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One of the most visible—and one of the most unexpected—trends in the Jewish world in recent years has been the growth of Charedi Judaism, that is, of what is often described as “Ultra Orthodox Judaism”, by Jews who practise the most stringent forms of Orthodox Judaism to the letter, live in what might be termed closed communities, dress distinctively, and as far as possible isolate themselves from the outside world and its secular trends. (The term “Charedi”, meaning God-fearing, will generally be used here, and occasionally “Strictly Orthodox”, as neutral terms. The term “Ultra Orthodox” will not be used.)
This essay appeared in our January 2023 edition.
Subscribers read it more than a year ago
The growth of the Charedi community since the Second World War has been truly extraordinary. In 1939, on the eve of the Holocaust, there were probably no more than a million to one and a half million Charedi Jews in the world, generally in the rural parts of Poland, Hungary and Romania, although also in heavily Jewish cities and towns in these areas. In the Western world, with exceptions, Jews were not strictly observant, did not dress distinctively, or, as a rule, attend separate Jewish schools or practise those customs which mark the Charedim as distinctive; indeed, in the Western world, the aim of most Jews was to blend in and be assimilated within a generation or two, becoming equal citizens who fully participated in public life, without losing their Jewish religion and traditions. In the Soviet Union, any evidence of Jewish religiosity was vigorously suppressed. Before 1939, there were virtually no Charedi rabbis in New York or other cities in the West with large Jewish populations, and no more than skeletal Charedi communities. The situation in Palestine was similar, with many pioneers of Zionism being almost entirely secular.
The Holocaust saw the destruction of nearly all of the centres of Charedi life in Central and Eastern Europe. Although accurate figures are scarce, it has been estimated that there were only about 25,000 to 35,000 Charedi Jews in Israel when it became independent in 1948, many of whom were recently arrived Holocaust survivors from Europe. David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, exempted yeshivah students (male students at Charedi religious schools) from military service because there were so few left. In 1945, their numbers in New York were almost certainly no larger, and they were virtually non-existent elsewhere. Many observers would have assumed that Charedi Jews were a relic of pre-modern culture, and the few survivors would inevitably disappear through assimilation within a few decades.
But precisely the opposite has happened, and in the most emphatic way imaginable. There are now about 1.8 million Charedi Jews in the world: an estimated 1,175,000 in Israel, and around 600,000 or so elsewhere, especially in New York City and its suburbs. Through early marriages, large families, and little or no intermarriage or “dropouts”, their growth rate is so rapid that demographers expect their numbers to double every sixteen years. In Israel, their numbers are expected to total 2.6 million by 2030, and reach 6.2 million by 2064—only forty-one years from today—to comprise 40 per cent of Israel’s Jewish population.
The growth of Charedi numbers in Israel is remarkable, but not inexplicable in an explicitly Jewish nation in which the Charedi receive special benefits, such as exemption from military service. My principal aim here is to focus on Charedi Judaism elsewhere, especially in the United States, and attempt to account for its extraordinary growth there, which has been unaided by government help or benefits. If one wants to gain an insight into just how vast has been the growth in their numbers, I recommend viewing, on YouTube, the funeral procession of Rabbi Yisroel Avraham Portugal, known as the “Skulener Rebbe”, which took place in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in 2019. Portugal (1923–2019) was an eminent rabbinical scholar and leader who survived the Holocaust and re-established his movement in New York. An estimated 100,000 persons attended his funeral procession, apparently the largest Jewish funeral ever known in the United States. Watch “Largest Jewish Funeral in American History—Levaya [funeral] of Skulener Rebbe” below.
The streets of this heavily Jewish neighbourhood in New York were lined by a crowd of endless size—such as one might expect to find at the MCG on Grand Final day, if it offered free admission and free beer—composed exclusively of adult Charedi men in their distinctive dress; no women or boys under thirteen were present, which means that the crowd represented only 40 per cent or so of its potential size. Had a rebbe of similar eminence died in Brooklyn in 1950, or even in 1975, the crowd at his funeral would have been only a small fraction of the size which the growth of Charedi Judaism has brought about.
