Editing Haredi Judaism (section)

== Controversies ==

=== Shunning ===

{{see also|Off the derech#Orthodox views of OTD people}}People who decide to [[off the derech|leave Haredi communities]] are sometimes [[Shunning|shunned]] and pressured or forced to abandon their children.<ref name="Haaretz1" /><ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto1"/>

=== Pedophilia and sexual abuse cases ===
{{See also|Adass Israel School sex abuse scandal|FailedMessiah.com|Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse#Yeshiva, Melbourne and Yeshiva, Bondi|Sexual abuse cases in Brooklyn's Haredi community}}

Cases of [[pedophilia]], [[sexual violence]], [[Sexual assault|assaults]], and [[Sexual abuse|abuses]] against women and [[Child sexual abuse|children]] occur in roughly the same rates in Haredi communities as in the general population; however, they are rarely discussed or reported to the authorities, and frequently downplayed by members of the communities.<ref name="Nyt2">{{cite news |last1=Otterman |first1=Sharon |last2=Rivera |first2=Ray |date=9 May 2012 |title=Ultra-Orthodox Jews Shun Their Own For Reporting Child Sexual Abuses|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/nyregion/ultra-orthodox-jews-shun-their-own-for-reporting-child-sexual-abuse.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=[[New York City]] |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="VICE">{{cite news |last1=Ketcham |first1=Christopher |date=12 November 2013 |title=The Child-Rape Assembly Line |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-child-rape-assembly-line-0000141-v20n11/ |work=[[Vice (magazine)|VICE]] |location=[[Montreal]] |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news |last1=Marr |first1=David |date=19 February 2015 |title=Rabbis' absolute power: how sex abuse tore apart Australia's Orthodox Jewish community |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/19/rabbis-absolute-power-how-sex-abuse-tore-apart-australias-orthodox-jewish-community |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=[[London]] |access-date=4 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="Independent">{{cite news |last1=Fenton |first1=Siobhan |date=7 April 2016 |title=Calls for urgent inquiry into sexual abuse of Jewish children in illegal schools |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/calls-for-urgent-inquiry-into-sexual-abuse-of-jewish-children-in-illegal-schools-a6973571.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/calls-for-urgent-inquiry-into-sexual-abuse-of-jewish-children-in-illegal-schools-a6973571.html |archive-date=2022-05-09 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=[[The Independent]] |location=[[London]] |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="Haaretz2">{{cite news|last1=Tucker |first1=Nati |date=11 May 2017 |title=The Crusaders Fighting Sex Abuse in the Underbelly of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Community |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-05-11/ty-article/.premium/the-crusaders-fighting-sex-abuse-in-the-ultra-orthodox-community/0000017f-f5e9-d460-afff-ffefd0f10000 |work=[[Haaretz]] |location=[[Tel Aviv]] |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="WPost">{{cite news |last1=Eglash |first1=Ruth |date=9 September 2017 |title=In Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, abused women are finding a way out |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/middle_east/in-israels-ultra-orthodox-community-abused-women-are-finding-a-way-out/2017/09/08/23ec4260-8115-11e7-9e7a-20fa8d7a0db6_story.html?noredirect=on |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="ForwardJTA">{{cite news |author=JTA |date=28 February 2018 |title=Jerusalem Ultra-Orthodox Elementary School Accused Of Physical, Sexual Abuse |url=https://forward.com/fast-forward/395461/jerusalem-ultra-orthodox-elementary-school-accused-of-physical-sexual-abuse/?gamp/ |work=[[The Forward]] |location=[[New York City]] |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref><ref name="Haaretz3">{{cite news|last1=Rabinowitz |first1=Aaron |date=22 December 2019 |title=Sexual Assault Allegations Rock an Israeli Hasidic Community |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-12-22/ty-article/.premium/sexual-assault-allegations-rock-an-israeli-hasidic-community/0000017f-dc20-db5a-a57f-dc6afb930000 |work=[[Haaretz]] |location=[[Tel Aviv]]}}</ref>

