Israel – More than 30 percent of junior high and high school-aged haredi youths are “hidden dropouts” who are technically registered in an educational framework but are dysfunctional students, according to a Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) – ASHELIM estimate released.
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In response to the findings, ASHELIM, an arm of the JDC that helps at risk youth, launched an NIS 5 million project designed to help the haredi community to cope with the high level of hidden dropouts.
“Rabbis and leaders in the haredi community who realize they have serious problem are beginning to open up to outside intervention,” said Dr. Rami Sulimani, Director General of ASHELIM-JDC.
“A growing number of haredi teenagers are simply not functioning in educational frameworks and they are making up an increasingly growing fringe group within haredi society.”
Sulimani said that few if any of these dropouts make their way into non-haredi education frameworks.
According to a study by Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute a total of 17% of elementary school-aged children are hidden dropouts and 30% of junior high and high school students are. ASHELIM-JDC estimates the level in haredi schools is even higher.
Sulimani admitted that part of the explanation for the higher rates of hidden dropouts among haredim is the willingness of haredi educational institutions to accommodate dysfunctional students.
Nevertheless, he said that the main problem in haredi schools was the total lack of professional psychological counseling available to teachers and students.
According to data provided by the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Education Ministry, there are presently 225,000 haredi children aged 5 to 17 in the nation’s schools, 21% of the total.
Assuming that between 17% and 30% of these children are hidden dropouts the total number is at least 38,000.
According to a study conducted in 2008 by Eliyahu Hurvitz and David Brodet under the aegis of the “Israel 2028 Project”, haredi children are expected to make up a third of all Jewish children in the nation’s elementary and high schools and a quarter of the total for both Jewish and non-Jewish students.
This projection is based on the assumption that each haredi woman will have on average six children, 25% lower than the present average.
Dr. Uzi Rebhun, a demographer at Hebrew University who recently wrote a position paper for the Metzilah Center on the possible ramifications of the rapid growth of the haredi and Arab populations for the modern Jewish state, said that there were signs of a fall in haredi fertility.
“In cities such as Beitar Ilit and Modi’in Ilit we have noted a fall in fertilization rates,” said Rebhun. “Nevertheless, the main source of Jewish population growth will continue to be from the haredi sector.”
Although the ASHELIM-JDC program is being launched in cooperation with the government, significant funding was provided by the New York Jewish Federation.
Methods that will be used to treat dysfunctional students here were borrowed in part from experience gained working with the haredi community in Brooklyn New York, said Sulimani.
“We will be sharing knowledge with US organizations such as the Federation Employment Guidance Services (FEGS) and the Education Alliance,” said Sulimani.
Haredi youths exposed to post-modernist trends that encourage personal expression and a rejection of religious hierarchy and authority are finding it more difficult to cope with the stringent limits and rules of the haredi society, said Sulimani.
This tension leads to emotional difficulties that are often exacerbated by haredi parents’ reluctance to enter into open dialogue with their children, added Sulimani.
“Parents remain oblivious to their child’s needs and continue to apply the same traditional, restrictive norms to their children’s behavior without recognizing the child’s rights.”
The NIS 5m. program will train a total of 240 educators, 120 school advisers and 120 principals in the haredi school system.
“These educators will be proactive in recognizing signs of distress among students whose emotional needs are not being fulfilled at home.”
Sulimani said that the goal to encourage a dialogue between children and parents would ultimately lead the parents to ease up on the demands they make of their children.
“We want to start putting the child and his needs at the center of care and attention.”
Sulimani said that the most common problem he faces with haredi youths, especially teens, is their total lack of recreational time.
“There is a constant demand on them to learn Torah and there are not other options. So they end up looking for other activities that are not condoned by their parents.”
Sulimani admitted that the approach that he intends to implement has never been tested before. However, he said that he was certain that as soon as modern educational psychology theories would be applied to the haredicommunity there would be an improvement in dropout rates.
30 percent? Siund like its taken out if Buchem Rosenberg’s book.
Hoshiyu es drugs, uvoreich es drugs etc…
we wish you the best of luck. to make this kids function in a normal way is the best thing for them and there families.
The JDC- Joint is mamash a wonderful organization. They dont discriminate and are not political. plus they dont beg us for money.
Good morning!
What’s the chidish?
In the non chreidi schools even though they have all the “recreational and phsychology help” the situation is much worse with rampent drug use and all the othe illicet behavier etc. So please keep your great ideas to help your own and if wee see good results will try it in the chareidi schools. Thank you very much!!
Nuchem rosenberg. You are so right
This blown up number and wild exaggeration is for government programs purposes.. nothing else.
sheker! bluph! Sineh! Kineh!
