Working Poor Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women and Men: Between Economic Distress and Meaning Based on Faith

The present article focuses on the interface between religion, work, and poverty as reflected in 20 in-depth qualitative interviews with ultra-Orthodox working-poor women and men in Israel. Based on a social constructivist theoretical framework, findings uncover the complex role of religion in the construction of the working poor. Religion demands a set of behaviors and belief systems that hinder the individual’s ability to break out of poverty, while protecting the ultra-Orthodox working poor in providing them with an alternative framework of interpretative beliefs that enables positive and constructive social meaning, even under the difficulties of economic hardship.