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Photo: Gil Yohanan
Yair Lapid
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Lapid to haredim: You give sector bad name

Following criticism that he is anti-haredim, finance minister insists ultra-Orthodox public is guilty of incitement, says haredi media argue all secular women are promiscuous, equate him to Hitler

Finance Minister Yair Lapid addressed the Knesset plenum on Monday during deliberations on no-confidence motions and addressed the rift between him and haredi MKs.

 

"We read haredi papers that say all secular women are promiscuous," Lapid said, adding that an editorial in an ultra-Orthodox paper has compared him to Hitler.

 

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"The problem is not that you are haredim, but that you give haredim a bad name," the finance minister added, insisting that he does not defame haredim but rather works to bring about equality.

 

"No more privileges, no more huge budgets… Everything we did was follow the path by which Torah does mean an exemption from work. Torah does not come between Jews; it unites them.

 

"That is why we will invest half a billion shekels in a five-year plan that will encourage haredim to join the job market. That is why we believe that cutting budgets of yeshivot will not damage the world of Torah. They will go to work in the morning and study Torah at night."

 

The minister added that the Torah said that one is to work six days of the week, "not six days you shall sit in the yeshiva and let someone else pick up the check; not six days you shall receive stipends; not six days the secular shall work from dawn till dusk."

 

He added that the seculars have been "The Messiah's donkey for too many years."

 

"In 1979, 84% of haredi men were employed," Lapid noted, asking "Were your parents not as haredi as you are? Were they not as religious? Did they have lesser faith in God?

 

"To me, it is the opposite – your parents, unlike you, followed the Rambam," who, According to Lapid, believed that to live on charity is blasphemous.

 

 

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פרסום ראשון: 07.22.13, 22:37
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