By gov. figures, there are 141,000 yeshiva and kollel students in Israel. 16,000 are non-israeli
Gov. gives about $2,000 a year to each one of the israelis and half that to non israelis
from the article:
“Kollel students receive an average of 2,000 shekels ($500) per month for committing to a full day of kollel study (from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and again from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.). In its heyday, state support covered about half of this sum, with the rest being raised by the kollels’ directors, mainly from overseas donors.”
This means that it’s a wash for the government. Their spend of $250 million is matched by overseas donations that pay for more than half of the kollel stipend and go into the economy. But a lot more goes into the economy because nobody lives on $2,000 a year in Israel. If each overseas student spends another $4,000 that’s another 64 million in the economy. Add to that visits by parents, funds for buildings – all of which go into the economy.
And let us not forget that America gives Israel 3.9 billion a year.
You want to know who pays for world torah study – america, not the state of israel. Israel profits from it.
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