Most American Charedim live in New York, especially in three non-contiguous neighbourhoods in Brooklyn, and in several newly established communities in suburban New York and New Jersey. Although they practise a severe and strict form of Judaism, and attempt to be entirely closed to negative outside influences of any kind, it is important to note that they do this, successfully, in New York, probably the world’s media, publishing and higher learning capital, not in some distant rural backwater where fundamentalism is the rule, and in the midst of a very large Jewish community which is notable for its left-liberalism in politics and non-orthodoxy in religion.
To accomplish this they maintain an ever-growing private school system, and strictly forbid unmonitored television, the internet, or unacceptable publications of any kind, as well as literally any contact between men and women outside of married family relationships. Teaching in their schools includes only a minimum of non-religious subjects for boys, whose instruction centres almost wholly around the full-time study of traditional Jewish texts in Hebrew, the Torah, the Talmud, and rabbinical commentators. (Girls have a more secular-oriented education, entirely separate from boys.) The traditional role of women is clearly vital to the great success of the movement. Girls generally marry as teenagers, and then have, by today’s standards, very large families.
So far as possible, no nexus is allowed with the non-Charedi world, either Jewish or gentile. One online clip which makes this strikingly clear is “Walking Hasidic Jewish Community of Williamsburg Brooklyn During Hanukkah 2020”, filmed by “Action Kid”. (Hanukkah is a week-long Jewish holiday, held in 2020 in late November and early December.) “Action Kid” is a young man who walks through various neighbourhoods in New York, recording what he sees on continuous videos. This video is thirty-two minutes long. One commentator noted “119 baby strollers in 32 minutes”, having counted all of them. Despite living in ultra-liberal New York, Charedi women are apparently happy to live a lifestyle diametrically opposed to that of secular New Yorkers; indeed, in complete contrast with the lifestyle and orientation of non-Charedi Jews in New York and elsewhere, with their central role in art and culture, including the avant-garde, and immersion in left-liberal politics.
Rather than hiding in anonymity, or dwelling in some remote community unvisited by outsiders, Charedi Jews are among the most visible and distinctive component of New York’s population. Men wear unique and highly distinctive clothing. Most speak Yiddish, the language of East European Jews before the Holocaust, rather than English or even Hebrew, the language of today’s Israel (to which it is linguistically unrelated, although both are written in Hebrew letters). They live in distinct, ghetto-like areas, in particular in Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park in Brooklyn, and in offspring communities near New York City.
All this raises two interesting questions. How on earth, and why, has this massive growth occurred, at a time of rampant secularisation and greatly increased irreligion throughout the Western world? And, are the Charedim unique, or is it possible to imagine their success being duplicated by other groups in the Western world, even in Australia? It is not easy to give a cogent answer to the first question, and I am not familiar with any compelling sociological theories which explain their success. The Charedim do not have a single acknowledged grand ruler like the Pope, but dozens of rebbes (as they are known), heads of separate strands within Strict Orthodoxy, whose leadership of their movements is often hereditary. The Jewish sense of “chosenness” certainly enhances the attraction of these movements to young men looking for a direction and purpose in life. Once they enter Charedi Judaism, they join a tightly-knit world with only internal references and linkages, where very large families—the average Charedi couple has seven children—are the rule, and whose own children are also wholly immersed in this world from birth, marry young, and then have their own large families.
The existence of the State of Israel, with its state-sponsored support for the Charedim, and its miraculous rebirth and continuing existence despite its many enemies, seemingly evidence of divine guidance, further validates the movement. Most Charedi communities and activities before the Holocaust were found in rural and semi-rural parts of Eastern and Central Europe, possibly because the strength of anti-Semitism prevented the full acceptance of Jews in urban areas and in the full civic life of their countries. In contrast, today’s Charedi communities are to be found in the most sophisticated urban areas. The decline of anti-Semitism makes it possible for them to appear utterly different and distinctive from the rest of the population without arousing hostility and to live their separate lifestyles in full view. Yet, even taken together, these do not fully explain the extraordinary success of the Charedim, especially as many are entirely cut off from all other aspects of contemporary life—the media, entertainment, sport, teenage coming-of-age patterns—which the rest of the population takes for granted and would not readily give up.
