"You Are Our Nightmare": The Haredi Researcher Fighting to Change the Society She Grew Up In, and the Price She Paid
Dr. Nachumi Yaffe, a researcher of Haredi society at Tel Aviv University, tells of her personal journey from a closed Hasidic childhood to academia at Princeton and Harvard, and of her run for the Knesset. She describes the personal price she paid, including a remark by an inspector in the Haredi education system who called her "our nightmare," and the Haredi war room she founded after October 7.
Dr. Nachumi Yaffe, a researcher of Haredi society at Tel Aviv University, tells her personal journey in an episode of the podcast "Ad HaKtze." Until age 12 she went with her father to synagogue, the only girl in the Hasidic men's section, until she was expelled from it. At 34 she arrived at the National Library, saw students on campus and felt that "they stole what was mine." Since then she studied in secret at university, reached Princeton and Harvard, and is now running for the Knesset. She speaks about the Haredi war room she founded after October 7 and the rupture she discovered in its wake, and about the struggle over conscription. The personal price she paid was expressed in a remark by an inspector in the Haredi education system: "You are our nightmare."