It took less than 48 hours following the petira of Mir Rosh Yeshiva HaGaon HaRav Nosson Tzvi Finkel ZT”L before the matter of Mir’s staggering debt surfaced. There are conflicting reports, citing the debt somewhere between $10 – 20 million, but even if one opts to adopt the lesser number, the sum is reason for grave concern – a figure that threatens the very existence of the world’s largest Torah institution.
The global financial crisis of recent years hit many mosdos very hard, and Mir is no exception. The philanthropist from abroad who paid the monthly electric bill suffered his own losses and was unable to continue with this commitment. Another philanthropist who donated $5 million annually also informed the late rosh yeshiva that he can no longer make good on this pledge due to bleak financial realities.
According to a Chadrei Chareidim report, ‘rumors’ stated that rabbonim and Yungerleit have not received their salaries and stipends for the past six months and the debt in the bank and with gemachim is nothing less than staggering. Rav Finkel zt”l began making regular trips abroad in the hope of raising the badly-needed funds just to remain afloat, but even this no longer yielded sufficient results and the yeshiva’s debt continued to grow.
Chadrei reports that on Wednesday, 12 Cheshvan, a number of prominent philanthropists arrived at the homes of HaGaon HaRav Aaron Yehuda Leib Shteinman Shlita and HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita, addressing the reality that plagues the Torah community today, a growing debt with no relief in sight. They apparently signed monthly commitments to the yeshiva towards relieving some of the strain. They also expressed a willingness to work towards raising the funds needed to eradicate Mir’s debt. A Save the Mir keren (fund) was established.
Kikar Shabbat reports the Gedolei Yisrael Shlita signed letters instructing philanthropists to assist Mir’s dire situation. The two Gedolei Torah also signed a monthly commitment.
Since the rosh yeshiva’s petira, the directorate of the Mir has met and measures are being taken to begin addressing the debt, actions which they hope will lead to generating badly-needed funds. It was decided to send four representatives around to different yeshivos to ask avreichim to assist by committing monthly contributions and to enlist the assistance of those capable of helping, seeking monthly commitments of 300 NIS a person.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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25 Responses
Is this a joke?
This is the peiros of chareidi ideology. What does one expect to happen to an institution that discourages its students from learning how to earn a living? What does one expect to happen to an entire society that follows suit? Philanthropic dollars are drying up. Mir might be the first of many institutional casualties, born of a short sighted worldview. When individuals find themselves cut off from non-existent community support, there will be a full blown crisis in Klal Yisrael.
Let us all help whatever we can
” It was decided to send four representatives around to different yeshivos to ask avreichim to assist by committing monthly contributions”
So we are asking avreichim to give money to the Mir to support other avreichim? Why should they give money to the Mir and not to whatever yeshiva they are currently learning in?
Why not send these representatives to working families??
I have a great solution to the problem.
Why don’t they create a process where they sign people up for automatic monthly donations?
The mir has many 10,000’s of alumni. If you have 10,000 people give $1000 a year 1,000÷12
=83.33333 so 10,000 donating $83.33 a month (everyone can afford that, its $21 a week!) over 12 months can smoothly raise $10,000,000 a year.
This is for the stam not wealthy folk.
If people want to donate more they certainly should and the Roshei Yeshiva won’t have to go shnorring with a heavy heart about the millions that they are in debt! A simple solution!
With great respect to the Mir , it seems obvious where the problem resides.
If these rabbonim encouraged the youg bnei torah to learn and work , to learn and learn a profession, the financial issues would disappear.
The whole community is built on foundations that are starting to creak and chas veshalom to topple.
It is time to stand up and say learning full time indefinitely is to be reserved to a very small percentage of the community. It is not meant nor can it continue that the majority depend on a few philanthropists to support everyone else.
To: Cantoresq – I don’t know you, and therefore cannot really address your post. However, I also cannot ignore it. Therefore let me say the following.
1. The “amudei ha’olam” who we are supporting are not living the life of the rich and famous. Often times, most of the time, they are living lives full of sacrifices, sacrifices for the entire klall. 2. These “amudei ha’olam”, for the most part, do not ask for support. It is the pride and privilege of their parents and in-laws, and certainly their wives, to do so, to be part of this great mitzvah. 3. All of these “amudei ha’olom” all learn that it is the absolute obligation of the husband to support their wives. Their Rabbeim teach this very clearly. And they do. They tutor. They take odd jobs, Many become the teachers of our children and the leaders of our generations. All things considered, I think we would be doing very well if we support this noble cause.
Obviously, WIY is not a Mir alumni-
I for one know that the Mir alumni office is a model for other Yeshivas how to get alumni to commit financially to the Yeshiva-
They work very hard, and often have volunteers working the phones.
