A Bank of Israel report that was released this week shows that chareidim living in mixed communities earn more than their counterparts living in exclusively chareidi communities.

According to the report, immigration to the chareidi communities established over the past three decades, such as Betar Illit or Modi’in Illit, stems from a desire to improve housing conditions. However, when it comes to cities on the outskirts of the metropolises of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, efficient public transport and advanced communications (Internet and cellular) make it easier to maintain contact with the old cities and thus enable access to employment.

However, the Bank of Israel notes in connection with the city of Kasif that “when a population from a weak socio-economic background immigrates to a periphery far from employment centers, this may worsen the situation.”

The new chareidi cities are characterized by young and multi-child population with low employment rates and extensive work in the chareidi sector itself, so the same population is also characterized by low income for the household per person.

In addition, the proportion of workers outside the locality of residence is relatively high due to the lack of opportunities and the high housing density due to the large number of children, so that in the bottom line, the residents of the chareidi new cities belong to a very low socioeconomic level.

A segmentation of the data shows that chareidi households in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak (which were classified as a single geographical unit due to similar characteristics) and in the heterogeneous localities in the center of the country earned more than chareidi households in communities where chareidim and non-chareidim live together in the periphery. The chareidi in the mixed cities earned more than the households in the new chareidi cities. These differences, according to the Bank of Israel, stem mainly from the fact that the latter two groups (chareidim in the mixed periphery and in the new chareidi cities) are characterized by low-income from work. Since they are also characterized by larger households, their poverty rates are higher and consumption per standard person is lower.

According to the Bank’s analysis, the average gross monthly income per household in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak stood at NIS 12,600 (NIS 3.5 thousand in allowances). In heterogeneous cities in the periphery, the income stood at NIS 9.9 thousand (NIS 1.9 thousand in allowances). NIS 1,000 (of which NIS 2.3 thousand are allowances) and NIS 9.4 thousand a month in new chareidi cities, of which NIS 2.6 thousand per month in allowances.

Identification according to various indicators such as number of children and years of yeshiva study and analysis of the chareidi population dispersion revealed that cities that are populated by chareidim and have undergone significant changes in the past few decades in terms of dispersion in the region. The changes were characterized by three main patterns: spilling over to the non-chareidi neighborhoods adjacent to the chareidim, settling in other non-chareidi neighborhoods and building new ones for the chareidi puplic.

In the late 1980s, for example, Jerusalem began to slide significantly into the neighborhoods north and west of the chareidi center in the city center of Ramot, Shmuel HaNavi, Ramat Eshkol, Maalot Daphna and Givat HaMivtar. The process of turning chareidi also appears in neighborhoods that do not border chareidi neighborhoods such as Gilo (in the south of the city) and Pisgat Ze’ev (north of the city).

Since 2008, the employment rates of chareidi men in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, as well as in the other heterogeneous cities, have risen sharply, while in the new chareidi cities the rate has declined somewhat.

The Bank of Israel further notes that concurrently, the average number of hours worked fell sharply, apparently due to the fact that many chareidim joined the labor market in part-time jobs.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)