With the zman almost ended, 13 Ministry of Education inspectors paid a visit to Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim to check up on talmidim. They arrived at the beginning of the first seder, the start of the day, entering the dining room of the Beis Yeshaya Building as talmidim were eating breakfast.
The Mir boasts over 5,000 talmidim and avreichim, the largest yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael. The inspectors only wanted to check 600 talmidim. They began calling the talmidim by last name. The widow of Rosh Yeshiva Rav Finkel ZT”L was angered by the inspectors, asking why they were only checking 600 talmidim and not the entire yeshiva after they checked about 70% of their list, and they left.
On Sunday night, the head of the Vaad Yeshivos Rav Chaim Aharon Kaufman turned to Education Minister Naftali Bennet, citing the issues that arose from the inspection in the yeshiva because of Purim. Bennet instructed them to conduct another inspection, explaining to them that in chareidi yeshivos, Purim is not a one-day holiday, asking them to take this into consideration and return for a second inspection.
After Purim, as the zman winds down talmidim are preparing for bein hazmanim ahead of Pesach, some already engaged in baking matzos.
Bennet told Kol Chai Radio on Monday morning the inspection was a mistake and it would be carried out again in the future.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Please tell us what these education ministry inspectors where looking for in the mirrer yeshiva.
The readers are not mind readers.
That’s nice that Bennett was being considerate
Thank you MK Bennet
Like many Yeshivas in Israel the Mir receives Government funding for many of its talmidim. The inspectors were there to see if [some of] those talmidim who the Government supports were in Yeshiva. I cannot see why any reasonable person finds anything objectionable in that. The inspectors did not want to see everyone just a sample, slightly over 10% of the student body. What is the problem? The inspection was not done on Purim or the day after.
education ministry inspectors come to yeshivot for spot inspections to make sure that the yeshivot do not lie about how many taalmidim they have. The Israeli government gives funding to yeshivot based on how many students they have in the yeshiva u to a certin point. A yeshiva with 400 students gets more money then a yeshiva with 200 students but they want to make sure that yeshivot do not lie about how many students they have to get more funding.
The best proven method for yeshivos to avoid the draft is by informing the “ed min” and officers that it’s a secular university and no minister and officer will bother you. How do you think 50% of secular draft dodgers are free?
to #1
The government has been sending inspectors to every yeshiva and kollel to check that there are actually the number of talmidim for which they receive government subsidies, ever since several institutions were caught registering people that didn’t actually learn there. Usually, they check all the talmidim and allow up to 15% to be absent.
In the Mir in the past, they haven’t been succesful in completing an inspection due to a lack of manpower. Therefore, they are using a new method of only checking a small portion of the talmidim.