In an interview to the daily "Yisrael Hayom," Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said:
"A student in the Betzalel Academic Institute for the Arts costs the country 38,000 shekel a year. It is a government subsidy. There are students in gender studies and the arts which we help to finance. A normal, standard country invests in the humanities, arts and culture.
"I am not one to downplay the humanities or Betzalel, but what do they contribute to the national productivity by throwing paint on walls and calling it art? Why are we subsidizing this? Because it makes our country 'normal'?
"We back the theater with an annual fifty million shekel and the movie industry with some ninety million shekel, so why can't I support other enterprises, like the yeshivos, which I help with far smaller sums."
This was too much for someone. One who served in the past as the Justice Minister, a Likud man in the past and today a rabid Netanyahu enemy — Dan Meridor — responded with an acerbic attack:
"There is gangster talk here and arrogance against a noteworthy academy with international prominence which has produced thousands of graduates. This comparison is totally out of place. This whole notion is populistic, a shame to be expressed by a government minister. If he is not aware of the truth, it is altogether drastic and abysmal. He knows this and still maintains his position — which is a dismal lie."
What then is the lie?
Meridor continued, "Betzalel contributes much in the heart of Jerusalem. It has female students as well as Arab ones — something which cannot be said of yeshivos. In a normal country, the Education Minister and Prime Minister would to react immediately but the first who should do so is Smotrich himself. And if this is what he believes about art, woe unto us. It reflects upon the man himself."
This is the man and these are his views and his talk. The Betzalel Academic Institute for the Arts contributes to the county because it embodies 'art'.
How did Smotrich define it so aptly? "Calling flinging paint on walls is called art?" Let us set this aside.
But why are researchers of ancient Chinese or Assyrian culture entitled to high government support while researchers of ancient and contemporary Jewish tradition are denied support from the government coffers? Because they don't include women or Arabs?
Or as Meridor put it, "the students pay tuition"? Well, for his information, yeshiva students also pay tuition. But who is interested in such facts if the basic understanding is lacking that a country — any country — needs people of spirit and soul, even if we choose to call them yeshiva students.
I have a dream, perhaps idyllic. But one can always drea? It features several key figures of the chareidi public mobilizing philanthropists from all over the world to promote a huge campaign to expose the deceptions of the media and present the real facts about the chareidi public. The "New York Times" ran a series of fabrications against the chareidi educational institutions in America, and the leaders of our sector understood that they could not allow this to remain without rebuttal. Someone there paid huge sums for gigantic ads posted in the largest business center in the world — Manhattan — descrying the lies and ads of that newspaper.
Much action was invested to mobilize top government and public officials to come out in favor of chareidi education. At the forefront was the New York City mayor who expressed enthusiastic support of said education. "We view our country and watch the growing anti-Semitism and the violence increasing among the youth. Instead of concentration on how to duplicate their success and improve the education of our children, people attack the yeshivos supplying quality education which fortifies our children." These were the words of New York Mayor Eric Adams.
I dream about publicizing the facts, like the truth about the contributions of the chareidi community to the economy. More than 80 percent of chareidi women work — a higher percentage than in the general community. More than half of the men work. If you add it up, a great majority of our community earns their keep by working. Of course there are tens of thousands of golden avreichim who dedicate themselves to studying Torah, but they are a minority of the entire chareidi community.
These are the facts, and we have not even mentioned the dozens of chareidi chesed organizations that contribute the equivalent of billions to the general welfare.
These are the facts. Not the lies spread by enemies of the people.
