From the state’s point of view, David Gavriel was not in kollel as he promised he would be. From Gavriel’s point of view, he was running a school for girls and was not taking a salary for his position. However, following a Ministry of Education probe into the matter, it was ruled that Gavriel must reimburse the state of 84,000 NIS that he collected while running the school, since he was not studying in kollel.
The Jerusalem Magistrate Court ruled that David Gavriel, an avreich, must repay the state 84,000 NIS. These funds were paid to him as an avreich learning in kollel. The state explained he was paid as a full time avreich who should have been studying but this was not the case.
The case is the result of a clandestine investigation to see which avreichim were learning in Kollel Ohel Shalom and Leah during the hours they declared they would be present. The investigation revealed that Gavriel was running the רחל אם הבנים School for girls, albeit without taking a salary, during the hours he was to have been studying. The state cut part of the funding for the kollel in response and filed a lawsuit against the avreich. The ministry told the court it cannot place a watchman on each avreich, adding it has learned that Gavriel’s case is not at all unique. The state explained the avreich abused his kollel stipend for other activities other than their intended purpose, for him to learn Torah.
The avreich is ordered to reimburse the state for all the money plus linkage to the index and an additional 8,000 NIS in legal fees.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Interesting for the people involved, but not really such an interesting sort of conflict since it did not involve fraud, and reflects different perceptions of what “kollel” and “learning” are.
Traditionally, a “kollel” was more of a community in which members were supported based on their merit, with no distinction between teaching and learning (and in Hebrew, the words are closely linked – teaching is the intensive of learning). If a member of the kollel was teaching the daughters, that would have been seen as a worthy use of time and he would be paid accordining.
The Israelis try to recast a kollel as the equivalent of a western graduate school. They want a kollel member to be sitting at a desk acting like a grad student in a university, which is an historical distortion (at least from the kollel perspective). When a kollel is accepting government money, they need to use the government’s definitions, no matter how absurd those definitions are from a traditional perspective.
This is about multiculturalism (or lack thereof), not cheating.
The day couldn’t go by without another stupid comment by Kuperman!
Actually it did involve fraud and that’s why the court ruled he has to pay. The government Gave him money to learn in kollel and he was not doing that.
How can a religious jew steal money from anyone even if it is a country? He was running a school. According to all definitions that is work; the fact that he wasn’t getting a salary does not allow him to lie and claim he is learning full time.
akuperma, what a load of nonsense. Kollel does not imply going fishing, cutting peoples hair or running an institution. It implies learning torah. The whole kollel argument is defined by the fact that people learning torah are exempt from all other matters and can be supported by the community. If the community pays someone to run a school it is called working and being paid a salary for that work.
I second what #2 and #3 said. If this good man R’ Dovid was running a tzedakah, teaching in a cheder, baking matzas for people, building free mikvahs, handing out red strings — whatever — all those things would be wonderful, but they wouldn’t be learning in Kollel. Running a girls’ school is wonderful work, and it’s very nice that he was willing to do without receiving any salary, BUT it’s NOT learning in Kollel by any conventional, traditional definition. Of course the government can decide they want to give stipends to all of those people, but right now that’s not the case. So, saying you’re learning in Kollel when you’re actually not does sound like a case of fraud. A very well-meaning one, but still fraud.
The government is 100% right here. While its easy to saybhebwas doing good work the bottomline is he wasn’t doing what hebsaidbhe was doing and if it was the same thing then he wouldn’t have had to cover it up by saying he was sitting and learning. This is a lesson that should be taughtto our chirlchildren showing it doesn’t matter the substance of your “white lie” a lie is a lie and in this casetthe avreich was wrong.