The Education Ministry is seeking to raise the budgetary allocations for Hesder Yeshivos, while maintaining a sense of harsh castigation against Charedi Yeshivos.

Israeli press sites reported on Wednesday that the Ministry is seeking to raise the level of funding for Hesder Yeshiva students to 90 percent of what a pre-military academy student receives. The current subsidy is somewhere around 75 percent, making the raise a sharp increase while Charedi Yeshivos receive a far lower stipend for their students.

The reports state that the current stipend for a Hesder Yeshiva student is four times that amount that a Charedi Yeshiva receives for their students, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, is looking to make the Hesder stipends even larger.

The Director of Union of Charedi Yeshiva Directors, Shlomo Brilent sent a letter to Minister Bennett, complaining about the unfair division. “In past years there existed an organized standardization of the value of the subsidies given out to Yeshivot based upon the marital status of their students. Single students received one tariff while married students or Avreichim received a higher tariff. It did not matter to which yeshiva they belonged, nor to which stream of Judaism. Over the past two years, we have been witness to the conscious destruction of the organized and equal tariff system. Today we are seeing this trend once again, as certain groups of lobbyists or pressure groups have succeeded in increasing their own tariffs, without any true justification. This increase does not express equality among the various students. and is not justified.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)