Exposing the Lies of the NYT About Haredi Reality
How Both the Economy and Employment of Haredim is Nothing like Portrayed
This is an excerpt from the third article in a series of essays and exposés answering the recent attacks on the Yeshiva system by the New York Times and the New York State Senate. Read the first part here, second part there, and the interlude everywhere.
The New York Times accused yeshivot of giving their students "levels of educational deprivation not seen anywhere else in New York. Graduates come out unemployable and thus unable to escape." The New York State’s Board of Regents used the accusation to force yeshivot to either adopt the State curriculum or to face closer. No one stopped to asked “Is there any truth to this?” So, let’s dig in.
Where do we draw the unacceptability line regarding personal finance competency and the ability to navigate the financial system? What constitutes poverty and being unemployable? Where to Haredim stack up against this? To make any evaluation, you first need establish a baseline. Let's set it according to the very norms of those who want to reform yeshivot: the average American public.
Americans, in general, are saddled with a massive amount of personal debt ($96,371 on average), growing yearly. So many Americans have taken on student loans that they will not be able to repay that one of the most common political grievances is to beg the Government to cancel them; 61% live on a pay-check-to-pay-check basis as well. 56% of Americans admit they cannot cover a $1,000 emergency with their savings. It should not come as a surprise, as 73% admit to not regularly following a budget.
Admittedly, getting accurate numbers regarding the Haredi community is difficult, as some sub-groups tend to be more insular and less forthright with personal details than others. In a 2021 report from Nishma Research entitled "The Finances of Orthodox Jewish Life," we get an incomplete portrait, but it is still the most accurate and recent analysis nonetheless.
Amongst the findings, we find that Haredi households' self-reported yearly median income is $136,000. The average annual median income country-wide as of 2022 is $70,784, which is significantly lower but can be partly explained by the majority of Haredim being concentrated in and around New York State. While the average Haredi family only has $23,000 in non-retirement savings, and the average American household is estimated to have $40,000 in liquid savings, this number also includes checking and retirement accounts. The actual figure is at least much closer, if not possibly lower, compared to Haredi families.
The median 401(k) balance country-wide is $35,345, while the reported Haredi balance is $40,000. Regarding home ownership and home equity, Haredim slightly lag behind the rest of the public, both in terms of ownership (63% vs. 65.8%) and equity ($250,000 vs. $300,000). The median net worth of the Haredi family is 25% higher than the American median net worth of $121,700 at a comfortable $158,000.
As noted above, this is not a perfect snapshot of the Haredi community’s economic circumstances, as some of the poorest elements of Haredi society are not included in the study. Still, it presents to us an entirely different state of affairs than the New York Times and Haredi detractors proclaim.
While we would expect those numbers to shrink all under a more comprehensive report, some of them are significantly so with those other communities factored in, there’s yet another aspect that needs to be taken into account: the median age in America is 38.8 years, while Haredi Jews are much younger: 32% are adults between the ages of 18-29, another 46% between the ages of 30-49; only 6% are over the age of 65. In the village of Kyriat Yoel, the median age is 13.4 years old, the lowest by far in the entire country as almost 60% of its residents are under the age of 18. This has a massive impact on the dynamics of the town and artificially strengthens Haredi detractors due to how significantly it distorts the realities of poverty in KY.
There are two other factors to mull over as well: the location of Haredi communities, most of which are located in urban areas, and the larger size of families, with over 6 children on average. A frequent attack is that even though the average Haredi family seems to have a financial situation similar to most Americans, it is clear that their wealth is overstated when you bear in mind where they live. Add in a large family, and their circumstances are downright dire, say the reformers!
Yet many of the poorer Haredi communities are located outside New York City proper; those groups prefer to live in towns like Kyriat Yoel, New Square, or Monsey, where life is much cheaper. And as reported by Nishma, only 8% of Haredi households said that their financial situation was either 'poor' (7%) or 'very poor' (1%). Since the priorities of the Haredi community are different from the average American family, much less money is spent on entertainment, trips, electronics, and other big-budget items that are a staple of the American household. The gemach system and hand-me-downs also help save costs, and large families and communities create networks helping each other absorb certain costs together.
Finally, some Haredi families indeed depend on food stamps or welfare to get by. There are around 300,000 Haredi families in New York State. It is impossible to get an accurate number of just how many are on food stamps, but the whole issue is a red herring. Even if a full third of the Haredi community was on food stamps (and it's not the case, far from it), we would still only represent 3.4% of the State's 2.9 million SNAP beneficiaries. Also take in consideration that about 57% of Americans did not pay federal income tax in 2021 either, many of them using federal programs to stay afloat. Focusing on the Haredi community when this is a society-wide problem betrays the hypocritical nature of the attack.
And here comes the final nail in the New York Times’s coffin: In terms of employment, the Haredi community far outshines the rest of society: 68% are fully employed, versus 58.4% of the general public; with 20% of Haredim employed part-time, versus 17% of Americans. So much for the grotesque and oft-repeated NYT stereotype of lazy men sitting all day, collecting welfare as they pour over holy texts while shunning any work. Not that there is anything wrong with Kollel learning, G-d forbid, but it is certainly not portrayed by them as the noble pursuit that it is, nor is it accurate as most avreichim either work part-time or will use their studies to secure future employment. Yet you don't see the NYT negatively describe post-graduate students as leeches on society, concentrating their efforts on arcane subjects at the taxpayer’s cost.
Ultimately, one thing is clear: the accusation that yeshiva education traps children in a cycle of poverty due to unemployment is false on both counts. There's no such cycle of poverty, and Haredim are far from unemployable; they are indeed employed at much higher rates than the public at large.