Thousands of chareidi families in Israel are feeling the crunch of the government’s decision to sharply cut monthly child allowance payments. The new reality has prompted many askanim to act amid the realization the number of chareidi families joining the ranks of the nation’s poor continues to grow.
Shas leader Aryeh Deri is proposing the establishment of a fund that will address the needs of all chareidi communities, a fund that would be headed by admorim and roshei yeshiva, permitting gedolei yisrael to decide how the money will be divided with the goal being to supplement the monthly child allowance payments so they reach the amount prior to the cuts. The payments will be made by verifying one’s children using the state teudat identification card, which lists a parent’s children. Payments will be made directly to the families.
Many believe such a fund will be more efficient that channeling funds to mosdos and kollelim in the hope the assistance will eventually reach the families. It remains to be seen if the chareidi leaders in the Ashkenazi litvish and chassidish camps will be willing to entertain moving ahead based on Deri’s plan.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Good idea, why not move ahead with it?
great idea. Maybe this could also be a first step of unifying the frum political parties and annul the terrible gezeiros
I assume he’s not talking about government money, since the government wants to find a way to reduce the hareidi population and would probably prefer to tax hareidi families for having children.
At present the golus raises hugh sums which are handed out by local Israeli organizations based on perceived need. Is he suggesting a central fund, perhaps as a way to help funnel more money to Sefardim? Using anything state-connected is problematic since the state regards hareidim as pests to be erradicated.
If they implement penal sanctions on hareidim who don’t serve in the army, there mght be a way to compensate for the loss of benefits (assuming the Israelis have the nerve to ban hareidi children from hospitals if their fathers aren’t veterans – which would be very chutzpahdik and strictly illegal under international law).
One bit of information seems to be missing from this report: where is the money coming from to establish the fund proposed by Mr. Deri? The article speaks extensively of who is going to spend this money, but it is silent on who is going to provide this money. Will it be Sheldon Adelson? Mike Bloomberg? George Soros? The Koch brothers? Israeli taxpayers? American taxpayers? Russian taxpayers? Egyptian taxpayers? The Elders of Zion?