At a Yeshivas' Union meeting last week at the organization's
Bnei Brak offices a report was presented on the increasingly
harsh economic decrees against the yeshiva world--including
budget cuts by the Finance Ministry and scheming by the
Education Ministry--that are leading to severe financial
strain at mosdos HaTorah. Another issue raised at the
meeting was Minister Orlev's recent estrangement from the
yeshiva world, signified by his moves against institutions
with dormitory facilities which has a severe impact on all
institutions for boys above the age of 13 since virtually all
of them have dormitories.
The yeshiva directors on hand discussed the imminent
existential danger to the yeshivas, saying the banks are
pressuring mosdos HaTorah heads and threatening to cut
off their credit line, while some suppliers have stopped
providing essential services. Participants at the meeting
also spoke of the crisis caused by long delays in paying
salaries and stipends as well as sharp, arbitrary cuts by the
Finance Ministry.
This month the Ministry of Religious Affairs will stop
providing support funding for the yeshivos ketanos,
based on directives by the Attorney General. According to
promises made, these funds will be provided by the Education
Ministry instead, but so far the status and amount of this
funding remains unknown.
Grievances were voiced against the Education Ministry which,
starting this month, will cut funding by 25 percent.
Meanwhile the minuscule budget cut for government schools was
cancelled.
Heads of Torah institutions expressed hopes that the
Education Minister, known in the past for assisting chareidi
education, will work hard to undo the discriminatory budget
cuts and not take part in bringing the Torah world's
educational institutions to the point of collapse.
Roshei yeshivos and yeshiva directors issued
impassioned calls to Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not
to go down in history as a minister who lent a hand to the
present trend of unprecedented alienation from the Torah
world, which is totally unrelated to the state of the
national economy. They told Netanyahu that no previous
finance minister has ever dared to institute such drastic,
unbalanced budget cuts that threaten to bring about the
collapse of the Torah world--ever the pride of the Jewish
people and its foremost wall of defense.
