Politics

High-tech and war are integrating some ultra-Orthodox Jews into Israel's secular society

Published

1 year ago

January 25, 2024

High-tech and war are integrating some ultra-Orthodox Jews into Israel's secular society

TEL AVIV —

Yakob Shoolman spent years studying the Torah, pouring over ancient scripture like many boys in his ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. He lived a sequestered religious life, marrying early and having four children before he was 30.

But these days Shoolman is learning how to code in a high rise with a view of the sea and a copy of a Steve Jobs biography nearby. His faith remains the center of his identity, but, like a number of students from traditional yeshiva schools, Shoolman wants to join this nation’s vibrant technology industry.

His aspirations come at a time when ultra-Orthodox Jews face increasing resentment from a larger, secular society over religious school subsidies and other benefits, including exemption from compulsory military service for Torah students. Those tensions and a move to limit the role of the Supreme Court led to mass street protests last year as far-right nationalist and religious parties became prominent voices in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. Many Israelis regard the power that religious parties wield as a threat to civil rights and the country’s democracy.

Students from ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities learn to code to become programmers and software developers at firms like Citibank and Mobileye.

That concern has been eclipsed somewhat as Israelis have united around the war with Hamas and a small but growing number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredim, have started to push beyond the bounds of centuries-old tradition. They represent a generational shift that may lead to wider integration of religious conservatives into Israeli life and its economy.

“I don’t believe in separation. The gap between the Haredi and the secular is closing,” said Shoolman, 31, a student at JBH, a school that trains Haredi men to become programmers and software developers at firms like Citibank and Mobileye. “In this school, we’re exposed to many different people. It’s important to understand these worlds.”

He added that the war and an increased reliance on technology since COVID have drawn more ultra-Orthodox Jews out of their enclaves. Haredi have attended shivas for those killed by Hamas and 4,000 have volunteered for temporary emergency service in the army since the war began in October.

But moderates and secularists view such limited integration as hardly notable when Netanyahu’s government is increasing spending on Haredi projects. The government coalition’s discretionary spending for yeshiva schools — which teach little science or math — rose from $322 million in 2022 to $456 million in 2023. Hundreds of millions of dollars more have been allocated for cultural, religious and education programs, along with thousands of government funded jobs that benefit the ultra-Orthodox.

Haredim account for about 13% of Israel’s population of more than 9 million, but their average family size of about seven children is a drain on social welfare spending. The Israeli media have reported that poverty and low employment among Haredim could lead to a 16% tax increase on working Israelis and cost the nation’s economy $2 trillion over the next 40 years.

Students from Orthodox Jewish communities take a break in between classes where they learn how to code and program at JBH.

“The Haredim are the cornerstone to the clash of religion and state,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, head of Hiddush, an organization that advocates for religious freedom and equality. “This problem predates Netanyahu. All previous governments bent to the will of the Haredim.”

He added that the ultra-Orthodox, about 45% of whom are poor, “are a great weight and burden on society.”

”

A 2023 survey done by Hiddush before the war found that 70% of Jews in Israel believe the country’s “most acute internal conflict” is between ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews. The study showed that those fault lines were deep when it comes to military and educational issues: 78% opposed a blanket exemption on military service for ultra-Orthodox and 69% of Jews “support complete cancellation or a significant cut in funding” for yeshiva schools. That latter figure jumps to 93% for secular Jews.

Some fear the Haredim and the extreme right Religious Zionist Party could upset the Middle East and further damage prospects for peace with the Palestinans. Best-selling author and scholar Yuval Noah Harari wrote an essay in July in the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper under the headline: “What will happen to Judaism if Israeli democracy is destroyed by supremacist zealots?” He warned of “spiritual destruction” if a “messianic state” arises to persecute “Arabs, secular people, women and LGBTQ people.” What, he asked, “if that state were to embrace a racist ideology of Jewish supremacy?”

Haredim believe that God’s will shapes all destinies and that their devotion protects the state of Israel. They have long lived in segregated neighborhoods like Mea Shearim in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv. Men wearing side curls and black hats walk with sacred books to religious schools while Haredi women are the main breadwinners and child-care providers. Their large families gather on the Sabbath to stroll amid closed shops and quieted tram lines.

