Majority of ultra-Orthodox men in Israel lack basic English skills – study
26% of ultra-Orthodox Israeli men don’t know English; 28% describe their English as ‘poor,’ and fewer are learning English in school than in the past
Most ultra-Orthodox men in Israel lack basic English language skills, according to a study published by the Israel Democracy Institute on Monday.
Conducted in December 2021, the study consisted of 564 ultra-Orthodox Israeli men and women over the age of 18; the women were included in order to answer questions about their sons’ education. It evaluated the level of English proficiency among its participants according to self-evaluation.
The study found that 26% of ultra-Orthodox men said they have no knowledge of English, while 28% rated their English as “poor.” Some 19% defined their English as “so-so.”
Only 18% described their English as either “quite good” or “very good,” with an additional 7% saying English was their native tongue.
Though Hebrew and Arabic are Israel’s languages, most Israelis at minimum possess a rudimentary-to-fair knowledge of English, which is largely utilized in business, academia and when traveling abroad.
The IDI study noted that English studies were more popular in ultra-Orthodox schools for girls. Schools for boys tend to focus more on religious studies, rarely including English or other secular fields of study in the curriculum.
“In some ultra-Orthodox educational institutions for boys, English is totally absent from the curriculum, while in others it is included, but usually only for a few hours a week and on a low level,” the study noted.
The study found that 30% of ultra-Orthodox men who graduated from ultra-Orthodox schools studied English in elementary school, while noting that this was trending downward among younger ultra-Orthodox men. Over half (54%) of the respondents over 45 said they had studied English in elementary school, compared to only 18% of those ages 18-24.
Some 34% of ultra-Orthodox parents said they would support English studies in school, while 44% expressed interest in their sons studying English in an informal educational setting.
A lack of English comprehension is seen as a major hurdle to integrating the ultra-Orthodox into the skilled workforce, amid a concerted effort to motivate a higher participation rate in the labor market.
On Sunday, tech giant Google announced a new $25 million initiative that would fund skills development programs over the next five years for members of underrepresented communities in Israel to give them a leg up into the country’s celebrated tech sector. These include the ultra-Orthodox and Arab sectors, women and residents of the economic and geographic periphery in the north and south of the country.
Last week, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said he intends to halve the number of hours that ultra-Orthodox men must spend in study in order to qualify for state stipends – from 40 weekly hours to 20 – freeing up their time to join the workforce.
He said the idea was to provide “positive incentives” to encourage more ultra-Orthodox men and Arab women to find jobs.
According to a previous IDI study, Israel’s rapidly growing ultra-Orthodox community is expected to double within 16 years, less than half the time it will take for the rest of the population to increase by the same proportion.
The study also found that ultra-Orthodox households on average earn less than half of the income of other Jewish households.
However, other trends show more community members entering higher education and shifting toward higher-paying jobs.
Stuart Winer and Ricky Ben-David contributed to this report.
