Alex Trivunovic: “Are you guys worried about Israel once the haredis take over? I mean due to their unwillingness to get a secular education.”
Chaim Amalek: “It will be several generations yet for that to happen. The haredim are not exactly “zionists” but rather believe in their rebbis and in superstitions from 18th century eastern europe. I cannot peer that far into the future, except to say that they are not the stuff of which a nation can be built.”
Luke: “I am not worried Alex. They will adapt. More of them are working. They have high IQs. I wouldn’t bet against them. Alex, very few of them are anti-Zionist. They’re not Zionist, but they’re usually glad to live in the Jewish state and want it to prosper. Jews are incredibly pragmatic. They don’t see that as a conflict with ideals. Jewish ideals are rooted in reality, in what makes sense in a difficult circumstance when you have to choose between competing goods.”
Chaim: “It was the secular German Jews who got out when they could. It was the secular Russian Jews who fought back against the Germans. The Haredim? They sat in their yeshivas until the Germans stopped by to collect them for slaughter. But B’H’, their leaders, like the Satmar Rebbe, managed to get away in the nick of time. As I think about this, I believe that what the haredi will do is sit in their yeshivas learning, and hire mercenaries to do their fighting for them. Every pushka (charity can) in Brooklyn will say something like ‘for what it takes to fill this can with quarters, we can hire three shvartzes to fight for us while we daven and learn.'”
