Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious

 Ultra-Orthodox men and boys at a synagogue in Jerusalem this month. More than 60 percent of ultra-Orthodox men do not work.

JERUSALEM — Chaim Amsellem was certainly not the first Parliament member to suggest that most ultra-Orthodox men should work rather than receive welfare subsidies for full-time Torah study. But when he did so last month, the nation took notice: He is a rabbi, ultra-Orthodox himself, whose outspokenness ignited a fresh, and fierce, debate about the rapid growth of the ultra-religious in Israel.

“Torah is the most important thing in the world,” Rabbi Amsellem said in an interview. But now more than 60 percent of ultra-Orthodox men in Israel do not work, compared with 15 percent in the general population, and he argued that full-time, state-financed study should be reserved for great scholars destined to become rabbis or religious judges.

“Those who are not that way inclined,” he said, “should go out and earn a living.”

In reaction, he was ousted from his own ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, whose leaders vilified him with such venom that he was assigned a bodyguard. The party newspaper printed a special supplement describing Rabbi Amsellem as “Amalek,” the biblical embodiment of all evil.

To read the rest of the article, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/world/middleeast/29israel.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

Photo Credits:Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

Article By ISABEL KERSHNER Published: December 28, 2010