Attorney-General Gali Biharav-Miara has launched a review of the legality of the government’s budgets for lomdei Torah and is currently holding talks on canceling all subsidies for yeshivah bochurim, avreichim, and even at-risk Chareid youth.
According to a Calcalist report, Biharav-Miara is reviewing, among other things, the budget for at-risk Chareidi youth in the Welfare Ministry and the discounts that avreichim receive for daycare and arnona. She is also trying to revoke Bituach Leumi subsidies for yeshivah bochurim, a subsidy that is anchored in law.
The discussions are being held as the Justice Ministry is holding talks on what to do with yeshivah budgets in general, which is likely to be soon declared illegal by the Supreme Court. If/when yeshivah budgets are declared illegal, subsidies for bochurim, avreichim and Chareidi youth may be declared illegal as well.
The Attorney-General has started holding discussions on the issue and is considering halting all subsidies.
If the subsidies are indeed canceled, it would be a heavy financial blow to avreichim. Without the daycare subsidy, which is about NIS 1,500, most Chareidi mothers could not afford to work.
Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur (Shas) responded to an inquiry on the matter by stating: “On my watch, no one will harm children because of their parents’ faith. I will fight for the Chareidi children who are in daycare. The Education Law is for all children in the State of Israel without distinction and no one is allowed to harm them. As long as I am the Minister of Labor there will be no sectoral discrimination – not in employment, education, or welfare. We’re in the Jewish state, not in Galut.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
32 Responses
Fighting Torah, and חרדים לדבר ה’ ן a week before Shovuous is the best way to bring peace and stability to the country plagued by war, terror, hostages, wild fires, displaced communities, international recognition of a Palestinan terror state, international denial of right to defense etc etc.
“Without the daycare subsidy, which is about NIS 1,500, most Chareidi mothers could not afford to work.” Written without a hint of irony or self-awareness.
“Without the daycare subsidy, which is about NIS 1,500, most Chareidi mothers could not afford to work.” I think this is an interesting formulation. This could have also been written, “Without the daycare subsidy, which is about NIS 1,500, most Chareidi men could not afford to learn / not work.”
Throughout most of Jewish history we did not have enough money to support all who wished to not work, and only to learn fully time. We have been so blessed in recent generations to have the State of Israel which has supported so many lomdei Torah (I don’t think that the British Mandate government did that). In the current state, and especially given the war, the State unfortunately cannot support all 50,000 bochrim and avreichim who wish to learn full time. Maybe things will calm down soon, and the state will once again be able to do this. But until then, things might need to go back to how they were for most of our history.
Cutting day-care subsidies which would make it difficult for mothers with children to work is totally counter-productive. However, while the religious party MKs acknowledge that a material percentage of older yungerleit attending yeshivot and kollels are not serious learners, they refuse to cut subsidies or require at least part-time work for eligibility. The refusal to make some effort to differentiate those who are serious, full-time learners from the others is a big factor in growing demands within the secular community to cut all subsidies and exemptions.
“We’re in the Jewish state, not in Galut”
This so called ” ‘Jewish’ State” is the BIGGEST galut, the galut of the erev rav
The sad thing is how far acheinu bnei yosroel, right in eretz Yisroel itself can be so distant and estranged from Torah
At this point the government benefits & advantages for long term learners are better in the US & UK.
Like Amulek, Zionists know who their real enemy is…
Explain to me how a supposedly democratic country can discriminate like this. The Israeli Arab population is larger than the charedi population, most don’t serve in the IDF, but how are they exempt from enlistment and defunding of their education and schools? They don’t even do the national service of Torah Study!
Yeshivos that accept government funding have always know it was not something to rely on. The concept of “he who pays the fiddler, calls the tune” is well known, and the Zionists have always had a significant majority in the Kenesset. It does seem ironic that the Zionists would choose a war (that is not going all that well) as the time to try to weaken pro-Zionist parties such as Shas and the various Ashkenazi religious parties, and to build up Satmar and Neturei Karta (which is probably on its last legs unless the Zionists give them a second life by demonstrating why the Hareidim opposed the Medinah).
