As the flames in the north died down, former Shas chairman Aryeh Deri came up with a surprising proposal to counter the storm surrounding the yeshiva student law: Recruit yeshiva students into the firefighting services by way of national service.
“They will bring blessings,” Deri said during an interview with Channel 10. “Just as there are organizations like ZAKA, there could also be an ultra-Orthodox organization of firefighters.
Deri said there are yeshiva students throughout the country, some of whom do national service in various frameworks.
Deri’s opinion is unusual. MK Chaim Amsellem was ejected from Shas for his opinions, which included support for yeshiva students working and leaving their studies, as Deri suggested Sunday.
Deri, who once held the position of interior minister, defended his political rival Interior Minister Eli Yishai. “Firefighting equipment today remains as it has been,” he said. “It has not been renewed, and this is the fault of all the governments.”
(Source: Ynet)
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6 Responses
Deri said he was referring to former yeshiva students, not current ones.
Actually it would be a very rational job for those who would want to be permanent yeshiva students. The reason is that firefighters do very little actual fire fighting (for obvious reasons). On a typical work shift, most of the time they sit around the fire house trying to keep busy while waiting to be called. Indeed, in the US, many fire companies are largely “volunteers” who are at home or on local jobs and come only when needed. In Israel, frum fire fighting companies could be organized similar to Hesder units.
If a kollel were employed as fire fighters, they could go about learning, and on the (hopefully) rare occasion where they are needed, they could rush out as a group. Since they would be paid for fire fighting (when needed, they would be better paid than a typical kollel, and the money wouldn’t come out of the “yeshiva” line of the budget.
The reason this profession hasn’t been popular with Bnei Torah is that it requires having the whole yeshiva be involved. A lone frum fire fighter would have time to learn, but would be in the typically un-frum firehouse.
The reason there is no mesoret of Jews doing this is that in Europe (and America until recently), there rarely were professional fire companies – when an alarm sounded everyone rushed to put out the fire.
Given that this is a good idea, and has been proposed by Rabbi Deri, it will obviously be rejected, but that’s a different issue.
In kiryas Joel there is an all frum fire department there is no reason they cant have it in isreal.
This is an excellent idea for all the reasons akuperma mentions. It should be mentioned, though, that the level of physical fitness needed to be a firefighter is very high, so for this to be practical we would need for yeshiva students to exercise and stay in shape.
The problem does not seem to be Haredim not working. It is virtually impossible for Haredim to get jobs in Israel. Even if you just have the mentality they will not hire you. For the ones that get jobs in a secular environment they will typically be fired or harassed into leaving. Even in places that hire Haredi woman, pay them much less then secular Jews doing the same work. Jerusalem is half Haredi, and Haredim are often computer savvy, but try to find a Hasid at Har Hotzvim. The problems of Haredim seem to be more issues of the way that they learn, probably Gemara, and the social corruption.
Rabbi Deri is the best!