Haredi Addiction Crisis Grows, Leader Warns

"This isn't the evil inclination - it's an escape from pain"

Rabbi Eckstein draws a sharp distinction between behavior driven by temptation and true addiction. "The difference between the evil inclination and addiction is that with the evil inclination, a person does something to feel better,they want ice cream, cake, or a movie. With addiction, a person does something to feel less bad. It's like taking a painkiller for a headache; you don't like the taste of the pill, you just hate the pain."

Addiction can involve psychoactive substances like alcohol or drugs, he notes, or it can be behavioral, such as compulsive phone use, gaming, or gambling, where no substance enters the body at all.

Regarding the most common addictions in the Haredi community, he states that every type of addiction found in the general population now exists within the ultra-Orthodox sector without exception.

Alcohol stands out as particularly concerning. "It's the most available and dangerous substance. If you go to weddings today, you'll see yeshiva students from the best institutions with whiskey, arak, and hard liquor on the tables. This didn't exist in my time. Friends tell the groom: 'If there won't be good whiskey, we won't come celebrate with you.' It's become a condition at weddings."

Gambling has also become widespread. "It's very common in the sector because ostensibly there's no 'halachic problem.' What's wrong with betting 50, 500, or 5,000 shekels? People go to the lottery kiosks in Bnei Brak or Jerusalem, where a Jew with a long beard sits saying Psalms between customers, and they become addicted without realizing it."

Regarding cannabis, Rabbi Eckstein addresses what he calls a dangerous misconception. "There's a serious illusion that cannabis is a 'therapeutic substance.'" When asked about claims that cannabis is no more harmful than nicotine, he clarifies: "Nicotine is a chemical—it harms the body, but cognition and decision-making ability remain. Cannabis and alcohol are psychoactive substances that alter consciousness and the brain. A person using them simply loses their mechanism of choice."

The suppressed data: "Hundreds of percent increase"

When asked about the scope of the problem, Rabbi Eckstein acknowledges the absence of formal research but points to alarming field data. "No one has done a real survey in the Haredi community because the community won't respond, but I can tell you that Returno currently has 150 patients, with waiting lists two months ahead, and that's only for those already seriously addicted. This phenomenon has grown by hundreds of percent compared to what we knew twenty or thirty years ago."

Beyond hard substances, he notes everyday addictions such as compulsive eating and screen dependency. The central problem is that addicts themselves are in denial and cannot recognize their condition on their own.

To address the plight of helpless families and parents, he reveals a new tool developed at Returno. "The difficult problem is how to convince someone they have a problem? A person doesn't see their own flaws. So we recently developed an innovative app based on artificial intelligence with professional guidance. The app provides parents and families with a workshop and practical support framework that teaches them how to be assertive, not to hesitate, and after a process of about six weeks, to bring the family member to receive treatment."

What's driving the surge in addictions? The sharp increase stems not only from the availability of technology or substances, but primarily from the emotional and psychological state of the current generation. "The main reason is that in recent years there's much more stress, much more pressure, and many more cases of depression. We've been through wars, we've been through COVID, and people are looking for easy solutions to escape internal distress."

As an example of addiction within the Haredi community, Rabbi Eckstein shares: "A man who manages a news line on a kosher phone called me and said: 'Listen, people called me and begged: please don't post alerts more than three times a day, because we leave the study hall every hour to check if there's news.' That's addiction to everything! A person feels bad, so they escape through the kosher phone and news lines with rabbinical supervision."

A cry about the students: "Where are the yeshiva heads and supervisors?!"

One of the sharpest parts of the interview addresses what happens in yeshiva halls and summer camps, and the lack of forceful response from leaders and educators. "If they were distributing smartphones at weddings to watch games, they'd bang on the table, pull the circuit breaker, and say 'a yeshiva student won't step here!' So how do they agree to have alcohol on the tables? Where are the posters saying 'better to die than enlist' on this issue of life-threatening danger? Where are the yeshiva heads and supervisors who should be shouting that this is literally a matter of life and death?!"

Rabbi Eckstein describes a harsh reality where educators turn a blind eye and even bring hookahs to students at camps out of complete misunderstanding of the addictive ritual, and the mistaken belief that a hookah is less harmful than a cigarette. "I've seen yeshivas where students opened a hookah in their room, and one of the students collects cannabis leaves, puts them in the hookah—and a yeshiva student sits with them," he recounts.

"Where understanding ends, that's where addiction begins," we conclude this interview, committed to awakening the public and warning of this danger before it's too late.