The second question, whether other religious-based groups and movements in the West might duplicate their success, at a time of the endemic decline in religious belief and attendance at religious services, is even more difficult to answer. In 2016, 40 per cent of the Australian population claimed to have “no religion”, “secular beliefs”, or gave “religion not stated” as their response to the census question on religion. In the UK, a 2018 British Social Attitudes survey on religion, based on a random sample of 3879 adults, found that 52 per cent claimed to have “no religion”, and 38 per cent stated that they were “Christians”. In 2014 weekly attendance at Church of England services dropped below one million for the first time.
There are a number of parallels to the Charedim, at least in the United States, which might suggest that it is possible for other religious groups to enjoy similar success. Most interesting are the Amish, the German-origin Protestants, mainly in Pennsylvania, who also dress distinctively and are best known for eschewing automobiles, radio, television and the internet. The parallels between the two groups are so striking that the uninformed sometimes assume there is a linkage of some kind between them: of course, there is none, apart from a common origin in pre-modern Central and Eastern Europe. Strikingly, as with the Charedim, the number of Amish has grown significantly in recent decades, from an estimated 128,150 in 1992 to 350,665 in 2020, and from the same causes: very high birth rates and very low loss rates via “dropouts”.
Other small endogenous Western groups may also have experienced similar recent growth. However, it seems clear that they are exceptions to a general rule of religious decline in the West. It may, however, be that a deliberate, concerted effort by a charismatic leader or leaders, producing a large number of permanent followers who withdraw comprehensively from many of the accepted dimensions of established society, may be able to negate the general rule of religious decline. The already existing religions may also experience a growth, as apparently happened in the 1950s. It will be interesting to see if anything of this kind occurs. Stranger things have happened.
William D. Rubinstein held chairs of history at Deakin University and at the University of Wales
Thank you Prof. Rubinstein for raising the important topic of the political implications of fecundity. At least for Caucasian populations it seems that adherence to a traditional religion which extols motherhood and reviles materialism is required in order for women to rear large families in the presentday environment. It is the children of these women who stand to inherit the Earth.
.
The increase in the Amish is particularly notable. Are they suffering so few dropouts compared to forty years ago because the contrast between their ordered community life and what’s available on the outside has grown so dramatically?
David Isaac
Can’t agree with you. “children of these women stand to inherit the Earth”. You don’t need to pump out children and closet them in ignorance. It is their choice. Achievers are much more likely to inherit the future and need access to information and technology. Still it is pleasant to have you discuss Jews without weird assertions bordering on antisemitism.
Hi Sindri.
Thanks, I guess. I’m not sure where I’m supposed to have said what you said I said though. I stand by my assertions which had nothing to do with ignorance and everything to do with tradition, a positive view of motherhood throughout childrens’ lives and a rejection of materialism. Not all women in such a community will want or be blessed with children but unless constrained by external pressures the children of those who do and are will over a century or so predominate. A doubling time of 16 years implies a 64-fold increase in that time period. This will happen whether or not you think it’s a good thing, unless you plan to somehow do something to stop it?
Are we forgetting the population growth ideas as set out by Thomas Malthus, which formed an important basis of Charles Darwin’s theories? Viewing the world sociobiologically, it is obvious that the human species on this planet are found to be in plague proportions, but let’s not think about that.
Sure but within the North American continent or Australia or Europe for that matter there is plenty of room for such traditional, cohesive communities, including Muslims to expand and replace demoralised, liberalised legacy Americans, Australians or Europeans. In Australia they would be competing with the ongoing influx of Chinese and Hindus and the increasing influx of Africans, allowed by short-sighted or actually treacherous politicians.
Predicting the future is always a risky business and predictions of social disaster based on demography may come true, or they may not. What is plainly evident, however, is the superior fecundity of “faith communities” (horrible expression but I can’t think of a better one), whether Mormon or Muslim, Amish or Charedi. The consequences of that for our society could be serious and profound.
