We often hear tales of young Haredi men who, fresh out of yeshiva, manage to bridge all their educational gaps within a month, applying principles from Tractate Eruvin to geometry, Ishay Shnerb wrote in Makor Rishon on Monday, and noted that such myths often clash with reality.
The typical graduate of the Haredi education system—especially men—enters higher education without a high school matriculation certificate. Most have never studied core curriculum subjects beyond the elementary school level. They’re unaccustomed to writing academic papers or adhering to exam schedules, and often pursue studies despite opposition from their immediate social environment. On top of that, they typically begin their academic journey around age 25, already supporting a family with an average of two to three children. In short, they must juggle financial responsibilities while working toward their first degree.
In the 2023–2024 academic year, the Council for Higher Education invested approximately 212 million shekels ($59.77 million) to make higher education more accessible to the Haredi community. Of that, 92 million shekels ($26 million) went toward subsidizing tuition, as is done for all students in Israel. However, the lion’s share, around 120 million shekels ($34 million), was directed to programs tailored specifically for the Haredim. These included generous scholarships, pre-academic preparatory courses to close educational gaps, ongoing academic support during degree studies, and incentive payments to colleges and universities that run dedicated Haredi tracks.
Since 2011, over 2.1 billion shekels ($590 million) have been allocated to integrate the Haredim into higher education. It’s crucial to assess what these substantial investments have actually accomplished.
The State Comptroller’s report, published this week, offers some insight into the current state of affairs. The good news is that dropout rates among Haredi students are declining. A previous audit from 2019 revealed that nearly half of Haredi male students dropped out before completing their degrees, compared to just one in five among the general population. The numbers for Haredi women were only marginally better, with a dropout rate of nearly 30%.
Since then, there has been some improvement. According to data from the National Council of Orthodox Students, the current dropout rate among Haredi students stands at 31%—still significantly higher than the 23% dropout rate among non-Haredi men, but lower than before. For Haredi women, the rate has fallen to 18%, compared to 15% among non-Haredi women.
Another seemingly encouraging statistic is the rise in the number of Haredi students in higher education. In 2011, there were 5,500; today, that number has grown to 17,380. However, when viewed in the context of the explosive growth of the Haredi population, this increase is far less impressive. As the State Comptroller points out, when measuring participation relative to the total potential population—Haredi individuals aged 18 to 40—the growth is almost negligible. Among Haredi women, the proportion entering academia in recent years has barely surpassed 5%, and among Haredi men, it stands at just 2.1%—a figure that has even declined in recent years.
And here lies the most troubling finding: according to the State Comptroller, “the Council for Higher Education’s programs have not led to an increase in student enrollment in fields with stronger employment and earning potential, such as engineering, mathematics, and the sciences.”
In practice, the academic integration of the Haredim has largely become a teacher-training enterprise, despite a saturated job market that has limited demand for new educators. A striking 53% of Haredi graduates studied education (compared to just 15% in the general population), while another 11% pursued business administration and 10% earned degrees in the social sciences. Only a small fraction chose high-demand fields such as engineering, mathematics, computer science, or law.
Shnerb concludes: It’s no surprise, then, that the integration of the Haredim into academia has not significantly narrowed the wage gap between them and the rest of the population.
According to an analysis by Dr. Gilad Malach, even when Haredi individuals enter the workforce, they work fewer hours—about 79% of the average hours worked by the general Jewish population—and earn just over half the monthly salary of their non-Haredi counterparts. Their average hourly wage is also lower, and this gap is growing.
Economist Ariel Karlinsky has shown that due to gaps in skills, the productivity of Haredi workers lags behind that of the broader population. Even among the 3–4% of Haredi men who have successfully entered the high-tech sector, often viewed as the gold standard of integration, salaries are, on average, about 40% lower than those of their peers.