This portrait was resonant in the TV series “Shtisel”, about a Haredi father and his artistic son as they confronted nosy neighbors and matchmakers on cloistered streets while navigating the clamor and temptations of an encroaching outside world. The show was widely popular in Israel and provided a common ground that — for less than an hour each night — went beyond suspicions and stereotypes to give secular Jews a glimpse of a world few were intimate with.

Students take a break and play a video game in between classes where they learn how to code and program.

“The other side needs to know that we are Israelis just like everyone else,” said Yitzhak Pindrus, a Knesset member of the ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism, who blamed employers and the army for not doing more to integrate the Haredi. “We have a different culture and different traditions, but you don’t always need to come down on us.”

Computer students like Shoolman, whose wife founded a virtual reality production company, aspire to modern lifestyles and bigger incomes. That desire, however, is considered a threat by religious conservatives who worry such enticements may lead to liberal beliefs around marriage and civil rights — Haredi leaders have long opposed women praying at the Western Wall — and pull the young away from their faith.

“The Haredim are concerned that a person will become his work,” said Aaron Fruchtman, vice president of JBH, which has trained 500 Haredim since 2013, many of whom received government funds and private donations for tuition. “The question is, ‘How do we get a Haredi guy into the Israeli Defense Forces or into high-tech without him losing his religious identity?’ The Haredi idea is first you’re a servant of God, a Torah Jew. But integration in the workforce will break down barriers.”

The early days of Shoolman’s training were difficult. Like most students from yeshiva schools, Shoolman, whose family income is too high to receive public subsidies, knew no English and only a little math. “You’re starting from zero,” he said. “Literally from A,B,C.” He added that since the start of the pandemic, more younger Haredi have turned to technology, using email and rabbi-approved smartphones. His long hours of studying the Torah for years, he said, will help him with the rigors of coding and software.

“We have the ability to sit and learn and be dedicated,” Shoolman said as students played video game tennis on a big screen while others typed on keyboards. “The process of change is speeding up.” He tried to express the contradiction — the navigating of two unreconciled worlds— by joking, “I’m a mainstream, hardcore Haredi.”

The war with Hamas has led other Haredim into the military. Rabbi Ram Moshe Ravad, a Haredi who served for 29 years and retired as a lieutenant colonel and chief rabbi for the Air Force, helped enlist Haredi volunteers for short service after Oct. 7. Most had studied in yeshiva until age 26, which had allowed them military exemptions. Some volunteers went into basic training but many took nonfighting roles like mechanics, cooks and drivers.

“The Haredim are not against the army,” Ravad said. “What’s happened over the years, especially the last few years, is people have been coming out against Haredim. All these [political] movements were saying that Haredim are against the army. So the Haredim avoided serving in the army. Now we’ve come with a different approach. Whoever wants to learn the Torah should learn, and whoever isn’t learning should come [to the army].”

Adult students from Orthodox Jewish communities learn to code and program at JBH.

Chemi Trachtenberg is a 21-year-old Haredi who enlisted three years ago. “It doesn’t matter if you like Bibi [Netanhayu] or not, if you like the Haredim or not,” he recently told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, an international news service. “At the end of the day they [Hamas] want to kill us and we need prayers and weapons.”

The “Israelization” of the younger generation “of Haredim was already well underway when this war began,” Anshel Pfeffer wrote in a November opinion column in Haaretz. “It was only natural that those who were already less committed to cutting themselves off from society would feel shame as they saw hundreds of thousands of men and women their age being called up on the day of the [Hamas] massacre.”

He added: “For now, though, they remain a minority in their community. Aside from praying for Israel’s salvation, most of the Haredi groups have continued life as before.”

Regev, the rabbi, said to suggest the ultra-Orthodox are joining society is “an overly rosy characterization” when so many Haredim don’t have well-rounded educations that would benefit the nation’s economy. “The Haredi’s attitude of spiritual strengthening is anathema to the larger secular society,” he said, adding that the ultra-Orthodox oppose secular marriage, civil rights and using public transportation on the Sabbath. “They rely on the public coffers to perpetuate their own poverty.”

Regev said Israel faces two existential questions: the relationships between religion and state, and between Jews and Arabs. The one between religion and state, he said, often appears irreconcilable as the ultra-Orthodox place the sacred above the temporal even when it comes to immediate threats — from COVID to war — against Israel’s future.

