Shtisel Uncovered: The New Haredim

If the organized political left ever hopes to regain political prominence in Israel, they will need to carve out new spaces for partnership, including with those who haven't been considered natural allies. A rapidly growing minority, the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel comprises 12 percent of the population. Yet, often this is not a community that the left has sought out for partnership, while the right-wing has actively and deliberately courted haredi Jews. For any true path to partnership to be possible, something must transpire within progressive movements in Israel: to begin to view haredi Jews with all of the human complexity and inspiring multiplicity of any diverse community. That is why Shtisel, the award-winning Netflix drama by Yehonatan Indursky, is so important. Indurksy has created a vibrant world where haredi protagonists are fully formed and fleshed-out characters—deeply, radically human—who live out and contend with their most human desires in the Yiddish-tinged vernacular of contemporary Jerusalem. Shtisel offers us is a way in to a world too often shrouded in stereotype, disinterest, and unconcern. Shtisel asks of us to listen deeper. And if we do, we take notice of the underlying currents of change. We can see that a new haredi movement is emerging. If we listen more closely, we can hear the forces of change afoot. Haredi politics is not static. And haredi society is not monolithic. Today, “new haredim” like Pnina Pfeuffer are broadening the scope of what a haredi politics looks like, defining a new discourse that spans beyond social and economic challenges, one that is about haredi feminism and equally about justice and contending with the occupation. That's the starting point for social change.