The Haredim who will vote differently: "If I speak against them, I won't have a job"

The Haredim have already started their campaigns. In Shas, they have displayed pictures of the late spiritual father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. In United Torah Judaism, in all its parts, they are still busy designing the list - but when the work is finished, they will turn to the public in their name and with pictures of the great Torah scholars, the Admorim, and the heads of the yeshivas who will call to vote for 'Gimel'. But in this taboo of only two ballots in the elections, it seems that cracks are beginning to appear, even if they are not large. They are a small population compared to the Haredim who vote for Shas or 'Gimel'. Those who declare themselves that they do not study throughout the day - and are not ashamed of it, or try to hide it. They would like to bring down the walls that the Haredi sector builds - and turn them into corridors of integration adapted to all walks of life in Israel. Beit Shemesh provides a wide spectrum of the Haredi population. It has the anti-Zionist fringes in neighborhoods like Ramat Bet, voters of Shas and 'Gimel', and also modern communities - where the schools belong to the state-Haredi education - part of the Ministry of Education. They are business owners, educated, working - and also do not oppose recruitment to the IDF. Between these and those there is a wide spectrum: Sephardim, Lithuanians, Hasidim - more or less devout. But those who are also engaged in community cultivation of employment and other activities, and not just in yeshiva or kollel studies - even at an older age.

"If I check what they did for me - the answer is nothing"

"They didn't help us," says an elderly woman in Hasidic clothing who refuses to be photographed when asked about United Torah Judaism. "The public is not just those who study. They neglected the youth who don't study. The young people who are not avrechim and want to work, they have no representation, they have no answer. They put obstacles in their way. They sit at home and tremble with fear at every knock on the door that maybe it's the military police. Instead of helping them find their place in society or creating service frameworks for them that would reassure us as Haredi parents."

And then comes a young man dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and a black kippah on his head. Not exactly the type of a yeshiva student, but it is evident that he lives the Haredi world, even if he left the Beit Midrash. "If I speak against them, I won't have a job," he says. By profession, he is a maintenance man who works, among other things, in educational institutions of the Haredi factions. "If I get photographed tomorrow, they stop working with me. Without a name, I can say - if I check what they did for me, the answer is nothing," he concludes.

Chairman of Degel HaTorah Moshe Gafni said in the past in an interview with the Haredi newspaper Mishpacha: "I represent those who study Torah, period. I don't relate to any other detail... I was sent to protect and guard those who study Torah." Also, Chairman of Agudat Yisrael Goldknopf mentioned a similar message when he announced: "I don't represent those who don't study Torah." Meir Porush also expressed himself in a similar way.

In Shas, they do turn these days to the public on the fringe, and some of their children serve in the army and some in yeshivas, but in the Knesset, they focused on laws that would exempt from service.

Eliyahu Glanzberg, a resident of Petah Tikva, came to Beit Shemesh to be interested in a new thing: the launch of the Haredi Public party, which was founded by the Deputy Mayor of Beit Shemesh, Moti Leitner. In the launch area, it is easier to find the "modern Haredim", a concept that Glanzberg does not necessarily connect to. "A Haredi who works, is considered modern? I don't know. A Haredi in every respect, and works," says Glanzberg, a computer scientist by profession. "I am looking for new alternatives. I think that especially in the last term, it seems that the Haredi parties did not serve the needs of the Haredi public. One can define it even in some place, they did a lot of desecration of God's name, especially in dealing with the war on the military issue. A few more MKs, their behavior is not exactly of Torah and work. The question is what they do in the end for the public that is not mainstream. They need to sanctify God's name, but they didn't do it. They clung to the horns of the altar to pass the recruitment law - and we see where we reached."

"They can turn to all the publics in Israel in order to receive their vote. The question is what happens after the elections. After the elections, for the sake of the matter, even before October 7, we arrived following the recruitment law. And then came the judicial reform and all the protests. The Haredi parties should have understood that it is not going to a good place and it is dividing the people, and take the responsibility expected of them as Jewish people who keep Torah and commandments. They need to sanctify God's name. They didn't do it, they clung to the horns of the altar to pass the recruitment law, and we see where we reached."

"By and large," concludes Glanzberg, "I can say that my opinion is that the Haredi parties are a wrong thing. People who entered Gaza (the soldiers) sanctified Judaism there and kept it. This is not a thing that belongs to me or anyone else with some hat. This is a general responsibility - also secular, also traditional, and also Haredi to keep Judaism. In some place today, the Haredi parties are not built in a way that sanctifies God's name and keeps Judaism. This party - the Haredi Public - is painted like that in the name, but in my opinion, it comes to voice a different statement."

Yossi Stark, a veteran activist in Beit Shemesh for the benefit of state-Haredi education and encouraging employment among Hasidim, looks like a possible voter of Agudat Yisrael. He is dressed as a Hasid, but is looking for other options. "When I needed a synagogue a few years ago, I had to go to the Haredi parties, stand last in line and ask for a synagogue that is not Hasidic or not Lithuanian connected or not Sephardic. Now I have a representative in Beit Shemesh who proved himself in the last two years, who can take care of me and all my friends and thousands of people," he explains. "Now not only am I looking for another house, I have one. I already saw his attempt (of Chairman Leitner), he already gained experience. I saw with my own eyes how the person really delivers the goods. These are people who are looking for education a bit different, more quality, state education sometimes, but not only. There are people who don't want state-Haredi schools and all that. To every resident who turns to him, he answers. He represents the public and needs to take care of everyone. I send my children to a state-Haredi school, and I saw a video of Gafni saying that if Bibi dares to allow a state-Haredi school in Bnei Brak, he will bring down the coalition. So how do you want Gafni to represent me?"

"They take care of the yeshivas. For those who don't manage, there is no answer"

Leitner's father, Shmuel, who came to support his son, says that this change should have happened a long time ago. "They don't provide an answer to the variety of the mosaic that exists in the Haredi public. There is no answer for many, many young people and entire communities who don't find themselves. They created the Haredi system, it's very good, they did it as a narrow framework. Whoever doesn't find himself in that framework, finds himself outside the communities, the institutions, and it hurts the heart," he says. "There are thousands of Haredi young people who today wander the streets of Tel Aviv, in San Francisco, and in all kinds of places in the world. And the Haredi representatives don't provide an answer. They really take care of those yeshiva students, try to help them, but those who cannot study - and many of those who don't manage - they have no answer. Not in vocational studies, and not even in holy studies. Whoever cannot adapt himself to that framework they created, finds himself outside."

According to him, "thousands of our youth have no answer. Not in Torah study and not in vocational studies. In nothing. Actually, many young people, even close to me, are rolling in the streets of cities all over the world. The Haredi Public party comes to give an answer to this, to take care of all the 12 tribes that make up Judaism."

The old Haredi parties are challenged by Leitner's party, which is trying to integrate into one of the existing factions. Also, the "HaKahal" party registered thousands of Haredim who held primaries. And to them, the Achi party joins - which turns to the traditional public. Will they really succeed in changing the existing frameworks, or will the rabbis win again? The answers - after October 27.