It says a lot about religious faith, for those who want to listen.
Not anticipating the foreseeable cosequences of soft-headed policies is riskier.
“It is the children of these women who stand to inherit the Earth.” and the national debt.
Really interesting article and raises fascinating questions. The Mormons are another example of ‘compulsory religious community’ that is growing quickly but is of course much more open to the world than either the Charedim or the Amish. Nonetheless, they are notable for their specific and reasonably strict requirements that somehow make their adherents by and large enjoy being part of them. It is the joy of community and belonging that no secularity can ever give, but comes at the price of some level of control, which in the case of the Amish and Charidim is very high. This is mirrored in many forms of Islam. But few can tolerate this kind of control if not born into it. Admittedly some homeless Westerners buy into it, particularly young women in the case of Islam.
BTW
– When working briefly in Israel I was surprised how disliked the Charedim were by other Jews.
– having lived in Indiana where there is a large Amish community in Shipshewana I can tell you the Amish are not just in Pennsylvannia. Ohio and Indiana are also large and they have moved to other areas as well.
“When working briefly in Israel I was surprised how disliked the Charedim were by other Jews.”
Reminds me of the joke I once read, something like; ‘30% of Jews worked and paid tax, 30% serve in the army, 30% participate in daily life, problem is it’s the same third.’
One of my sons travelling in Israel was disgusted by the tendency of local Charedim to spit upon Christian sites (and Christians). There doesn’t seem much in it for women. It was only the coming of Christ that changed their lowly status.
Though I can understand the sanity-saving aspects of a deliberate detachment from mass media, entertainment & sport etc., and from certain contemporary sociocultural rituals, it can isolate people from reality and from your neighbours. Lock the world out and you lock yourself in.
Christianity is characterised by faith, hope & charity: an outward-looking, rather than navel-gazing attitude, and this is why it dominated the West. It is not dead yet – some of us have quite a few children!
There are large divergences occurring within many religions. Either modernise or go back to some form of fundamentalism. The most obvious example is Islam – as is happening in Australia.
www(dot)islamicbeliefsinaustralia.wordpress.com/
Charedi and Amish are cults. Call them religions if you like but their restrictive intensive conditioning focused on the destruction of individual identity makes them cults. The repression of females and their prime role being breeding stock is a hallmark of cult behaviour.
…oh, and male chauvinism & funny hats too. Didn’t Jesus have a few pertinent remarks about bigger phylacteries and longer side locks? He came to sort all this out, for the Chosen People had well & truly lost the plot.
Well, at least in the case of the Amish, they are a living fossil of eighteenth century German protestantism. Everyone is cloistered, the women perhaps more stringently. It is after all primarily at women that the attack of the cult of modern liberalism is aimed. Any people whose women buy into it and allow it to repress their natural desire to be mothers’ is doomed to shrivel up and die. It is a death cult.
I recently Googled a question. “Which of the western world’s religions boasted the lowest number of believers in a deity (ie God)?”
It was no surprise that Judaism was way ahead. As an American rabbi says: “Christianity is a matter of Faith; Judaism a matter of Tradition.”
Science is progressively hammering and embarrassing faith-based religions. Despite the pogroms, the Holocaust and modern antisemitism, Judaism is flourishing around the world. QED
Dr Peter Arnold OAM, Sydney
What do you mean by “Science is progressively hammering and embarrassing faith-based religions”?
Such an interesting concept, hey?
During COVID, I noticed that a number of atheists began to develop a public religious devotion to “the science”.
Fervent, true believers, they wrote impassioned letters to local rags, declaring both their faith & their keen desire to destroy all those who did not unequivocally share their enthusiasm. Though this stuff was all very shonky, you still get the occasional convert-stragglers giving rear guard support.
As a member of a faith-based religion, I never find myself embarrassed by real science, which merely reveals God’s designs.
Thus the weird science of the human condition.
