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February 11, 2005
Trying an un-Orthodox profession
A new tour guide training course opens in Jerusalem to encourage
Charedi men to enter the labor market.
GAIL LICHTMAN ISRAEL PRESS SERVICE
Jerusalem
The spiritual centre of the three great monotheistic religions,
Jerusalem is a magnet for religious tourism from all over the world.
Of the many Jewish religious tourists visiting the city, a growing
number are ultra-Orthodox (Charedim). In order to meet the
special needs of these tourists, a new and unique course to train
ultra-Orthodox men for guiding in Jerusalem has been instituted.
Financed by the Jerusalem Foundation and run by Lekach –
the Ultra-Orthodox Training Centre in Jerusalem – in conjunction
with Yad Ben-Zvi and the City of David Project, the new program
provides an intensive, 140 hours of classroom study plus eight field
trips, covering 3,000 years of Jerusalem history – from the
First Temple period up to the modern 21st-century city. The course
also includes archeology, geography, ecology and demography, as
well as training in how to guide and communicate effectively.
In addition, the program answers another growing need in the ultra-Orthodox
community – employment training.
For years, ultra-Orthodox men in Israel have been encouraged by
their community to engage in full-time religious studies. As a consequence,
some 60 per cent of ultra-Orthodox men do not participate in the
labor market. According to the Bank of Israel research department,
the overall level of participation in the workforce in Israel is
55 per cent, 10 per cent lower than in any other western country.
About a third of this gap is due to ultra-Orthodox men who do not
work.
Recent budgetary cuts in government welfare spending have hit the
ultra-Orthodox community especially hard, resulting in a growing
awareness of the need to participate in the labor market. Unfortunately,
many ultra-Orthodox men lack marketable skills.
"The Jerusalem Foundation, as part of its activities for the
benefit of the general population of Jerusalem, is supporting this
innovative course in order to contribute to tourism in the city
and to the development of new employment channels for the ultra-Orthodox
population," explained Ruth Cheshin, president of the Jerusalem
Foundation.
The program's first class had 24 students, ranging in age from 20-something
to 70-something. They came from all sectors of the ultra-Orthodox
community and learned about the tour guide course from ads in religious
newspapers.
"To be a guide for ultra-Orthodox tourists requires more than
just looking and dressing like an ultra-Orthodox person," said
Yerucham Kanteman, program co-ordinator. "The guide must also
have the correct terminology and understand the mentality of his
audience. Not every tourist is interested in stories of the hazal
[the sages]. The ultra-Orthodox are. They want a different kind
of information. They want to know that on the spot they are standing
once stood the City of King David or Jerusalem of King Solomon's
time. They want to know how what they are seeing relates to specific
biblical passages and not so much about the Iron or the Bronze Ages.
So they need someone who lives the ultra-Orthodox life and grew
up on the Jewish sources."
Lekach was the natural choice for running this program. Over the
past five years, it has established itself as a professional training
centre for the ultra-Orthodox community in areas related to community
and society. It does so while providing an appropriate framework
that conforms to the sensibilities of this population. The centre
has conducted courses for sports instructors, dance teachers, librarians,
community centre professionals and photographers.
"We believe that those who serve the ultra-Orthodox need to
know the community and its culture and this can be best done by
the community itself and not by outsiders," said Lekach director
Naomi Borodiansky.
"In putting together the program, I contacted the most professional
bodies in the field with respect to building the curriculum and
providing instructors," Borodiansky continued. "Yad Ben-Zvi
specializes in land of Israel studies and the City of David Project
in research and instruction concerning Jerusalem in the time of
King David."
Lekach also has a very good employment track record, with a high
percentage of its course graduates finding work. Borodiansky is
equally optimistic about the tour guides.
"There are many school and yeshivah groups touring Jerusalem,
in addition to community groups and families," she said. "School
groups are really hesitant to take tour guides who are not ultra-Orthodox.
Plus the City of David Project and Yad Ben-Zvi employ guides."
But who says they have to be guides only for the ultra-Orthodox?
asks Kanteman. "There are many general tourists who are interested
in a Jerusalem experience and who would be happy to learn from up
close about the city's ethnic mosaic."
Yechezkel Levkovitz, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, finished a similar course
for tour guides that covered all of Israel. He is currently working
with ultra-Orthodox tour groups, as well as lecturing on ultra-Orthodox
neighborhoods and the Old Yishuv (the pre-Zionist Jewish
community in Israel). He was chosen to teach part of the Jerusalem
program and his approach bears out the importance of having someone
from inside the ultra-Orthodox community among the teachers.
"Being a tour guide gives me a great deal of satisfaction.
I love it," Levkovitz enthuses. "In teaching this group,
I am giving them the religious history of Jerusalem. This is a very
neglected area."
Yosef Haizraeli, a white-bearded father of nine and grandfather
of six, who teaches and writes on Torah subjects, echoes this sentiment.
"I have read a lot about the history of Israel – the different
waves of immigration and the Old Yishuv. Very often, the rabbis
and Jewish leaders are portrayed in Israeli society as not having
done very much for the country. This is just not true. All the early
immigrations were made up of religious people. These were the people
who came to this country in the most difficult times. I want to
be able to tell people about the history of the religious community
in Jerusalem and its contributions to society. I would like to bring
this information not just to ultra-Orthodox groups but also to general
tourists."
Uri Eldar, one of the younger participants, is a musician with his
own band who was studying in a kollel (yeshivah for married
men).
"I am originally from a modern Orthodox family from Tel-Aviv,"
he said. "Over the years, I got closer to Chassidism. All my
life I have loved to go places and learn about history. This course
has given me a wonderful opportunity – to make my hobby into
my profession. As a religious person, I see things through a spiritual
lens. As a tour guide, I will be bringing a love of Israel and the
values of the Jewish people to those I guide. What could be better?"
The feedback from course participants has been so positive that
Lekach is hoping to arrange additional groups, including one comprised
of ultra-Orthodox women.
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