Haredim
Israel's fastest-growing Jewish community, Ashkenazi and Sephardi: its size and streams, how its towns have voted, what it thinks on the issues, and the draft fight.
Share of valid votes cast at polling stations in Bnei Brak, Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit, Elad and Kiryat Ye'arim combined.
- United Torah Judaism
- Shas
- Likud
- Union of Right-Wing Parties (incl. Otzma Yehudit)
- Otzma Yehudit, running alone
- Yamina
- Religious Zionism joint list (incl. Otzma Yehudit)
The numbers: How these towns voted: five Haredi towns combined, 2019–2022
| List | Apr 2019 | Sep 2019 | Mar 2020 | Mar 2021 | Nov 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Torah Judaism | 62.1% | 61.9% | 61.8% | 60.8% | 59.7% |
| Shas | 27.1% | 28.7% | 29.7% | 28.2% | 30.8% |
| Likud | 4.6% | 4.0% | 5.1% | 3.0% | 2.6% |
| Union of Right-Wing Parties (incl. Otzma Yehudit) | 3.0% | – | – | – | – |
| Otzma Yehudit, running alone | – | 2.0% | 0.5% | – | – |
| Yamina | – | 1.6% | 1.4% | – | – |
| Religious Zionism joint list (incl. Otzma Yehudit) | – | – | – | 5.7% | 5.4% |
Source: Central Elections Committee locality results (files for Knesset 21–25), computed for this page, Apr 2019 – Nov 2022. Each list is shown under the name it ran with that year; a dash means it did not run in that form. Otzma Yehudit ran inside the Union of Right-Wing Parties in April 2019, alone in September 2019 and March 2020, and inside the Religious Zionism joint list (with Religious Zionism and Noam) in 2021 and 2022. Envelope ballots are counted nationally, not by town. Files for earlier elections: media21–media24.bechirot.gov.il/files/expc.csv.
See Bnei Brak on the vote map: United Torah Judaism (59.8%), Nov 2022
Facts checked October 5, 2026. Every number shows its source and date.
Size, growth and geography
Haredim (singular Haredi), often called ultra-Orthodox in English, are Israel's most strictly religious Jewish community, with their own school systems and their own parties. In Central Bureau of Statistics figures for 2025, released in September 2026, 11.5% of Jewish adults described themselves as Haredi (CBS via Ynet, Sept 2026). Because the community is very young, its share of the whole population is larger than its share of adults.
The community grows by about 4.2% a year, and 57% of Haredim are under 20, against 31% of the general population. Fertility has fallen from 7.5 births per woman in 2003–05 to 6.5 in 2021–23, still about three times the rate among other Jewish women (2.2) (IDI, Dec 2025).
Projections differ. A CBS projection cited by IDI has Haredim at about 20% of the population by 2040 and 24.4% by 2050; IDI's own estimate for 2050 is about 22% (IDI, Feb 2026). An older CBS projection, from 2017, put the share at 32% by 2065 (Israel National News, May 2017). The Haredi Institute's 2065 scenarios range from 17.7%, if fertility falls substantially, to 22.6%, if it stays at its 2022 level (Haredi Institute, 2025).
The community is not one bloc. By the Haredi Institute's count, about a third are Sephardi and the rest belong to Ashkenazi streams: the Lithuanian (Litvish) stream, meaning non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredim, and the Hasidic courts, with Chabad counted separately.
Share of the Haredi population by stream.
Source: Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, annual report 2024, 2024. The institute's Hebrew report from December 2024 gives the Sephardi share as 32%. IDI's yearbook does not break its figures down by stream.
The streams map loosely onto parties. United Torah Judaism (UTJ) joins Agudat Yisrael, the Hasidic party, and Degel HaTorah, the Lithuanian one (Davar, Sept 2026; UTJ). Shas, the Sephardi Haredi party, is a Haredi-led party with a traditional base: many of its voters are not Haredi (Shas; see Masorti Israel).
Most Haredim live in a handful of cities. In 2023 Jerusalem held 22.6% of all Haredim, Bnei Brak 15.6%, and the four "satellite" cities (Beit Shemesh, Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit and Elad) 25% (IDI, Dec 2025).
Haredi residents and their share of each city's population.
| City | Haredi residents | Share of city |
|---|---|---|
| Jerusalem | 292,600 | 28.9% |
| Bnei Brak | 209,700 | 94.8% |
| Beit Shemesh | 108,000 | 73.2% |
| Modi'in Illit (West Bank) | 86,600 | 99.1% |
| Beitar Illit (West Bank) | 67,100 | 98.5% |
| Ashdod | 52,600 | 22.4% |
| Elad | 48,700 | 94.4% |
Strongest shade: 100%. Source: Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, annual report 2024, 2023. Modi'in Illit and Beitar Illit are settlements, Haredi cities in the West Bank; their residents are included in settler population totals.
