When Israel was brand-new, not only had the number of Jews in the world had been drastically reduced, but there was an even more drastic reduction in serious religious scholars (even then, American Jews were more likely to be secular, the Reform movement was almost entirely American, the traditional centers of Talmudic learning were mostly in Eastern Europe).

For the faith to continue as an unbroken line, it seemed important at the time that serious scholars (of whom there were few) get state support and be exempt from the normal demands of civic life.

Today’s Haredi, besides being much more numerous than anybody predicted, are abusing the category of “serious religious scholarship”. The vast majority of them are pursuing their own personal spiritual path, at state expense, while not contributing a damn thing to the faith’s intellectual collective. There’s no valid reason the rest of the world’s Jews should treat them as special.