the fact that our grandchildren will not live here,” he told me. “We are buying houses abroad.”