Pindrus, the legislator, disagreed: “Haredim are part of the State of Israel,” he said. “What hurts the State of Israel hurts Haredim. Right now we’re in a period of pain, and we’re all feeling this pain.”

Politics

Senate Republicans eye changes to Trump's megabill after House win

Published

5 hours ago

June 1, 2025

Press Room

Senate Republicans eye changes to Trump's megabill after House win

House Republicans eked out a win in May with their advancement of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” filled with negotiations and compromises on thorny policy issues that barely passed muster in the lower chamber.

Next week, Senate Republicans will get their turn to parse through the colossal package and are eying changes that could be a hard sell for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who can only afford to lose three votes.

INSIDE THE LATE-NIGHT DRAMA THAT LED TO TRUMP’S TAX BILL PASSING BY 1 VOTE

President Donald Trump listens to a question during an event to present law enforcement officers with an award in the Oval Office at the White House on May 19. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Congressional Republicans are in a dead sprint to get the megabill — filled with Trump’s policy desires on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt — onto the president’s desk by early July.

Trump has thrown his support behind the current product, but said during a press conference in the Oval Office on Friday that he expected the package to be “jiggered around a little bit.”

“It’s going to be negotiated with the Senate, with the House, but the end result is it extends the Trump tax cuts,” he said.

“If it doesn’t get approved, you’ll have a 68% tax increase,” the president continued. “You’re going to go up 68%. That’s a number that nobody has ever heard of before. You’ll have a massive tax increase.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has an identical margin to Johnson, and will need to cultivate support from a Senate GOP that wants to put its own fingerprints on the bill.

Senators have signaled they’d like to make changes to a litany of House proposals, including reforms to Medicaid and the timeline for phasing out green energy tax credits, among others, and have grumbled about the hike to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap pushed for by moderate House Republicans.

SCOOP: HOUSE GOP MEMO HIGHLIGHTS REPUBLICAN WINS IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to media at Capitol

Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks during a news conference following the Senate Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on March 11. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Thune said many Republicans are largely in favor of the tax portion of the bill, which seeks to make Trump’s first-term tax policy permanent, and particularly the tax policies that are “stimulative, that are pro-growth, that will create greater growth in the economy.”

Much of the debate, and prospective tweaks, from the upper chamber would likely focus on whether the House’s offering has deep enough spending cuts, he said.

“When it comes to the spending side of the equation, this is a unique moment in time and in history where we have the House and the Senate and the White House and an opportunity to do something meaningful about controlled government spending,” Thune said.

The House package set a benchmark of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade.

Some in the Senate GOP would like to see that number cranked up marginally to at least $2 trillion, largely because the tax portion of the package is expected to add nearly $4 trillion to the deficit, according to recent findings from the Joint Committee on Taxation.

“There’s just so many great things in this bill,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital. “The only thing I would like to do is try to cut the spending, and I would love to take a little bit from a lot of places, rather than a lot from just one place.”

SPEAKER JOHNSON CLASHES WITH RAND PAUL OVER ‘WIMPY’ SPENDING CUTS IN TRUMP’S BILL

Sen. Ron Johnson talks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., after the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on May 22. (CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Others, like Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., want to see the cuts in the package return to pre-pandemic spending levels, which would amount to roughly a $6 trillion slash in spending.

Johnson has remained unflinching in his opposition to the current bill, and warned that “no amount of pressure” from Trump could change his mind.

“President Trump made a bunch of promises,” Johnson said at an event in Wisconsin on Wednesday. “My promise has been, consistently, we have to stop mortgaging our children’s future. OK, so I think there are enough [Republicans] to slow this process down until the president, our leadership, gets serious about returning to a pre-pandemic level.”

Others are concerned over the proposed slashes to Medicaid spending, which congressional Republicans have largely pitched as reform efforts designed to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the program used by millions of Americans.

The House package would see a roughly $700 billion cut from the program, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and some Senate Republicans have signaled that they wouldn’t support the changes if benefits were cut for their constituents.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., warned in an op-ed for The New York Times last month that cutting benefits was “both morally wrong and politically suicidal.” Meanwhile, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, raised concerns about what proposed cuts to the program would do to rural hospitals in her state.

“I cannot support proposals that would create more duress for our hospitals and providers that are already teetering on the edge of insolvency,” she said.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Politics

What Lester Holt told Tom Llamas before handing over 'NBC Nightly News'

Published

6 hours ago

June 1, 2025

Press Room

What Lester Holt told Tom Llamas before handing over 'NBC Nightly News'

Tom Llamas first stepped into NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters in 2000 as a fresh-faced intern.

