The data is well known and alarming. More than half of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel lives below the poverty line.

According to per capita income data for 2016 collected by the National Insurance Institute, 52.6% of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community live below the poverty line compared to a nearly similar amount in the Arab sector but only 9% of the non-Orthodox Jewish sector. Per capita income among the ultra-Orthodox stands at 3,500 NIS ($930) a month, half the income of non-ultra-Orthodox Jews and a little more than in the Arab sector. 

Here’s the paradox: the ultra-Orthodox do not see themselves as poor and do not behave like people languishing in poverty. A report published online in November by the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, and whose data is here examined by the press for the first time, shows that no less than 71% of the ultra-Orthodox are satisfied with their economic situation, compared to less than two-thirds of non-ultra-Orthodox Jews and 53% of Arab Israelis. Only slightly less than 8% of the ultra-Orthodox feel that they are poor, a statistic almost identical to that of non-Orthodox Jews, compared to 31% of Arabs. More than 98% of the ultra-Orthodox report satisfaction in their lives. Among non-ultra-Orthodox Jews the rate is also high, at 91.6%, and among Arabs it stands at 75.5%. 

This matter of not feeling poor is not simply a matter of perception. Fewer than 10% of the ultra-Orthodox had to forgo food for a lack of money in the past year, compared to 5.6% among non-ultra-Orthodox Jews and more than 14% of Arabs. The state of health in the ultra-Orthodox sector is among the best in Israel, and thus life expectancy of residents of predominantly ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak, one of the poorest cities in Israel, is almost identical to that of residents of Givatayim, a prosperous non-ultra-Orthodox town.