Two of the largest, Modi'in Illit and Beitar Illit, are settlements, Haredi cities in the West Bank. Their residents are counted in settler population totals (see Settlers). Over the past decade, about 75,000 Haredim left Jerusalem and 42,000 left Bnei Brak (Haredi Institute via Ynet, Dec 2024).
Work divides the community by sex. Haredi women's employment has risen to about the level of other Jewish women; Haredi men's has been flat for a decade.
Share of people aged 25–66 who are employed.
| Group | 2002 | 2015 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haredi men | about one-third | 51% | 53% |
| Haredi women | just over half | 78% | 81% |
| Other Jewish men | – | – | 87% |
| Other Jewish women | – | – | 82% |
Strongest shade: 100%. Source: Israel Democracy Institute, Statistical Report on Ultra-Orthodox Society in Israel 2025, Dec 2025. 2002 figures are the report's own wording; 2015 figures are read from its chart. The report's summary gives 54% for Haredi men; The Media Line's account of the same report gives 53% and 81% for 2025. Figures for other Jews are for 2024–25.
Haredi men earn on average 49% of what other Jewish men earn (IDI via The Media Line, Dec 2025).
Poverty and home ownership have to be read together, and the sources disagree on both. IDI counts 33% of Haredi families below the poverty line in 2023, against 14% of other Jewish families, and IDI's report, as summarized by The Media Line, says 75% of Haredim own their apartments (IDI, Dec 2025; The Media Line, Dec 2025). The Haredi Institute counts 40% of Haredi households as poor in 2022, against 11% of other Jewish households, and puts Haredi home ownership at about 65%, down from 69%, against 61% among other Jews (Haredi Institute, 2025).
How their towns have voted, 2019–2022
The table combines five towns: Bnei Brak, Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit and Elad, each more than 94% Haredi in the Haredi Institute's 2023 count, and Kiryat Ye'arim. It shows how these towns voted, computed from the Central Elections Committee's locality files; it is not a count of how every Haredi voted.
About nine in ten votes in these towns go to UTJ or Shas in every election. Likud took between 2.6% and 5.1%. The only outside list that grew was the Religious Zionism joint list, which the Israel Democracy Institute places on the far right: after Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit joined it in 2021, it took 5.7% and then 5.4%, with 11.2% in Elad in 2022. Turnout in the five towns ran from 76.3% to 80.0%, against 67.4% to 71.5% nationally.
The split between the two Haredi parties differs from town to town. Elad is the one town where Shas leads:
Share of valid votes cast at each town's polling stations, Knesset election 25.
UTJShasReligious Zionism joint listLikud
- Bnei Brak
- Modi'in Illit
- Beitar Illit
- Elad
- Kiryat Ye'arim
- Jerusalem (mixed)
- Beit Shemesh (mixed)
The numbers: How these towns voted, November 2022
| Town | UTJ | Shas | Religious Zionism joint list | Likud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bnei Brak | 59.8% | 30.2% | 4.4% | 3.4% |
| Modi'in Illit | 77.5% | 19.8% | 1.9% | 0.5% |
| Beitar Illit | 59.4% | 30.8% | 7.8% | 1.4% |
| Elad | 34.9% | 49.6% | 11.2% | 3.4% |
| Kiryat Ye'arim | 64.6% | 22.9% | 7.9% | 3.0% |
| Jerusalem (mixed) | 23.8% | 18.3% | 14.2% | 19.1% |
| Beit Shemesh (mixed) | 38.8% | 21.6% | 14.7% | 15.5% |
Source: Central Elections Committee locality results, computed for this page, Nov 1, 2022. The Religious Zionism joint list included Otzma Yehudit and Noam. Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh have large Haredi populations but are mixed cities. Envelope ballots are counted nationally, not by town.
Surveys show the same picture. In IDI's pooled post-election surveys, self-identified Haredim voted 58% UTJ, 28% Shas, 7% Religious Zionism–Otzma and 4% Likud in 2022; 86% voted for a Haredi list, down from 89% in 2021 (IDI, June 2026). Nationally, Shas won 8.25% and 11 seats in 2022 and UTJ 5.88% and 7 seats (CEC, Nov 2022).
Shas's vote reaches well beyond Haredim. A veteran Shas activist told the Times of Israel in August 2026: "Shas has a base of four seats. It will hold on to that no matter what. But everything beyond that is up for grabs." The paper describes the rest as moderately traditional, working-class voters on Shas's periphery (Times of Israel, Aug 2026).
