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A Marriage of Convenience
Ultra-Orthodox Women Go Hi-Tech
By Samuel Sokol and Avraham Zuroff
Photography by Avi Levine
Modiin Illit
While the recent global economic crisis has been undiscriminating
in its path of destruction, it has nonetheless given rise to a somewhat
bizarre marriage of convenience between two unlikely forces: Israeli
high-tech firms and ultra-Orthodox (Chareidim) women.
Most Chareidim in the workforce are women, who work in order
to allow their husbands to learn Torah full-time. Until recently,
Chareidi women’s seminaries primarily prepared their students
for a teaching career. But few available positions left most of the
graduates unemployed. On the other end of the spectrum, many
high-tech firms have been making cutbacks due to the recession;
an affordable staffing solution with added value was too tempting
to pass over.
A study recently conducted by the University of Manchester states,
“By the year 2020, the Chareidi population of Israel will double to
one million and make up seventeen percent of the total population.”
With this sector traditionally suffering from high unemployment
rates, such projected numbers bode calamitously on both the
Orthodox community as well as Israeli society-at-large facing the
tax burden of sustaining these communities.
Rabbi Gutterman is the mayor of Modiin Illit, a Chareidi town
located halfway between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. From the onset
of his term, Gutterman set out to improve the [un]employment
situation. According to the National Insurance Institute (Bituach
Leumi) only a dozen or so residents were interested in jobs. “That
couldn’t be!” Gutterman told government officials.
Unsatisfied by the Institute’s response, Rabbi Gutterman decided to
do his homework. He placed an ad in a local newspaper calling for
CVs from local residents. He thought that he’d get a low response
from residents suspicious of his intentions. The results were beyond
his wildest expectations. “I took one of my secretaries to be in charge
of the sorting of the job applications. Already during the first night,
we received 800 faxes!”
Next, Gutterman put to use the skills he gained while assisting Rabbi
Avraham Ravitz, the late parliamentarian who chaired the Knesset
Finance Committee for many years. “Everything that I know about
economics is from on-the-job training,” Rabbi Gutterman quips.
“Of course, learning Talmud helps in analyzing data.” The mayor
decided to implement a government plan for calling centers, already
used in the 1990s for new Russian immigrants and tailor it to the
needs of Chareidim. He explains that both groups were similar in
that they contain highly intelligent individuals who lack marketable
skills.
Rabbi Gutterman took the existing plan, and scaled it down to five
hundred employees. He then enlisted the aid of Joe Rosenbaum of
the US-based Madison Title Agency to establish a pilot project for
English-speaking women. Rosenbaum agreed to take a gamble. He
felt that at the very least it would be an act of charity to support
families of Torah scholars, Rabbi Gutterman recalls. However
Rosenbaum’s CityBook became a success story, hiring eighty
employees by the end of its first year of operation. After Rosenbaum
paved the way, other hi-tech businesses were already knocking on
Gutterman’s doors.
You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat it, Too
The salaries are relatively low, when compared with similar jobs in
Tel-Aviv. For example, one woman working in Quality Analysis at
a local hi-tech firm said that she was receiving less than NIS 4,000
[$1000 US] a month while others starting out in Tel-Aviv earn
between NIS 5,000 to 6,000. Her non-observant colleague with an
engineering degree receives NIS 13,000 a month.
Rabbi Gutterman explains: “In hi-tech, you need training and
experience. No one is going to hire you without that.” He adds that
the lower salary expectations are part of the incentives for companies
to open up branches in Chareidi towns. “Besides, the companies
realize that they’ll have to pay experienced workers more. Project
managers make about as much as they would in Tel-Aviv,” Rabbi
Gutterman comments.
“But not everyone is going to become a project manager. And how
could a family support itself on less than NIS 4,000 a month, and
pay for babysitting expenses, as well?” Eighteen asked.
“Look, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too,” Gutterman responds,
adding that the first workers to be dismissed in the economic crunch
are the employees receiving the higher salaries. Indeed, the woman
with the engineering degree was one of the first to be dismissed.
Despite the low salaries, Modiin Illit has become a much wealthier
city since its inception 16 years ago. The town was founded as a
solution for affordable housing for young married yeshiva students.
Back then, the lone pizza shop closed due to lack of business. Today,
the town boasts three commercial banks and several shopping
centers. Gutterman points out the dramatic increase of car owners –
and traffic jams – since his economic plan took off.
>
Another Israel Review
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013 1. Matrix & CityBook
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015 2. Mayor Gutterman
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017 3. Workspace of the
018 Chareidi Women
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4. Modiin Illit Town Hall
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036 “In comparison to India and other places, where high turnover
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of staff is an issue, the company’s religious workers have a
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strong sense of company loyalty.”
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A Good Match Mayor Gutterman explains that CAL’s favorite workers
051 are its Modiin Illit employees because of its high rate
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053 Matrix Israel is a prime example of a company that has of employee retention. “Take for example their main
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055 benefited from this marriage of convenience. branch in Givatayim. Most of their workers are students.
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Libbie Affen is the COO at Matrix Global offshore They have career plans, and don’t plan to spend many
058 services. She has set up two religious divisions at years working there. In contrast, the women in our
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060 Matrix: a Quality Assurance department and a Web town aren’t necessarily interested in moving up the
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062 Development department. Affen collaborated with corporate ladder,” the mayor says. “They’re happy just
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Rabbi Gutterman to provide tax breaks and subsidies to have a job that pays the bills and that’s close to home.
065 to firms willing to relocate their Israel operations to the Employers gain efficiency, as well. The workers don’t
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067 insular enclave. waste time surfing the Internet. And they ask whether
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Affen comments on the win-win situation, “There is a With a mostly secular management staff, issues of
072 major fiscal advantage in employing Chareidi women. religious tolerance and mutual understanding are crucial
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074 Since there is a lower standard of living in their for the successful operation of the firm.
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076 community, and because women with many children
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living in an isolated religious community such as Modiin According to Affen, the company voluntarily committed
079 Illit are not always willing to commute to central cities itself to seeking adjudication in issues of Jewish law and
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081 such as Tel-Aviv, Matrix is able to pay its workers less custom from Rabbi Meir Kessler, the town’s chief rabbi.
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083 than they would an equally qualified employee in another The rabbi sends a personal representative from the local
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city.” She herself is also Orthodox, with a degree in religious council twice a week to make the rounds in
086 Computer Science from Thomas Edison University and Matrix’s offices. Every secular employee who is hired is
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088 thirty years of technology and managerial experience in given a brief orientation regarding the workers’ religious
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090 a wide array of capacities, including the post of former way of life.
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head of the Computer Department at the Ministry of
093 Foreign Affairs. “Another advantage is that the Chareidi
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095 women tend to remain at their jobs. In comparison to From Off-shore to Close-Shore
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India and other places, where high turnover of staff is
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an issue, the company’s religious workers have a strong Today, outsourcing in Israel has become the catchword
100 sense of company loyalty.” in creating new job opportunities, especially in cities
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During the interview, a group of representatives from Modiin Illit and Beitar Illit.
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Intel arrived and were given a tour of the facility as
107 prospective customers. Matrix customers include such As the high-quality output of Chareidim in the business
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109 firms as the Bezeq telephone company, Tel-Aviv based world becomes more well-known, it is believed that
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educational software firm Time to Know and the Israeli potential employers will change their hiring practices
112 government portal, www.gov.co.il. and tap into this vast resource.
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116 CAL, an Israeli provider of Visa credit cards, is the latest
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addition to Modiin Illit’s hi-tech companies. It currently
119 employs several hundred residents. ///
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