Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Conservatism

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2018

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With men clad in the hats and dark coats of old Eastern European Jewry and women walking with covered heads and modest attire, it can appear at first glance like the haredim—often called the “ultra-Orthodox”—are as conservative as Jews come. But though much haredi thought certainly arises from a conservative disposition, the haredi outlook has rarely been defended in self-consciously conservative terms. And there are many things about the haredi model of isolation from the secular world that are in fact quite radical.

But even ultra-Orthodox society is not static. Facing new realities and new challenges, some haredim are beginning to undergo profound changes in their attitudes toward work, the State of Israel, and worldly wisdom. One of the haredi thinkers and activists working to guide and make sense of this “new haredi” movement is Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi scholar and dayan (rabbinical judge) as well as head of Tikvah’s haredi Israel division and editor of Tikvah’s journal Tzarich Iyun, a Hebrew language publication written by haredim, and for haredim.

In this podcast, Rabbi Pfeffer joins Tikvah Senior Director Rabbi Mark Gottlieb to discuss Pfeffer’s important essay, “Toward a Conservative Chareidi-ism,” published in Hakirah in the fall of 2017. Rabbi Pfeffer’s essay is an effort to provide intellectual analysis and guidance to a haredi society undergoing inevitable and consequential changes. Rabbi Pfeffer argues that if Israel’s ultra-Orthodox are to adapt to a changing world while preserving all that is good and beautiful about their way of life, then they would be well-served by drawing on the richness of the Anglo-American conservative tradition.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 2017, the Haredi population in Israel, popularly but too generally described as ultra-Orthodox,
0:15.0	topped one million. If trends continue to hold, Khareidim constitute 40% of the Jewish population of Israel in less than 50 years
0:23.0	from now, a far cry from when David Ben-Gurion struck his famous or infamous status quo agreement
0:28.5	with the acknowledged leader of post-World War II Kharedi jury, the Khazan Ish.
0:33.1	What are the implications of this rapid growth in the Qarady community for the well-being
0:37.1	of the modern state of Israel?
0:39.3	While the discussion generally centers around economics and military conscription, perhaps
0:43.7	the deeper questions that need to be explored are those about culture, education, and
0:48.3	the social fabric of Israeli society in light of this new dynamic.
0:52.2	One of the more interesting developments in the Kharedi community in the past decade is the emergence of a small but growing population grappling
0:58.8	with these very deep questions of identity, education, politics, and culture. Last year, a prominent
1:05.2	Karatei thinker and activist published an article in the journal Hakira with the intriguing title
1:09.8	toward a conservative
1:11.1	charadeism, outlining a more conscious and deliberate approach to public life, one that champions
1:16.5	both tradition and change, the individual and the community. Welcome to the Tikva podcast on
1:22.5	great Jewish essays and ideas. I'm your host, Mark Gottlieb, senior director at the Tikva Fund,
1:27.2	and this week I'm speaking with Rabbi Ashualieb, senior director at the Tikva Fund. And this week, I'm speaking
1:28.4	with Rabbi Oshuah Fephyr, author of that thought-provoking essay. Rabbi Fephyr was born and
1:34.7	raised in England, educated in Israel and some of the most prominent yeshivote, went on to become a
1:40.4	dion, a rabbinical judge, but then took a fascinating and unusual turn for a
1:45.3	Haredi thinker and Tamil Khacham. He went to the Hebrew University, received a bachelor's and a
1:50.3	master's degree in the law, and eventually clerked for Justice Hendel on the Israeli Supreme Court.
	...

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