Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Do the Math in Bid to Enter Workforce
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When Shimon Shur, an 18-year-old Israeli from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish home, decided he wanted to work rather than spend his days immersed in religious studies, he first had to learn to multiply and divide.
His education at that point, grounded in his community’s tradition, consisted almost solely of learning Jewish texts such as the Talmud. He knew virtually no English and barely any math. All he knew, he said, is that such a life wasn’t for him.