#2 cantor: We’ve been hearing that choir for 50 years. We’ll be hearing it for another 50 years. All the while the Kol HaTorah is never silenced despite the naysayers dire predictions.
Shuali, I’ve heard it all before; very often here in these discussions. I never claimed that people who use Torah as “kardon lachpor bah,” those who, you call “amudei haolam” live lives of luxury. Anyone interested in supporting a son-in-law in such an endeavor or anyone willing to support a spouse in such a fashion is welcome to do so, and tavo aleihem bracha. Indeed some of the yungermen in question engage in Jewish trades of teaching, safrut, dealing in seforim etc. But there is hardly enough market in those pursuits to sustain an entire society. The issue is the appropriate distribution of community resources. It’s becoming ever clear that the Orthodox community can no longer afford to support the mass kollel phenomenon that has come to dominate the Orthodox scene over the past 30+ years. Allow me to ask you a simple question. Where shall I direct my charity, to my neighbor who despite all his diligent efforts and willingness to do any job, no matter how degrading it may appear, can’t make a parnassah, or the Mir Yeshiva? This year my children’s tuition increased considerably. One reason given was the need to provide increased scholarships to less fortunate students. These are children of parents who struggle daily to make ends meet. At the same time I was asked to contribute to Tomche Shabbos (an organization I genuinely admire) so they could give out free or discount food for Yom Tov to kollel yungeleit. What about those poor parents who might need some extra help come Yom Tov, but don’t need the full blown Tomche Shabbos assistance? Not only do yeshivot demand communal resources to support the mas kollel system. That would be “noch a halbe tzureh.” But as a result of those demands and in response to the “amudei olam” mindset you so aptly demonstrate, the community ignores the needs of the needy laity to feed the yeshivot; seemingly punishes or denies them assistance because they are not “amudei haolam” and just simple amcha yidd’n. Where is “shver” in all this? He’s not providing all the kest, with the “pride and privilege” you ascribe to him. He’s thrilled Tomche Shabbos gave his son in law a break (on the communal back). The “shver” is perpetuating the endless parasitism off the communal dole. ‘Amudei Olam?” PSHAW!!!
#5, WIY, you have good intentions but very far off.
How many people you know can afford 1,000 a year. are you forgetting that it cost money for Rent/mortgage, gas, electric, water, car, food, clothing, tuition, parking tickets (NYC residents), just to name a few. Lets not forget that every alumni also has an elementary school, high school , pre-Israel bais medresh, post-Israel bas medresh, shul, etc ect.
mayeb your so rich, do yo have $10,000,000 i can borrow
Asking current avreichim to sign up for 300 NIS per month is totally unrealistic. His whole paycheck from Kollel is 1500 – 2000 NIS if that much. Ask for 100 NIS, you’ll get some. Ask for 300 NIS, and VERY few will sign up.
@Doswin,
Are you really willing to run that risk?
The well is drying up faster than you think.
Did you ever wonder why the last paragraph of the amida starts with requests that we be protected from our enemies (velimkalelai nafshi tidom etc.). There is a break for a request for torah & miztvot. Then again we continue with asking to be protected from our enemies. Why interrupt the theme of protection with a request for torah & mitzvot ? An answer is: because torah & mitzvot is not a break of the theme to be protected from our enemies – rather it is THE protection for us against our enemies. We ask Hashem Yitbarach to help us stick to T&M as that is the primary tool we have against our enemies.
Accordingly, I as a working person, see it as a priveledge to donate to such a worthy cause. I would encourage every bochur & avreich to continue learning full time, for as long as they are able. I am successful in my work, because of their learning !
YWN has been negligent here for not providing the address that donations could be made to.
While I totally hear the claims of those who understand that we need to be making a living to live in this world, I am appalled at the cynicism with how that message is being delivered. These people are holding up the world. They MUST keep on learning and the money will come.
Donations:
Mir Yerushalayim
5227 New Utrecht Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11219
It’s time that we stop harping on the fact that an entire society not making an effort to earn a living is unsustainable. This statement is of course 100% true. However…
We don’t have an entire society attempting to learn full time. The fact is that most people who start out making a concerted effort to learn full time, and becoming Bnai Torah in the process, end up going to work.
If you suggest that we need an infrastructure where those Bnai Torah who are no longer learning full time are able to learn marketable job skills (as opposed to working minimum wage jobs or starting risky businesses)
AND that such infrastructure should allow people to obtain those skills which best suite them (professional, skilled trade, management, ect.
AND that those people who are not learning full time need to go get jobs
that would be worth talking about.
