Yesh Atid continues to wave the flag of anti-corruption, insisting it is the only major party in Knesset that does things in accordance to the book, without exception. Party leader Yair Lapid has run new videos for this current election boasting the party is simply ‘by the book’ and it remains unstained by the usual corruption found in other political parties.
According to a Haaretz report released on Wednesday, 22 Shevat, this may not be the case for all of the party’s members for it reports former Minister of Education Rabbi Shai Piron allocated 1 million NIS to a school run by a relative. The report states that the school in question is in the United States and its students are not exclusively Jewish. Haaretz reports Piron tried getting money to the school via the Education Ministry as well as the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. The school, Hebrew Language Academy Charter School, is run by his long-standing donor, the daughter of Michael Steinhardt. It opened its doors in 2009.
Steinhardt, who lives in New York, is a billionaire and Jewish philanthropist who has funded many projects, including being counted as a founding member of Birthright. Mr. Steinhardt is close to the former minister and they maintain political and financial connections according to Haaretz.
Steinhardt has been among the donor to the HaKol Chinuch nonprofit headed by Piron prior to his assuming his cabinet post. Piron ran that organization which seeks to promote advanced education in Israel. He was earning 43,000 NIS monthly, which amounted to a quarter of the NGO’s annual budget.
Steinhardt was also on hand prior to the elections for the 19th Knesset, signing loan guarantees for the Yesh Atid party. Haaretz adds that the executive director in Israel of the Steinhardt Family Foundation, Tova Dorfman, is also one of the six members of the board of Yesh Atid International.
Piron has his ministry allocate 500,000 shekels, which was matched by the Diaspora Ministry, with the latter sending the money to the Education Ministry to transfer to the US school. However, Yesh Atid was thrown out of the cabinet and the coalition collapsed before Piron could actually send the money to the US.
When asked to respond, Piron’s aides report “he never transferred any money” which does appear to be the case due to the circumstances described above.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
As the board chair and president of the Hebrew Charter School Center, an American network of Hebrew dual-language public schools, we would like to make sure that your readers are made aware of some important details left out of your extremely misleading opinion piece of February 11 (Piron Tried Allocating 1 Million Shekels to a Relative’s School).
We have – since we started opening schools in 2009 – sought and secured support from a variety of sources, including the governments of Israel and the US, as well as individuals, corporations, and foundations. The grant referred to in the Ha’aretz article was to be funded by two Israeli government ministries – Diaspora Affairs and Education – representing two different political parties, and was intended to support our Modern Hebrew and Israel
Studies programs — areas that we believe were particularly appropriate for partnership with Israel. The grant was to be provided to the Hebrew Charter School Center to support its work in multiple schools, not to our single school in Brooklyn.
There are many other examples of foreign governments providing aid to US schools to support language and cultural programming, including the Greek and French governments, to name but two. These governments recognize, as we believe the Government of Israel does, that it is in the national interest to cultivate knowledge and awareness of a nation’s language, culture, and history.
We look forward to continuing to build programmatic partnerships in Israel, both with the government, as well as with other interested stakeholders.
Sara Berman, Chair
Jon Rosenberg, President and CEO
Hebrew Charter School Center
New York City