Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Fascinating insight into the Charedi view of various professions from children's books

We bought my 4 year old son a set of books (in Hebrew) written for the Charedi public in Israel. The books teach safety rules through stories about a little boy called Eli.

It was very interesting to see how the various professionals were portrayed. When Eli got hurt and had to go to the hospital, the paramedic and the doctor were both Charedi (big black Yarmulka and beard). When he had cavities and went to the dentist the dentist was likewise portrayed as Charedi. However, when he went to the zoo, both the zookeepers and the head of the zoo were portrayed as Chilonim as was a house painter and a firemen. Of course, they were all men.

It is fascinating that even though the current hashkafa is torah only certain professions are still portrayed as Charedi. You also get a clear picture of how the Charedi world looks upon the various professions. Even though no Israeli Charedi can become a doctor or dentist (as University is absolutely forbidden), they are still portrayed as Charedi as if to say, if you do work these are worthwhile professions. On the other hand, for professions such as zookeepers, firemen, painters the clear implication is that these are not professions that are worthwhile.

6 comments:

mother in israel said...

My children's orthopedist wears a black yarmulke. He's from S. Africa. I also know haredi dentists, either baalei teshuva or immigrants.

bluke said...

That was exactly my point. All of the Charedi doctors, dentists, etc. are either immigrants or Baalei teshuva. There are no Israeli born Charedi from birth, doctors, dentists, etc. and even so in a book aimed at Israeli born Charedim the doctor and dentist are Charedi.

bohr salino said...

MII
This is exactly the point of the post. These people got into these professions only because they come from abroad or are baale tshuva and did not follow the traditional charedi curiculum in Israel.

Anonymous said...

Ah. I was going to point out my "rofeh nashim," who is a Charedi man, but.. He's from the States originally. Interesting.

Anonymous said...

Great Post! I agree with the point you made about jewish. Here is a website that has more information on http://michaelrood.tv/biblical-hebrew-calendar.

Unknown said...

wearing a black kippa
doesn't mean that you can't work in some professions.Specially nowadays in Israel, there is a lot of pressure from the chiloni groups to educate the Charedi to have a profession and contribute to Israel's economy as well as their family's economic independence.