In a decision announced by the High Court of Justice on Monday, there can be no doubt that chareidi legislators are already in high gear, wording legal briefs to circumvent the court’s latest blow to the frum community. The court ruled that monthly payments to avreichim violate equality laws in Israel, as well as violating the principles of democracy, ignoring university students and others, directing the state to remove that budget for those payments from the 2011 state budget. The case is not new, but it has been the subject of debate by the High Court since 2000, filed by the late left-wing Jerusalem Councilman and deputy mayor, Arnon Yekutiel, who died in 2001.
In her ruling, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish said: “There is no place for distinction between yeshiva students in any other institutions.”
Yahadut HaTorah MK Moshe Gafne stated the High Court has a history of favoring the secular community over the chareidim. Shas leader Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai stated the Knesset will “fix the ruling”.
MK (Meretz) Nitzan Horowitz hailed the decision to cut funding for yeshiva students, calling it a step forward for equality and democracy.
Justice Ayala Procaccia voted along with Beinish, but Justice Edmond Levy, who is shomer shabbos, pointed out that the study of Torah is Biblically commanded, a command that the Knesset and government decided should enjoy funding at the taxpayers’ expense. He pointed out that there is a distinction between yeshiva students and secular students, what he called a “relevant difference”, justifying the budgetary allocations.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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9 Responses
One needs to understand the religious working class/secular community… why should they give away their money to non working chareidi kids when they are paying a fortune in college tuition and doing army so their kids can support the next generation of non working (on books) chareidi kids?
everyone should be learning and working and doing army…
while the chilonim should learn torah, the chariedim should do army… regardless of this fact…its not the secular job to support the religious (or visa versa) everyone should contribute evenly
1,
The answer is that with all these grants we still get only a fraction of the avrage secularist, counting all the Schools, Universities, Stadiums, State-covered entertainments, TV, Sports…. you name it…
RamatShilo,
If your objection is to those who claim they are learning and in actuality are not, that is valid. But if you object to people dedicating their lives to learning Torah full time, you will have to square that with, among others:
a. The quote that a Talmid Chochom should not live in a town lacking “10 Batlanim”, meaning 10 who do not work, but are dedicated to learning. (Eiruvin 55b)
b. The many places where it states that those who learn full time protect the Jews at least as much as those who serve in the army. (Bava Basra 7b-8a and others)
c. The Halachot in Shulchan Orech of what one who is dedicated to learning full time is and is not required to contribute to and/or participate in.
As a religious person, you must realize that “it is not with force nor with strength…” (Zacharya 4/6).
So do they give university students with three kids, no income and no car, etc., the same sort of deal? If not why not? (they are a socialist welfare state after all). While fiscal prudence is not an Israeli virtue, we should expect that yeshiva students and university students should get the same subsidy, and neither more nor less (of course, it turns out that someone studying Talmud at a secular university gets more subsidies than someone studying in university)
#1 – You seem to have a problem with chareidim in general (as evident in this post and others as well). So, why are you on this sight at all? Why don’t you stay with “your own”?
If we want to see Chareidi bashing we can go to other sites which seem to have a one sided take but even if a Chareddi guy sits and does nothing all day long he might be paying more taxes than a person who isnt married and is earning nearly nothing. The reason is that sales tax (or VAT) applies to nearly everything in Israel including basic goods.
Think about it a large family buys 3 loaves of bread a day plus lets say 6 lachmaniyot (small loaves) reaching about 31.5 NIS a day (loaf is 6.5 and lachmaniyot are 2) That means 11,497 is spent a year on bread. VAT at 17.5% is 2012 NIS which a poor family gives to the government.
This is besides the indirect taxes that the bakers pay earned via the bread. (And the politicians have the chutzpa to call some loaves ‘subsidised’ loaves.)
Start calculating Milk, Yogurts and when you’re finished, then reply
i heavily favor charedim
#5 Its a free country he can post where ever he wants…and im sure with your “Lumdishe Kup” saying he should stay with his own, shows your ahavas achim…..
BH
Hey! Hey! Hey! STOP the arguing! No wonder HaShem lets the court decide all of these crazy rulings. It seems as if Frum/Dait/Chareidim (call them whatever you like) – it seems that many of them do nothing all day & night except argue with each other! Why??? Aren’t all of us supposed to be Yirei Shomayim, Ohaiv HaShem and Ohaiv HaBriot? Especially our fellow Yidden !!! If we can’t stop picking on each other (all the time) why do you expect the “not yet religious” to stop picking on us, so to say. It’s a deep lesson, the more we look to tear down each other, the more the secularists also look to tear us down. Middah k’neged middah – no or yes???
Stop burning garbage & tires, stop throwing rocks at fellow Jews, stop the protests against each other, stop and think, What would Moshe Rabbeinu do right now? What would Aharon HaKohain HaGadol do about this concern? Wht would Miriam HaN’viah do to fix this situation? What would Dovid HaMelelch do, Shlomoh HaMelech, the Avot and Imahot, etc. – don’t compare yourselves with todays’ chiloni – then we lowering ourselves, as it were, to make the comparisons. Rather, let’s begin comparing ourselves to the holy and righteous souls before us. And we will see how much more we need to do for ourselves and for our fellow Yidden. We will see that most of the Religous arguments are really “little kreplach” in a sea of chicken soup w/ boulder sized k’neidels. Really, now, put a lid on it already. The whole world looks at the news reels and see Jews fighting each other, and wonder why? It’s a great question. WHY?