=== Divorce coercion ===

To receive a religious divorce, a Jewish woman needs her husband's consent in the form of a ''[[Get (divorce document)|get]]'' (Jewish divorce document). Without this consent, any future offspring of the wife would be considered ''[[mamzer]]im'' (bastards/impure). If the circumstances truly warrant a divorce, and the husband is unwilling, a [[dayan (rabbinic judge)]] has the prerogative of instituting community shunning measures to "coerce him until he agrees", with physical force reserved only for the rarest of cases.<ref>Malinowitz, Chaim; [http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/getart3.html "The New York State Get Bill and its Halachic Ramifications"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821143849/http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/getart3.html |date=August 21, 2016 }}; ''Jewish Law Articles''</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last1=Goldstein|first1=Joseph|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/nyregion/rabbis-accused-in-kidnapping-plot-to-force-men-to-grant-divorces.html|title=U.S. Accuses 2 Rabbis of Kidnapping Husbands for a Fee|date=2013-10-10|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-04-14|last2=Schwirtz|first2=Michael|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="torture">Bandler, Jonathan; Lieberman, Steve (October 10, 2013) [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/10/rabbis-fbi-divorce-sting/2959369/ "FBI Arrests N.Y. Rabbis in Jewish Divorce-gang Probe], ''USA Today''</ref>

The [[New York divorce coercion gang]] was a Haredi Jewish group that kidnapped, and in some cases tortured, Jewish men in the [[New York metropolitan area]] to force them to grant their wives ''gittin'' (religious divorces). The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) broke up the group after conducting a [[sting operation]] against the gang in October 2013. The sting resulted in the prosecution of four men, three of whom were convicted in late 2015.<ref>Mullen, Shannon (April 21, 2015) [http://www.app.com/story/news/local/jackson-lakewood/lakewood/2015/04/21/lakewood-rabbi-kidnapping-trial/26125057/ "Rabbi Guilty of Kidnapping Conspiracy, Jury Finds"], ''Asbury Park Press''</ref>

=== Political controversies involving Haredi communities and parties in Israel ===
In January 2023, the Times of Israel reported that Haredi citizens in Israel pay just 2% of the country's total income tax revenues, despite making up 13% of the nation's population. Furthermore, the article's author described their communities as an "epicenter of poverty", with over 60% of Haredi households classified as "poor" on the government's socio-economic index, with that figure remaining nearly constant in every Haredi community.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gur |first=Haviv Rettig |title=Are Haredi parties standing in the way of their community's prosperity? |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/are-haredi-political-parties-standing-in-the-way-of-their-communitys-prosperity/ |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=www.timesofisrael.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

While this disparity has been present in Israel for decades, it has garnered more attention since December 2022 for numerous reasons. First, Haredi families have the highest fertility rate in Israel, at 6.6 births per woman. In comparison, the average fertility rate in Israel is much lower, at 2.9 per woman. Current projections estimate that the Haredi population will double by 2036, and they will comprise 16% of the total population by 2030.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Haredim set to make up 16% of Israel's population by 2030 - IDI report |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-726394 |access-date=2023-04-25 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |language=en-US}}</ref>

The second aspect of the controversy surrounds their political connections to Israel's Religious Zionist alliance. Historically, they have remained politically uninvolved, but since the 1990s, they have continuously engaged more. Today, members of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community have long enjoyed benefits unavailable to other Israeli citizens: exemption from army service for Torah students, government stipends for those choosing full-time religious study over work, and separate schools that receive state funds, even though their curriculums often do not fully teach government-mandated subjects. Today, many Israeli Haredi men do not work, preferring to study the Torah full-time, thus resulting in their high poverty rate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leon |first=Nissim |date=January 2023 |title=Soft Ultra-Orthodoxy: Revival Movement Activists, Synagogue Communities and the Mizrahi-Haredi Teshuva Movement in Israel |journal=Religions |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=89 |doi=10.3390/rel14010089 |issn=2077-1444 |doi-access=free }}</ref>