In light of the Supreme Court decision halting state funding for avreichim who were not inducted into the IDF in the summer of 2013, rabbonim met to plan out a course of action.
Attending the meeting in Yerushalayim with the rabbonim were askanim, legal experts and economists and financial experts. The meeting reportedly lasted for hours, permitting the various experts to speak. It appears a decision was reached to declare an “economic revolt” against the government, but this is an interim decision which is not final.
If information from the meeting is accurate, an economic boycott is planned; one that participants in the meeting feel will place significant pressure on banks and the treasury. Kikar Shabbos quotes one participant saying “we will bring the treasury to its knees”. They feel that “during the first weeks of the action the banks will tremble at their foundations and by the second month, the banks will collapse and by the third month the treasury will give us back everything that it has taken away from the talmidim and yeshivos”.
The first priority appears to be addressing the bleak financial situation for so many families, many without the means to buy bread and basics. Among the steps planned is to instruct the tzibur to cancel their monthly bank payment orders for their mortgages. This is subject to the legal and banking experts consulting with the rabbonim giving approval for such a move.
Kikar quotes the anonymous source adding “the economic revolt will result in anarchy in the system. Anyone wishing to support yeshivos will have to transfer the mortgage budget to the yeshivos. Instead of paying their mortgages, the money will enter the yeshivos’ budgets. All standing payment orders will be canceled, simple as that”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
1. Note that this only pertains to yeshivos who accepted government money. The “hard core” hareidim aren’t affected economically, and they appear to be inclined towards much more uncivil protests. In all fairness, why would the zionists be expect to fund their enemies.
2. Since most zionists would be delighted if all hareidim starved, or at least left the country, this isn’t effective way to protest. Withholding political support from the state might be effective (e.g. asking the United Nations to to repeal partition and return to the status quo of 1918), but that’s treason, and burning one’s bridges behind you (Satmar might be cool to that, but not those who want zionist money).
3. The only alternative to dealing economically with the zionists is to switch economic contacts (back) to the Palestinians (as was the case 120 years ago). For this to be effective it requires a political alliance as well.
Is this for real? I’m not quite sure how it’s exactly the banks fault if the knesset passes laws that a particular tzibur doesn’t like. Could somebody explain to me the halachic basis for not paying your loan back to somebody in order to stick it to somebody else? The bank gave them money in good faith to buy a house and they signed on the dotted line to pay that money back. If they feel they can ignore their obligation to pay their mortgage on a whim perhaps they should consider what it would be like to no longer have their home which that mortage helped them buy all of a sudden Chas v’shalom. Is this really being mekadish shem Shemayim?
And additionally I bust my back working full time and my wife also works nearly full time and in our wildest dreams we can’t hope to get a house on our own in this country – even with a mortgage. How is it that there are enough people living off kollel salaries with a mishkanta that they could collectively collapse the system? Is there some sort of Yeshiva proteksia for buying a house we don’t know about?
It’s VERY SIMPLE
If there will be ACHDUS, we will win!!
If all the chareidim open their mouths and pockets against the the government, the government will come down pretty fast.
The problems we had until now is the lack of achdus!!!!
Unfortunately there never is achdus.
so if you owe someone money and agree to pay it back at given intervals and you dont – that would be called STEALING. Of course the bank could foreclose on you and then you will lose the roof over your head – dont understand the logic in all of this. and if you think that acting en masse would bring the banking system to a halt – I’ll bet that a law allowing for immediate foreclosure will take place.
I am still trying to comprehend this situation. Exactly what achrayus does the government have to pay and support people learning? If they want to learn, which I believe is valuable and doing good for the state as well, isn’t it the responsibility of the yeshiva to raise money from donors? How can you force people who unfortunately are not machshiv learning, like they should, to pay for people to learn? Additionally, how is it halachically justified to not pay back money which you owe to someone just to prove a point or to push your agenda?
Why can’t we just realize that just because we have certain beliefs which can be correct, doesnt mean that someone elses beliefs and values cant be valid at the same time even though they may be different than our own. As long as there are Rabbanim who are yirei shamayim and base their decisions on halacha so what they say is valid and you have the right to disagree, but they should be respected for their opinion and you can agree to disagree cordially. We just have to come together as frum yidden, despite certain differences of opinions and show other yidden what they’re missing out on. The only way is to lead by example.
#7-Because that’s the whole idea of a a flat tax/regressive taxation system, which the VAT tax (primary source of income of the government) is. It weighs more heavily on the groups that get social benefits. If you get rid of the benefits, you shouldn’t have a regressive system.
“Rabbonim, legal experts and economists and financial experts” – my foot. Sounds like three sikrikim – without a high-school diploma between them – got together in mom’s basement and came up with this nonsense.
Nu, by all means, advise folks to stop paying their mortgages. Besides opening yourselves to lawsuits for tortious interference and personal financial ruin, let’s say that some families follow your foolish advice – what happens to them? Well, penalty interest kicks in and, inevitably, they lose their homes and find themselves immersed in debt. And in Israel, unlike the US, filing for bankruptcy will not solve the problems.
There is a bright side though. If you can get enough families to follow this ingenious advise you will free up enough housing units to solve the country’s housing shortage! Bravo! Yair Lapid thanks you.
As several prior postings have noted, its unclear that any knowlegeable rav participated in this meeting or that its outcome were accurately reported. Obviously, it would be ganavah to not pay a legal debt with a financial institution and divert the funds to another creditor without discharge of debts through a bankruptcy proceedings. Likewise, the visuals of the police dragging chareidi families from their homes in a massive gush katif style foreclosure and eviction effort would be very ugly. I supsect this story comes not from our gadolim, who obviously know better, but some askanin with inflated egos and intellectual deficits seeeking to get some attention.
MitzvahMan613:
The government has no achrayus to pay anything, and if the whole of the government policy shift was to stop paying stipends to yeshiva students (treat them as they do Palestinian students, no better, no worse), there wouldn’t be a crisis. At worse it would trigger a fund raising drive.
However the government insists that yeshiva students stop learning Torah and become soldiers, and that is unacceptable. That turns a squabble over economic policy into a life and death struggle.
This is an anonymous unsourced article paraphrasing anonymous rabbis making supposed rules.
MitzvahMan613 has no problem with state-paid universities, schools and colleges though but fails to see the irony.
You see nothing wrong in pulling the funding within 12 months for thousands of mosdos and their institutions leaving them high and dry without recourse, leaving parents of many children without any funds, in punishing an institution because you disagree with their policies or a few of their academics? (Think academic boycotts are a good thing, anyone?)
And when you take the rantings of a few hotheads about mass mortgage withholdings seriously, you have to ask whether it’s real outrage or a propensity to believe the unbelievable to paint those you disagree with in a poorer light.
Lots of fore-closures may actually make houses affordable again 😉
Amazing how many people believe what they read. The Jewish April’s fool day (katan) is around the corner.
Besorot tovot.