After seventeen hundred years I would say Christianity is very much also a matter of tradition, albeit one which international socialist subversives and the liberal cult in education, film and publishing has been at deliberate pains to destroy. Judaism is exempt from the abuse handed out to the Church and its adherents by the liberals.
Catholicism is based on Scripture and tradition. We must obey Christ’s imperative to teach all nations, therefore have always engaged deliberately with the world. Even enclosed Catholic orders pray especially for the world and many encourage people to request specific prayers. We are exhorted to pray for our enemies, and reminded of this during Lent. Such engagement always has and always will draw all kinds of attention!
(From William Rubinstein) Thanks for the comments. A few more facts about the extraordinary growth in Charedi Judaism.In my article I noted that in America they are chiefly resident in three areas of Brooklyn, New York. In addition, several notable satellite communities have emerged in recent decades in areas surrounding New York City itself. One such is Kiryas Joel, about forty kms, north of the City in New York state, namesd for Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the founder of the Satmar movement within Charedi Judaism. Its population, which is 99 per cent Charedi, grew from 20,175 in 2000 to 38,998 in 2022, almost all the result of new births. As a result, the average age of residents there is 13.2, the lowest of any municipal area in the US. Another such is Lakewood, New Jersey, on the Atlantic coast about one hundred kms. south of New York City, whose population grew from 60,352 in 2000 to 139,506 in 2022. Lakewood has the second highest birth rate of any legally distinct area in the world, 45 per thousand, behind only the 49 per thousand in the impoverished African republic of Niger. (The rate in Australia as a whole is 11 per thousand.) Although about 75 per cent of American Jews normally vote for the Democratic candidate for President, in 2000 98.5 per cent of Lakewood’s inhabitants voted for Trump, apparently the highest percentage in the entire country. On another topic, one of the major reason for the unquestioned dislike of many Israelis for the Charedim is of course their exemption from military service, especially at the present time. One perhaps point worth noting is that groups in many countries have also been excluded from military service. Until the draft as abolished in the US in 1973, college and university students were exempted from the draft. As a result, none of the four US Presidents who were of military age during the Vietnam War – Clinton, Bush II, Trump, or Biden – served in the military, in Vietnam or anywhere else. In fact, no US President actually served in the Vietnam War, strangely enough. One final point is that there is no left-wing or left-liberal movement or “sect” in Christianity that has experienced anything like the growth of the Charedim, or other conservative/right-wing Western religious groups. Most of these, such as the Uniting Church here, are notable for their enormous loss of members and attenders at their services. There is, in fact, an apparent iron-clad rule that the more a religious group in the West has an ideology derived from the Looney Left, the emptier its pews become. This apparently ubiquitous trend will presumably continue indefinitely unless they change their ways.
The Archbishop of Canterbury comes to mind, who announced a couple of years ago that God regarded offshore processing of asylum seekers as a sin.
Thank YOU, wdr – a most interesting topic. The left mostly deny God, so are empty of all meaning.
Can’t blame other Israelis for resenting the privileged status of Charedim. Maybe it’s time to drop that exemption from the draft – it’s totally unfair, given that there cannot now be any shortage of scholars.
My understanding of the Charedim and similar Jewish groups, is that they do not recognise the modern Israeli state, perceiving its inception to be contrary to the will of God, according to Scripture. They believe, based on Torah, etc, that God punishes his people when they commit sin, and one of the ways is allowing foreign nations to overthrow them and lead them into slavery (Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, etc). Therefore they do not recognise the Biblical legitimacy of the modern state of Israel, and instead faithfully await the coming of the Messiah, who will restore/return them. As per the Scriptures, are they not the only ones who can truely be said to be Jews?
Re Chattle1. Only some smaller and more extreme sects. The issue is ambiguous.
– gave “religion not stated” as their response to the census question on religion.
yes, it’s a voluntary question. And the many, many people who have suffered discrimination for their religion overseas are unlikely to give an answer. Given the number who fled from the old Soviet bloc, they will have no time for atheism.
How are the Charedim funded? At what do they work if they are isolated from all others.?