The issue of the budget for Yeshivos and Seminaries has been presented to the Chareidi representatives to the Knesset, in particular, Chairman of the Finance Committee Moshe Gafni. Chairman of the Yeshivos Association Avraham Friedman warned that the lack of an approved budget is currently endangering the Avreichim.
“At this time when budgetary discussions are bouncing back and forth, the budgets of the Yeshivos are also in limbo,” Friedman told Gafni. “Thus, the stipend for the students and the avreichim are in limbo. The current status of the stipend to an avreich, without an approved budget, is NIS 600 per month. That means that an avreich earns NIS 3.5 per hour. Sooner or later, all of the avreichim will be standing in front of a financial pipeline that has been turned off completely and they and their families will be poverty-stricken and hungry as a direct result of what is taking place now. Will they forever be financially disabled because of what is taking place now?”
The Yeshivos Association is demanding a temporary directive be issued to allow avreichim to be included among those who will receive the larger grants being given out by the government via the national insurance provider to those affected by the coronavirus. This will allow them some breathing space until the matter of the budget can be settled.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
We should launch a massive campaign to help the Avreichim!!
Actually, 600 was the old amount, from during the time the government was still not formed. Since the government was formed but no budget passed the stipend has gone down to 310 a month and a little over 100 for non-Israelis.
Naturally, the kollelim pay the avreichim more than that, but this subsidy has dwindled to to near irrelevance and the roshei kollel are having a difficult time of it and cutting stipends accordingly.
This is in addition to the fact that the minuscule payments are often delayed – especially around the beginning of the fiscal year.
If someone cannot afford it and is in dire financial straits, maybe it’s a good time to start looking for a job. There are jobs in Israel, even now during Covid, that remain unfilled. The government has many problems to give free training for Charedi men in jobs.