Charaidim will stop paying taxes and even leave the country it happened with Abayey and Rove. It happened before and after the establishment Of the constitution. Think about it, you have savages that are constantly trying to kill you for being a Jew. And now you have the government from their hand trying to “supposedly” tame orthodox people. When an orthodox family goes shopping, they fill up a Cart, when they send their children to school,they send no less than five kids, when they take a Simcha hall they take it for brisim, bar mitzvot, at times even chasunos, point is that they create an economy where if it wasn’t for them “consumerism” will be otherwise at a disadvantage, plus the government will not have the audacity to ask for taxes. Young people with a strong desire to earn a good Parnasah are leaving eretz Isroel, why? Do they not feel comfortable their way? The answer is Taxes. Arnonah, electric, expensive transportation, mandatory service, Piguim. However, eretz isroel, is still and will always be a beautiful country. It is the laws and the stringency of the government that makes it very difficult to live here.
Let’s stop living in the past. David ben Gurion himself said is not a zionist anymore but an Israeli. There is no zionist government. No one is trying to destroy Torah. The fight is over we won. Let’s move on to the current issue. The government doesn’t print money it cones from somewhere. How is the country supposed to continue funding yeshivos? Where is the money coming from? It is coming from the non religious who are meligned and put down by the yeshiva world. If the people and government no longer want to fund yeshivos it is our fault for not having enough hakaras hatov and explaining and demonstrating to them why they should want to. Instead of more protests how about a big asifa where all the lomdi Torah thank the non religious for supporting them for years with their tax dollars.
without our learning the Zionists have no zchusim the entire society of the Zionists is built on decadence, drugs and arayos
docelisheva,
Specifically to Arab Israelis not serving in the IDF & still receiving funding.
It’s under the concept that you can’t ask soldiers to fight & kill their “Brothers” (brother in law, cousin, nephew, etc ).
This is a long standing moral concept.
At the start of the American Civil War several Influential Marylanders met with Lincoln & told him Maryland men will serve in the Union army as long as they won’t be sent into the Confederacy to fight against their “Brethren of the South” There are plenty of jobs folding uniforms, working in the kitchen, repairing weapons, driving ambulance wagons, etc. that don’t require physically taking up arms against their brothers.
It’s the same idea here which is why the Arab Israelis are exempt from military service & don’t face defunding.
When I see the hatred coming from Chareidim towards the government for trying to get them into the army, it makes me so sad. Of course we Chareidim understand that learning & observing the Torah and not the army, is what is keeping the medinah standing. But how in the world do you expect a secular Jew, who most likely risked his life or has friends and family rising their lives, while serving in the army, to understand how this works?! As mentioned in a previous post, instead of the virulent hatred directed against our unfortunately secular brothers, we should try to explain our side in a calm, loving way. It may or may not help, but the violent demonstrations and horrible criticism is certainly not going to help. How can they even begin to understand our point? It requires a high level of bitachon, which even not all frum people can acquire.
Once upon a time we would complain when the jewish kings taxed us too much.
now we complain that the free handouts , that we get because we do a mitzvah (namely torah learning) have gone down?
rashi owned a vineyard and yet had time to write rashi. he worked. By the sweat of thy brow we are commanded to Woyk.
get a job and stop complaining. also, join the army and Fight like moshe Rabbeinu did. the religious army enrollment numbers are dismal
what a chutzpah, “Lets let the non religious risk their lives in the army while we live on their handouts when they work and pay taxes after their done risking their lives. but we will complain if the reduce the handouts” this is almost laughable.
and to the religious that go to army, work, and learn. Kudos you guys are the real champions, who certainly don’t complain when handouts go down.
You definitely don’t deserve finding if you’re gonna bash “the Zionists” all day.
Now they can study Torah lishma instead of counting on the “bread of shame” from the zionists they so despise.