For 2026, UTJ filed one list, but with three factions, for the first time apart from a few days in 1992: Degel HaTorah, Agudat Yisrael and a new faction, Homat Torat Yisrael, led by Meir Porush and Elyakim Stark, whose members may split from UTJ once elected (Davar, Sept 2026). Asked in July 2026 to commit to Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc after the election, UTJ's Moshe Gafni cited his rabbi's ruling that "as of now, there is no bloc," and Agudat Yisrael answered, "First you pass the laws, then we'll talk," according to a Channel 12 report cited by the Times of Israel (Times of Israel, July 2026). Only 36% of Haredim say they will vote for the same party as always, against 7% of the public (IDI, Aug 2026). No 2026 survey of Haredi vote intention with a full Haredi sample was found.
What they think on the issues
The draft. Draft orders and arrests of yeshiva students who did not report (called "draft evaders" in Israeli debate) are covered on the Haredi draft page. In early 2024, IDI found that Haredim were "the only group in which the majority of respondents think that the new circumstances created by the war should not affect the issue of conscription of Haredim in the future" (IDI, March 2024). In July 2026, IDI found "very high levels of support among Haredim" for the law to halt arrests of what it called "deserters," against 25.3% support among Jews overall (IDI Voice Index, July 2026; IDI data, July 2026). In 2025, 0.3% of Haredi men aged 21 to 44 served in the reserves in an average month, against 1.7% of secular men (IDI, Aug 2026).
Courts. Haredi trust in the Supreme Court fell from 11% in 2023 to 7% in 2024 and 3% in 2025, and 93.5% agreed that the court "intervenes too much in government decisions" (IDI Democracy Index, May 2025).
Share expressing trust in each institution.
HaredimSecular
- Supreme Court
- Attorney General
- IDF
- Government
- Knesset
The numbers: Trust in institutions: Haredi and secular Jews
| Institution | Haredim | Secular |
|---|---|---|
| Supreme Court | 3% | 66% |
| Attorney General | 1% | 65% |
| IDF | 61% | 87% |
| Government | 45% | 9% |
| Knesset | 34.5% | 8% |
Source: Israel Democracy Institute, Israeli Democracy Index 2025 (Tables 2.4, 2.6, 2.12, 2.14, 2.18), May 4–28, 2025, 1,205 Jewish respondents
War and hostages. Haredi trust in the IDF was 61% in 2025, below every other Jewish group. Yet the share agreeing that "Israel ensures the security of its citizens" rose from 23% in 2022 to 68% in 2025, while among secular Jews it fell from 52% to 30% (IDI, May 2025). In August 2025, a majority of Shas and UTJ voters supported "the release of all the hostages in exchange for the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of the IDF from all of the Gaza Strip," while support for Jewish settlement in Gaza was highest among Haredim (IDI, Sept 2025). In September 2026, about a quarter of Haredim said October 7 was central to their vote, against about three-quarters or more of secular Jews (IDI, Sept 2026).
West Bank. No 2026 survey publishes a Haredi figure on the West Bank. Pew's 2025 report combines Haredim with Datiim: 78% of that group said continued settlement building helps Israel's security (secular Jews 27%), and 9% think Israel and a Palestinian state can coexist peacefully (secular 25%) (Pew, June 2025).
Religion and state. 41% of Haredim name parties' positions on religion and state as the most influential factor in their choice, against 17% of non-Haredim; 5% name security (IDI, Aug 2026). In 2025, 73% said the democratic component of the state is too dominant relative to the Jewish one (IDI, May 2025).
Economy. 3% of Haredim name the economy as their most influential factor, against 21% of non-Haredim (IDI, Aug 2026). Haredim are the Jewish group most satisfied with their own lives: 85% call their personal situation good or very good, against 43% of secular Jews (IDI, May 2025).
Who they are
The draft fight has moved onto the streets. On June 1, 2026, after six yeshiva students were arrested (by the group's own count), the Jerusalem Faction, a movement of about 60,000, used its "national alert system" to block Route 4 at the Ganot Interchange, the entrance to Jerusalem, and roads in Bnei Brak, Safed and Netivot.
We will die and not enlist!
Another part of the community takes the opposite view, and in 2026 it has its own list. The Haredi Public party launched its campaign in August 2026 with billboards reading "Those who do not learn should serve" and "Haredi children too need math and English."
Tens of thousands of Haredim, hundreds of thousands of Haredim, are asking the same question and seeking an alternative, and they are right.
Its chairman, Moti Leitner, said: "To fight poverty, we will work to ensure our children acquire basic life skills and study math and English at a high level" (Times of Israel, Aug 2026).