The government, rabbis, and general public have been at their wits’ ends arguing about whether and how to encourage haredi (ultra-Orthodox) yeshiva students to join the Israel Defense Forces and/or get an academic education to be able to support their families and strengthen the economy.
According to newly published research supported by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and published in the journal Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction, 93.8% of haredi students at the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT) described having a positive experience in volunteer programs.
Haredi students’ participation in volunteer programs offered by their colleges can make other members of their community more inclined to enroll in higher education, the study reveals.
The study, led by Dr. Zvika Orr, Prof. Edith Blit-Cohen, Maya Vardi, Bina Beieri, and Prof. Daphna Golan-Agnon, found that student volunteers from underrepresented minority groups like Israel’s ultra-Orthodox sector can bridge the gap between academic institutions and their communities by serving as agents of societal change.
“This is the first study to explore community engagement programs involving haredi students, and it is our hope that the findings can serve as a template for analyzing students’ community engagement among various minority groups worldwide,” said Orr, a senior lecturer in the Selma Jelinek School of Nursing at JCT, who, along with Dr. Adi Finkelstein, is the co-founder and co-director of the college’s Lev Bakehila community engagement program.
The paper examined responses from questionnaires and in-depth qualitative interviews with students enrolled at JCT, many of whom are first-generation students. A case study on JCT students contained within the report aimed to show how social engagement can impact minority and underrepresented groups navigating the academic world.
Student responses were based on several volunteer programs, including Perah, a volunteer framework in which college students serve as tutors to younger children and provide them with academic and emotional assistance; Lev Bakehila, where students work to promote the rights of people with disabilities affiliated with Jerusalem’s haredi community; and the Payis Scholarships and Impact Program, in which students engage in volunteer work in a variety of fields and organizations, such as schools, community centers, hospitals, and assisted-living facilities.
Haredi student volunteers: experience is informative and enriching
“Through their community engagement, haredi students act as agents of knowledge and change in their communities. Although this process is wrought with challenges and dilemmas, the haredi student volunteers described their experiences as informative and enriching. This case study illuminates how community engagement can help underrepresented students cope with navigating their communities and the academic world,” said Prof. Blit-Cohen of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU).
Responses from students participating in the study revealed that their community engagement experiences helped them bridge the gap between the haredi and academic worlds. The authors said that community engagement serves as a positive catalyst among the ultra-Orthodox because volunteering coincides with one of the basic religious and cultural values practiced in their community, where the prevailing discourse emphasizes charitable and benevolent endeavors, acts of loving kindness, and compassion.
Additionally, community engagement work helped them foster social change within their communities. During their service, they were able to formulate a new perception of social phenomena and offer this newly adopted perspective within their communities. In the interviews, those involved in a disability rights project, for example, mentioned their sense of commitment to changing social perceptions about people with disabilities in their haredi communities and beyond.
Along with the many well-documented social and academic benefits associated with community engagement, volunteer service also reflects JCT’s institutional commitment not only to excellence on academic and religious levels but also to fulfilling the college’s responsibility to make positive contributions to society.
The study’s authors chose to spotlight haredi students because they are often caught at the crossroads between their community and academia. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), in 2020, only four percent of Israeli students were ultra-Orthodox, less than a third of their share in the college-aged population, and the dropout rate among haredi students is almost three times higher (23.9%) than the rate among non-haredi Jewish students (8.2%).
“Given our findings, we are calling for more inclusive community engagement programs that reflect and further enhance the diversity in higher education,” Orr concluded. “It appears that the key solution for the optimal integration of haredi students in community engagement programs should be understanding the unique needs and cultural sensitivities of this community.”