MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni has launched an unprecedented attack on
Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev (Mafdal) in response to his
harsh stance toward chareidi Torah institutions receiving
support from his ministry.
For years the Welfare Ministry has provided support and
assistance for talmidim staying in dormitory
facilities. Following the economic decrees Orlev decided to
carry out "affirmative action" for the national-religious
education institutions by issuing a directive to make double-
digit cuts in funding that has been regularly transferred to
chareidi institutions for over 25 years, based on strict
criteria. This affects all institutions for boys past the age
of 13. Virtually all yeshiva ketanos and yeshiva
gedolos have dormitories and have been supported under
these programs.
"Now it appears the claim that your policy stems from hatred
of chareidim, which we doubted, is true," reads a letter
Rabbi Gafni sent to Orlev last week. "There is no other
minister in this evil government who has caused such great
damage to the Torah institutions [designated] for the
chareidi sector, and all this without government decisions
and without a policy resulting from coalition agreements, but
your decision alone. Neither Tommy Lapid nor Poraz, and
certainly not Minister Effi Eitam or Yitzhak Levy.
"All those closely involved with and aware of this issue have
the impression you are so eager to harm the chareidi sector
that you are even prepared to do so at the expense of the
national-religious sector and the general public, as your
decisions indicate. Furthermore the most severe blow to the
general population, and the chareidi sector in particular, is
Child Support Payments, which are under your ministerial
responsibility and [as Chazal say], megalgelim chovoh al
yadei chayov. Your decisions demonstrate that at best you
are indifferent to our plight. This letter of mine follows
numerous, pointed conversations we have conducted over a long
period of time, United Torah Jewry meetings held with you,
etc., until I realized your remarks were mere words and not
your real sentiments."
In closing Rabbi Gafni wrote, "We hope and pray that this
evil government and its decrees will quickly disappear from
the world, but history will forever recall what you did in
the Welfare Ministry, which will take a long time for us to
rectify, if at all."