On Monday, he becomes part of television news history as the fifth anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and the first Latino journalist to helm a daily English-language network evening newscast (one of his mentors, Jose Diaz-Balart, handles the Saturday edition of “Nightly”).

Llamas, 45, takes over for Lester Holt, who will move full time to NBC’s “Dateline” after a 10-year run in the anchor chair. Llamas will remain the anchor of “Top Story,” a live, hourlong newscast on the network’s free streaming platform NBC News Now.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Llamas grew up in Miami, where he continues to have strong ties (pop superstar Gloria Estefan and “Sabado Gigante” host Don Francisco attended a party in Florida to celebrate his promotion). He lives in Westchester County, N.Y., with his wife, Jennifer, three children aged 12, nine and seven, and a dedicated room for his vinyl record collection built from a decade of crate-digging while traveling around the world on assignment.

He recently spoke with The Times about his new role.

You’ve known Lester Holt since you were a 21-year-old production assistant at NBC News. What advice did he give you for your new role?

He’s been married to this job. And so I asked him about that, because my kids have always known me as a network correspondent and a network anchor. But he told me, “Your life is going to change.” And he explained to me that everyone’s going to want a piece of you and there’s going to be a lot of demands, even more than you’ve ever experienced.

And he’s been right about that. He said, “You have to make the right decisions when it comes to your career and your family.” My wife and my kids have known that sometimes I’ll be at a little league game or I’ll be at a school play, and I have to run and jump on a plane because there’s breaking news. And they understand that their dad does that. But we always have conversations about it. And it’s tough.

Do your children watch “NBC Nightly News” and “Top Story”?

Oh yeah.

I had my 7-year-old explaining the election to his classmates. He was walking them through when President Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris took over the nomination. Sometimes it’s tough. They were watching that night during Hurricane Milton last summer when a transformer exploded over my head, and that is a little scary. There were some text messages and calls to me quickly.

Sometimes they watch a little too much and we have to turn it off. But they are very plugged-in; they know the world around them. It’s just the same way I was raised. We watched news in English and Spanish as far back as I can remember. Because my parents were always searching for news out of Cuba.

Tom Llamas reporting from Kyiv in March 2022.

(NBC News)

What are your early news viewing memories?

I can really remember any time Fidel Castro was going to be interviewed. It was always a major moment, right? I remember my parents watching the interview and then deciding if it was a fair interview or not and having an open conversation about that. So I’m hearing about conversations of fairness my entire life. And I see what it means and how viewers react to that.

Did that inspire you to go into the profession?

I don’t know if it was an inspiration as much as it was a testament of how important the news is. It’s just that my family relied on the news. They wanted to know what was happening in their home country. They wanted to know what was happening in America. And they listened, and they trust these people.

What made the powers that be decide that you should keep doing “Top Story” while doing “Nightly”?

It was actually my idea.

Right now, in this country, you’ve got to be everywhere. And I didn’t want to lose what we’ve established for three and a half years. We just got nominated for an Emmy up against amazing legacy shows like “Nightly News,” “ABC World News Tonight” and the “CBS Evening News.” To be in that circle with a streaming show that is three years old, that’s been one of the greatest achievements of my career. Because this was a startup. And a lot of people said we couldn’t do this, and we have.

President Trump basically declared war on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. [The Federal Communications Commission has called for an investigation into NBC’s parent firm Comcast for what it describes as “DEI discrimination.”] Has that muted the achievement of being the first Latino to anchor an English-speaking nightly newscast?

I don’t think I got this job because I’m Hispanic; I think I got this job because I’m the best person for the job. And I know that’s what NBC believes, too.

My life story is something I’m very proud of. [My parents] essentially came to this country with nothing. They had no money, they barely spoke the language, and this incredible country gave them a second chance. It gave them a new home. And they taught me hard work, but they also taught me to love this country. And I do, I think this is the greatest place in the world, hands down. To become the anchor of “Nightly News” tells me that the American dream is still very alive.

NBC's Tom Llamas in Rome, covering the death of Pope Francis in April 2025.

You’re from the streaming music generation, but you have a vinyl record collection. How did that happen?

