jerusalem | Five haredi Orthodox men are standing around a large table crowded with bowls of chopped tomato, garlic, carrots and greens, their ritual fringes poking out from under their aprons. Each is wielding a large chef’s knife.
Their instructor, grasping a raw chicken thigh, tells his charges to cut along the bone and pull the meat apart with their hands.
Hunched over their cutting boards, the men get to work.
“I like good and tasty food, and I think I need to get to a higher level,” said Avraham Blau, a haredi father of seven hoping for a career as a cook. “I’m always critical of others’ food. I always have suggestions.”
Blau and his four classmates are the first students in a six-week culinary arts program run by the Jerusalem Kivun Center, a government-funded initiative launched last year to train haredi Orthodox Israelis for full-time employment. Graduates of the program are guaranteed jobs in kosher Jerusalem restaurants.
Increasing haredi participation in Israel’s labor force has been a central goal of the government. Many haredi men receive stipends to study Torah well into adult life, and only 45 percent participate in the labor force, as opposed to 81 percent of all Israeli men.
Most of the 2,500 haredim who have attended Kivun’s various classes have trained for desk jobs. But Kivun director Yehiel Amoyal said the culinary course helps meet Jerusalem’s high demand for chefs.
A love of cooking drove some students to the course.
Blau, 37, who has managed a print shop and jewelry store, has long dreamed of becoming a chef. But concerns about cooking nonkosher food and working with women kept him from culinary school until he learned of Kivun’s course.
The course covers 21 cooking skills, from desserts to pasta, meat and fish.
“I have a lot of experience with meat, and I was weak on dairy,” said Blau, who now enjoys making lasagna and quiche and will work at a branch of Café Café, a chain of upscale dairy restaurants, after the course.
Cooking may prove difficult for haredi men, as restaurants and hotels often demand they work nights, weekends and holidays. But Blau says he’s willing to make that sacrifice to pursue a craft he loves.