Hareidi men study Torah in the Mir yeshiva
Hareidi men study Torah in the Mir yeshivaIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Minister of Economics and Trade Naftali Bennett explained his program to boost employment among hareidi-religious men during a meeting in Knesset on Tuesday.

“This is a mission of national importance,” Bennett told the Knesset’s State Control Committee. “The matter of hareidi employment is critical to the state of Israel.”

“The primary dynamic here is poverty. People who aren’t financially able to learn Torah from morning to night will naturally go to work,” he explained.

“The political wars are over, which is a good thing,” he added. “Now we need to get to work.”

The Ministry of Economy and Trade is planning to train hareidi-religious men for jobs where there is high demand, he told the committee.

“The market creates fields that people don’t need to study [anymore]. Everyone is learning law, instead of learning programming. There aren’t enough programmers… The industry is crying out, high-tech is crying out for manpower,” he said.

The ministry has “people on the ground” giving constant feedback regarding marketplace demand and job training, he reported.

The goal is to have most hareidi men working within a decade, Bennett declared.