As to the question of what % of Klal Yisroel should be learning full time. Consider that the Torah freed the entire Shevet Levy from other persuites so that they could learn full time. And see the Rambam that not only Shevet Levy is so privileged. The entire Shevet of Yisachor learned full time. As well as individual Sages and their Talmidim from the other Shvatim. The Torah HaKedosha deemed this to be sustainable. Even today with the prolifiration of Yeshivot and Kollel’im the number of Bnai Torah learning full time is substantially less then what it should be.
its our job to try to help as much as we can- to be moser negesh- as the rosh yeshiva did!!!
the rest hashem will take care of!
cantoresq- do not be so brazen- or you will be singin a different tune!! who gave you your voice? hashem has plenty of $$ for the bnie torah
corrected
its our job to try to help as much as we can- to be moser nefesh- as the rosh yeshiva did!!!
the rest hashem will take care of!
cantoresq- do not be so brazen- or you will be singin a different tune!! who gave you your voice? hashem has plenty of $$ for the bnie torah
Those who don’t live a Torah life have for all time been unable to realize that the Gedolei Torah know all the variables and base their guidance on the way Hashem wants us to live.
The Satmar Rav though saw for many of his followers that they should be working. A prominent visitor once asked him if he encourages his chasidim to work why doesn’t he encourage them to go to college? The Satmar Rav answered that “I don’t see why I should. Most of the people I know who went to college work for my chasidim!”
Many if not most of Mir’s big supporters are Benei Torah. May they and the Yeshiva only have hatzlacha. Those who take advantage can have part of the great zchus of Yeshivas Mir’s learning and developing wholesome Torah Jews and those who don’t….. can take part in making sadly misguided comments on various on-line forums.
#10 cantoresq says it all so clearly. The rumors about the staggering debts the Mir has to gemachim were being seriously spoken about a year ago. If the Mir takes money from our gemachim, where are the genuinely needy individuals going to turn to? Where is the poshete Mr Yid who works hard all day but who doesn’t know anyone to get him protekzia, going to get a desperately needed loan for his child’s medical treatment from? Many of the bochurim and avreichim in the Mir live anything but a reserved modest lifestyle. Just stand outside the Mir and pick up on some of their conversations. Visit any of the high class restaurants [Glatt of course] or hotels in Yerushalayim and count the number of Mirrers. Walk around the fancy Yerushalayim shopping malls and whose wives will you see there? Running an institution like the Mir, running the gashmius side of it, is a full time job for a seasoned businessman, not a Talmid Chocham who has more rewarding things to do with his time and other contributions to make to the Klal. Those who let the late Rosh Yeshiva zt”l shoulder this burden did neither him or the Yeshiva any favors.
Imagine this story:
Apple Computers’ executives (after the loss of Steve Jobs) are having a meeting (on the web) how to go forward in the next year with various possible new products, technically, marketing, etcetera. Suddenly a Mir Ben Torah barges into the meeting and [strongly] offers his opinion. Ha Ha Ha.
Inversely, Yeshiva people, many bnei Torah (who have tasted [and practiced] the true sweetness of Torah & Avodah)are discussing how to go forward after a sudden deep loss of a Godol Hador, how to pay for all the wonderful achievements of his Yeshiva, when, suddenly, in barges a ‘cantor’ (and similar [unfortunately] clueless people), and offer opinions!!! HA!……
Hey! The Torah people have been going thru this for thousands of years. Guess what? They are the happiest people on earth and THEY keep klal yisroel’s identity for the generations. (Many are jealous, which drives them to hate.) The Toldos Yakov Yosef says that Golus has a few bitter flavors.
1. All the Yidden from the Gentiles in general. (Main cause is jealousy.)
2. The Observant Yidden from the secular Yidden. (Same main cause, jealousy. Bottom line.)
3. Between Observant Yidden; The bnei torah from the non-learned. (Also jealousy. “Why do I ‘have’ to work, while he can sit and learn all day.” [As if sitting and really learning is a picnic.])
Oh! By the way? How many bailouts has Obama given to humongous companies run by (bnei Torah?) educated professionals? BILLIONS/Trillions of dollars! Thousands of HUGE companies run by educated people.
How about Greece? I guess they all study Torah there!
And Italy, and…
A gutten Shabbos ALL Yidden!!
It says “שמח זבולון בצאתך ויששכר באוהלך”. The Zevuluns should be happy that they have a job out ther because Yisachar is in yeshiva. Let out all the kollel yungerleit into the workforce and all you bigshots are out of a job. Please don’t think you are doing us kollel yungerleit a favor.
Get back to work . Bsuros tovos.
If each of those who attended the levaya would contribute 8 dollars a month for a year, 10 mil would be raised. If all who feel the loss would do the same anther 10 mil would be raised….. Opportunity is calling!
Well said #22!!