Environmental responsibility in the orthodox jewish (Haredi) community

This lecture presents an empirical study of Haredi attitudes toward environmental issues in Israel. It focuses on the tension between the relatively low salience of environmental language and  and the fact that Haredi communities often live in ways that are highly sustainable in practice

The lecture will examine how environmental ideas are understood, translated, or resisted when they enter a community whose moral language, social priorities, and political relationships with the state are shaped by a different value system. Rather than assuming that “green” behavior necessarily reflects environmental ideology

Using the case of Haredi society, the lecture will highlight the importance of language in policy and social change. It will show how environmental policy is not received only as a technical intervention, but also as a message about identity, status, fairness, and belonging. The discussion will therefore connect empirical findings on environmental attitudes and behavior to broader questions about the relationship between values, norms, and political reality in minority communities

Dr. Yaron Hershko