One of the most horrific things I have noticed in Israel's public discourse is the talk of creating an "exemplary society." As a true-blood conservative, actively engineering society – any society – is just another way of intervening in people's private lives. I would take a flawed and imperfect society any day over a society that is just a structure of human resources officials with a sign on the door reading "Welcome to Hell".
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
However, for academic purposes, I would like to entertain the thought of what this effort would entail. What should we expect of such a society if it ever gets formed? Let me explain what I would want this society to have, however utopian this may sound.
First – the general public. I would like to see a society where the travails of the populace as a whole are also my problems. I would like to see individuals who are committed not just to themselves and their nuclear family but also to their neighbors and the poor in their community. My dream is that we have social safety nets of mutual support and assistance.
I would even dare say that I want to see a society that lacks crime. I imagine a society where there are no acts of robbery and where statistics on violent incidents are essentially a rounding error. Of course, this can be achieved through totalitarian methods like in North Korea but in my exemplary society, there will be no police force because it would be redundant. People's exemplary conduct will be a product of internal codes rather than their fear of being punished or the expectation of being rewarded.
There would be no drug addicts or alcoholics, or prostitutes. This society will redefine what we mean by couplehood and marriage, and ultimately we would declare this institution as a success. Divorce would be all but non-existent.
But wait, such a society does exist, at least in the general contours: Haredi society. I would be the last to embrace the Haredi lifestyle; it's far from being perfect, and like all sectors of Israeli society, it has its own internal problems. But it would not be a stretch to say that in the race toward achieving an "exemplary society" along the lines I have just described, they are well ahead of all of us.
My goal in this piece is not to analyze Haredi society but have Israelis second guess their own assumptions about our lifestyle. Perhaps we should take a renewed look at Haredi society, one that lacks condescension and perhaps – God forbid – show a keen interest to learn from them. Perhaps the patronizing toward the Haredim we so often adopt is just wrong? Yes, I may have described a utopian vision that is over the top, but it would be fair to say that in certain things that deal with how to live their lives, Haredim have figured things out more optimally than us.
I support having the state impose a core curriculum in the Haredi school system, but deep inside, I also worry that we Israelis as a whole need to study several core subjects as well.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
