I came across a tweet this week by anonymous user “AP,” an “average person from New York.” I was taken by it in the best way. I stopped scrolling and felt a real sense of pride in his piece, so unusually warm towards Haredi Jews. I wanted to echo it and adapt it for our own situation here in the United Kingdom.
Over our Passover tables, at kiddush and even during synagogue services, there has been plenty of talk about Haredi Jews. Two Jews, three opinions.
Some of the talk has been positive. Much has been negative. But most of it has been plain ignorant. But what they all have in common is that they simply have no idea that Haredim, in truth, just don’t care what the world thinks of them.
I can say with confidence that there was no chat in the mikvahs or shtiebels about how traditional, Modern Orthodox, Reform or any other stream of Jewry views them. Haredim really, truly, deeply do not care.
They travel on the Tube looking like they’ve stepped out of another era. They pray out loud, shaking and with fervor, while others may just whisper quietly. The men wear beards, now fashionable, and hats, which definitely are not. The women wear wigs, scarves and hats, and sometimes all three. They dress like it’s still the Victorian era.
People criticize them from a place of ignorance, but the truth is that those critics cannot even imagine what Haredi life is like.
They cannot imagine what it means to vanish from the world every single week. When Shabbat begins, they’re gone. No phones, no emails, no group chats, no headlines, no chaos. Call them or text them all you want, they won’t pick up. They won’t even know. And honestly, they really do not care.
Think about it. While most of us, even around our own Shabbat tables, are caught the thicket of current affairs or the latest culture war, Haredi families are sitting with their eight children, singing ancient songs, dressed in their finest for no one but God, talking about the weekly Torah portion.
They walk to shul in the rain without an umbrella. In the sunshine, they wear their tall fur shtreimels and spodiks. Because for them, going to prayer services is not optional. Keeping their culture and tradition not dependent on the day’s weather.
On Shabbat, they are screen-free, tech-free and world-free. For most non-Jews—and let’s face it, most Jews as well—it is hard to imagine what it means to live by a calendar that makes no sense to anyone else. To be proudly out of office when no one else is. To fast on a random weekday. To miss out on events, meetings or deals because it’s Yom Tov.
Haredi Jews are mocked, often by other Jews, for being disconnected from the world. They are criticized for not speaking English in a way that other minority groups are not. They are judged for their clothing in a way that other faith groups are not. And yet, they carry on, undeterred. Not caring about the criticism.
And somehow, many still manage to work, run successful companies, donate sums to charity, raise large families and live fulfilled lives, in communities full with welfare operations and charities for those less fortunate, ill or aging. They are thriving.
Why?
It’s actually far simpler than you might think. Ask any parent how many hours their children spend watching TV, scrolling on social media, gaming, going to ballet or playing football. Haredim live with clarity and focus. They waste less time chasing the noise.
They focus on ancient Jewish values. They are unmoved by trends. Those values have been tested over centuries. They are still timely, still relevant and still central, to Haredim.
No, modern world, they are not rude or arrogant. They just do not care what you think because they already have something better than likes or clicks. They have conviction. They are not ashamed of their prayers, their headgear, their haircuts or their clothes. They are not ashamed of their lives or of the rules that shape them.
They are not trying to be different. They are trying to stay loyal to something eternal. In a world obsessed with change, they hold fast to what they know is right. You cannot buy that. You cannot fake it. And many of you simply do not understand it.
But Haredim proudly live it, every single day.
Professionally, we advocate for Haredi education and for Jewish religious rights that all Jews should care about—shechita, brit milah and more. As one professor said to me, we must show a united front with the Haredi communities, as any legislative attacks on them would deeply undermine those rights, too. They are now in the crosshairs of an education bill threatening to close their yeshivahs. They were targeted—first by anti-faith activists, and then by government.
Other religious and traditional communities, unfortunately, may follow. Our conservative, faith-driven values—often misunderstood and often untranslatable in today’s secular public sphere—can be whittled away or stamped out altogether by this deliberately discriminatory, loaded legislation. The Haredi community with their yeshivahs, alongside home education, is in a sense the last and strongest bastion, holistically and culturally, for faith communities in this country.
X (formerly Twitter), it seems, still holds the occasional gem. This man from New York may be “average,” but his post was anything but. His thoughts on the Haredim apply in Britain, too. They are different, but stop trying to change them. For our own good as a society, they simply do not care to be changed.