May the public know what basis this inflated number is based on? did this org run ct scans or heart and brain scans on “all, each and every” charedi bochur to verify this bogus number?
Just full of hot air.
Some are dysfunctional illiterates
The JDC is funded by by bequests from American Jews and some funds come from the Claim Conference
This report just makes me laugh.. it’s silly and baseless, there’s simply no way to know such a statistic.
Please note the higher the number the bigger the funding next year we hope to double the “hidden droput rate” to 70% hope the funding will double to $10 million we want to give bigger bonuses to all the “phsygologists and experts”. Remember always follow the money!!
Its funny how the dropout rate is “hidden” but the money is real and open. Let’s find some more “hidden problems” and shakedown the JDC.!!!
The chareidem r just taking advantage of some gelt from the medinah. In the US the dropout rate is below 5%. To assume the rate in Israel is 6 times that of the US is, simply, foolish. Maybe we can learn from them & get the U.S. To sponsor some of our programs like Our Place etc …
This is the pink elephant in the room in the charedi community in Israel. Most of the more prominent rabonin don’t want to talk about it cause it would mean they would have to change the entire way they are educating the kids in Israel.
blah..blah..blah.. why don’t they just say 75% once they are making up alarmist numbers?
In cities such as Beitar Ilit and Modi’in Ilit we have noted a fall in fertilization rates.
Right, and the average age has also risen. The younger people are moving to even newer places. So what do you expect from 40 year old women. This again shows how screwed the numbers are.
Leave it up to the secular if they can’t prove that the Chreidi education is bad they have come up with some bogus “hidden study” I’m not saying there are no problems but 30% come on that can only come from an hidden study the same hidden place Achmandejad got his millions of vote from.
The Socialists are at work now on the Frum Kehilah now that they have their leader implementing Change across the USA destroying American Institutions and Businesses. I wouldn’t trust the Joint with a ten foot pole. There are problems that must be solved wisely by our Rabbonim and only by our Rabbonim. We must take care of our own. They are our bonim and banos. NOT to be turned over to frei psycho psychologists. Tell them: Toos mi po !
Happens to be that about 30% of my class was off the derech or close to it at some point in their lives (most came back). And I went to a mainstream yeshiva.
We have the same problem here in the States
The ones that drop out are at high risk for leaving yidishkite.
The unfortunate thing is that we hide our problems instead of dealing with them! When it gets out of control , we have to deal with it and then the rabbis begin to get involved and then unfortunately, it is too late!! Trust me, I speak from experience!
No wonder, I would say its even higher, has anybody ever thought why in the chareidi world there are so much dropouts, and from the other hand we see BT’s with a fire to grow in yidisshkiet??? The answer is short and simple.
In the chariedy chinuch system we are only thought what we are alowed to do, and what not, and all a kid hears is don’t do this, don’t do that, what we are missing is the teaching why its good to be ehrlich, why we want to be jews, what’s so special about us, and what leads to real happiness.
Rabbosai, we are missing the forest for the trees. Stop quibbling about numbers and terminology, tuned out versus dropped out and see what the REAL agenda is. Note this quote from the article (buried deeply). “Parents remain oblivious to their child’s needs and continue to apply the same traditional, restrictive norms to their children’s behavior without recognizing the child’s rights.” This is about CHILDREN”S RIGHTS, i.e., the UN’s Children’s Rights, turning children into wards of the state, since the nanny state knows better than parents and can do a better job. Truly scary!!
I would not have had a problem with this sentence if it had read that parents sometimes do not recognize children’s NEEDS. But the word “rights” has my antennae pinging big time!
Amazing that nobody figured out the real reason that chareidi schools will cover for their “drop outs”. If they’re not in Yeshiva, they get drafted. Any Hanhala would rather say their buchrim are still in Yeshiva than to call it “quits” and just give them to the army.
A big part of the problem is, that if a baucher doesn’t fit into a yeshiva, he cannot go to get a job a live a normal life, beac. Of the draftn they are forced to be inlisted into yeshiva, and roam the streets, which in the end leads to trouble and drugs
Please conduct a study on a trend no less disturbing, ADULT (HIDDEN) DROPOUTS. There are many thousands of them, possibly more than the youth and need help now!! someone must adress this burning issue.
I just came out of yeshiva, was in israel for 4 years, I learned in 2 top chassidisha yeshivas and then in mir and kamenitz. Here’s the fact perants: its much much more then 30%. Much much more. No, not off the derech kids, hidden off the derech kids! Its true. A lot of erlich looking boys were easily mechalel shabbos even, when nobody saw. That’s what happens when people care more about which color your shirt is than if you put on tefilin today.