So, YWN thinks “We’re in the Jewish state, not in Galut.” We are not. Israel is not a Jewish State. It contributes a lot of tax revenue to the Haredi members of society but much less than that sector deserves on a percentage quantum basis. A lot of good Jewish things happen here spearheaded by the haredi community but that does not make it a Jewish State. A Jewish state will be loyal to Halocha. A Jewish State will keep Shabbos not allow it’s desecration by those who have no connection to Yiddishkeit like Ms.Gali Biharav-Miara.
We have no shame demanding, demanding, demanding while contributing nothing. Living off the hard work of the host but getting offended if the host lowers our take by the slightest (even to keep themselves healthy which keeps us alive).
We do this to Yidden but when we do it to Non-Jews & they get upset we blame it on some mysterious unknown force called “Antisemitism”
This point about how the non-charedi are “risking their lives” and charedim aren’t , simply isn’t true. For decades, more Israelis are murdered in terror attacks than fighting wars! Even October 7 lost far,far more people in the terror attack than in months of fighting in Gaza. Religious Jews are represented in far larger numbers of terror attack victims ,than in relation to their percentage of the population, for the simple reason they are easily identifiable as Jews. So stop the false argument , charedim are risking their lives every day in Israel.
phatogre77:
I give you right on this one
Baruch hashem there are some people who understand the zionists are not all evil and nobody is trying to shmad you.
For people to expect monetary support without willing to participate is unfair and shows no hakaras hatov to the country that allowed learning to flourish like never before.
The state of Israel is on the fast track to destruction.
Is cutting child subsidies counterproductive? Why can’t a learning person rock the crib in learning while his eshes chayil is working?
I know of at least one precedent. A (future) Chabad mittele rebbe was sitting learning while watching a kid in the crib and got into deep thinking while the baby started crying. The father, Alter Rebbe, happened to come in (maybe heard it from the top floor) and reprimanded his son for not paying enough attention to the baby. From this we learn shlosha devarim:
1) it is possible to ask a groisse talmid chochom to watch the baby while he is learning
2) attending a crying baby has a priority over learning
3) there were no child subsidies in Russian empire but there were talmidei chachomim.
Ms. Chanandler Bong > government benefits & advantages for long term learners are better in the US & UK.
I don’t know what the King of Britain provides, but in US it is not very legal for the government to provide benefits to learners of a specific religion. If you, chas veshalom, mean government benefits provided to people unable to find jobs, then using those benefits without attempting to find a job might be a geneiva, not a “benefit”.
The Rabbis of the Mishnah [Tannaim] DID NOT receive stipends or subsidies.
They worked full-time to support themselves and their families.
At night, they studied Torah.
EXAMPLES: Shammai was a builder and Rabbi Yehoshua was a blacksmith.
Rambam and Ranban both worked as Doctors [Physicians].
The AG and the High Court both do not understand the limits of their proper jurisdiction and thus are an embarrassment to the legal profession. Judicial reform is badly needed.
They also do not understand the great value and importance of Torah study, because they are ultra-secular and have little or no religious training. May it be Hashem’s will to correct this situation soon!
Square_Root,
The Rambam is a terrible example. He learned full time while being supported by his brother who was a successful businessman. This is when he wrote ALL his published works. His brother drowned in a shipwreck so the Rambam was forced to work which is why he became a Doctor. After he started working he never wrote another published work again.
שֵֽׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד
Kuvult, the Rambam wrote Moreh Nevuchim many years after his brother died.
amicable: rashi owned a vineyard and yet had time to write rashi. he worked.
This is not true. There is no evidence that Rashi ever owned any vineyards, and he certainly didn’t earn his living as a vintner. It’s a bobbe mayseh invented in the 19th century, just like the story that his daughters wore tefillin.
The fact is that Rashi was supported by donations to his yeshiva; that is why he sometimes used the title “Gaon”, which was the title used by roshei yeshiva in Bavel who were supported in the same way.