MK Moshe Feiglin used the Knesset podium to comment on the Supreme Court ruling cutting supplementary income for avreichim. In his usually witty fashion he questioned by no one dares to challenge payments to the “chiloni kollelim” where the students earn three times more than an avreich. Examples given by Feiglin include those studying humanities and other subjects that no one dares to challenge.
According to Feiglin, a chareidi avreich will receive 8,400 shekels from the state annually based on a monthly payment of 700 shekels. He adds that of the, 87,744 avreichim, only 77,000 receive money for the remainder are not citizens. Hence the avreichim cost the State of Israel 646 million shekels annually.
The budget for the higher education however is a bit different, receiving over 7 million shekels annually. If one divides the sum one will see that every student studying humanities receives 25,000 shekels annually, about three times that of an avreich studying Torah.
“I am not chareidi” added Feiglin, “but the attack on the chareidim is jarring to me. It results in an atmosphere that limud Torah is nonsense and bizarre while the study of humanities is holy. The figures simply show us how they cost us compared to the others”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
Good for him well done
huh? Avreichim cost the state 646 million vs. college students costing 7 million
last time I checked 646 was greater than 7
Moshe, why are you so concerned now? You voted along with Lapid/Bennett/Lipman to force Yeshiva boys to close their Gemorah’s and defile themselves in the Army? Why didn’t you team up with Chetbon & stand up for Kavod Hatorah when it counted?! You are a classic HYPOCRITE! Don’t try to fool us by wearing that “Yarlmuka” on your head!
כל הכבוד!
so let’s go to the suprme court and stop the payments to university students!
Nonsense. Unlike avrechim, university students do not receive money from the government. Only the institutions do. The learned MK is comparing apples with oranges.
Oh, and humanities departments cost but a small fraction of what medicine, science and engineering departments do.
Glad someone is opening his mouth and showing up these leftist sonay yisroel.
Well said, but you are a hypocrite Mr Feiglin, You were among the Rashim that voted on closing the yeshivas and Drafting the boys learning the holy Torah. Shame on you.
We will never forget.
There is an obvious error in the math as presented – according to what is written here, there are only 280 students studying humanities in the entire country. You probably meant that the budget for chiloni students is 700 million, not 7 million. It’s simple math…
In fact, in this article written by Feiglin, he comes up with a figure of 2.3 billion NIS for chiloni students. http://www.jewishisrael.org/moshe-feiglin-university-students-cost-government-much-torah-kollel-students/
The only subjects that should be tax supported are reading, writing, arithmetic, and maybe health, because they are the only subjects on which there is a national consensus.
All of the universities should be privatised with their administrations making the decisions concerning tuition and scholarship as they see fit.
At this point there is no need for higher education to utilize the tax authority to obtain funding. In addition required government supervision is a hindrance not a help.