Ten or 12 years ago, I went to my friend’s house in Los Angeles and he has a record player. I think he played “Sticky Fingers” from the Rolling Stones. We just chilled and we listened to the album. And I thought, “What a great experience.”

Then I realized the other fun part about records is just finding them and collecting them, and trying to get original pressings. I have Wilson Pickett records that were made in Spain. I have Beatles records where the liner notes and the album covers are in different languages. I have a room where I have them — it feels like you’re walking into a jukebox. It’s where I read the paper sometimes. It’s where I prepare for big election nights. I’ll be in there for hours. It’s how I relax.

What’s on your turntable at the moment?

I’m in a bit of a hard-bop phase, so I’m listening to a lot of Art Blakey, a lot of Cannonball Adderley. I’ve been trying to find great live albums. I picked up this great five-record set from Bruce Springsteen, the run he had in the late ’70s through the ’80s. And a great album, which I got turned on to, is Elvis Presley’s “From Elvis in Memphis.” He recorded that in 1969, when Jimi Hendrix was taking off and Woodstock was happening. And it’s just a very country Americana album with beautiful songs. It’s got the Memphis Boys backing him.

You have good taste in music.

I appreciate it.

Politics

Michelle Obama facing backlash over claim about women's reproductive health

Published

22 hours ago

May 31, 2025

Press Room

Michelle Obama facing backlash over claim about women's reproductive health

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is facing backlash after saying that creating life is “the least” of what a woman’s reproductive system does.

On the latest episode of the podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson,” the former first lady and her brother were joined by OB/GYN Dr. Sharon Malone, whose husband, Eric Holder, served as Attorney General under former President Barack Obama. During the discussion, the former first lady lamented that women’s reproductive health “has been reduced to the question of choice.”

“I attempted to make the argument on the campaign trail this past election was that there’s just so much more at stake and because so many men have no idea about what women go through,” Obama said. She went on to claim that the lack of research on women’s health shapes male leaders’ perceptions of the issue of abortion.

Dr. Sharon Malone joins the podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson.” The episode was released on May 28, 2025. (“IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson”/YouTube)

MICHELLE OBAMA AND ERIC HOLDER’S WIFE BONDED OVER BEING ‘RELUCTANT SPOUSES’ TO FAMOUS MEN

“Women’s reproductive health is about our life. It’s about this whole complicated reproductive system that the least of what it does is produce life,” Obama added, “It’s a very important thing that it does, but you only produce life if the machine that’s producing it — if you want to whittle us down to a machine — is functioning in a healthy, streamlined kind of way.”

In the same episode, the former first lady seemed to scold Republican men by saying that the men who “sit on their hands” over abortion are choosing to “trade out women’s health for a tax break or whatever it is.” Obama also criticized Republican women, suggesting they voted for President Donald Trump because of their husbands.

“There are a lot of men who have big chairs at their tables, there are a lot of women who vote the way their man is going to vote, it happened in this election.”

Former first lady Michelle Obama on her podcast

Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during an episode of her podcast, “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” on May 28, 2025. (“IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson”/YouTube)

MICHELLE OBAMA URGES PARENTS NOT TO TRY TO BE FRIENDS WITH THEIR CHILDREN

The “Becoming” author’s remarks drew criticism from pro-life activists, including Danielle D’Souza Gill, the wife of Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas. The couple announced the birth of their second child earlier in May.

“Motherhood is the most beautiful and powerful gift God gave women. Creating life isn’t a side effect, it’s a miracle. Don’t let the Left cheapen it,” D’Souza Gill wrote in a post on X.

Isabel Brown, a content creator and author, also slammed the former first lady as a “supposed feminist icon.”

“I am SO sick [and] tired of celebrities [and] elitists attempting to convince you that your miraculous superpower ability to GROW LIFE from nothing is somehow demeaning [and] ‘lesser than’ for women,” Brown wrote.

Former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama attends Opening Night celebrating ’50 years of equal pay’ during Day One of the 2023 US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 28, 2023.(Photo by Jean Catuffe/GC Images) (Jean Catuffe/GC Images)

At the time of this writing, Obama’s podcast is ranked 51 on Apple Podcasts and doesn’t appear on the list of the top 100 podcasts on Spotify. However, it is ranked 91 on the list of 100 trending podcasts on Spotify. The entire episode with Malone is available on YouTube, where it currently has just under 41,150 views so far.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.