The Education Minister signed a series of new criteria for
funding Torah institutes, including a 24 percent increase in
the budget for yeshivas, bringing it up to NIS 39 million
($7.4 million) per month. Education Ministry officials said
funding for the past two months will be transferred this
week. Current funding had been withheld as long as the new
criteria were not approved.
The new criteria contain several central changes as a result
of pressure by the chareidi parties in the Knesset, despite
attempts to block the changes during the long weeks they were
being drafted. The greatest challenges were posed by Justice
Ministry officials, including Attorney Amnon De-Hartoch.
During this process chareidi MKs applied pressure to
introduce several central changes, some of them "damage
control," in order to allow Torah institutions to continue
receiving regular funding after delays of several months.
One of the changes made in the new criteria, which was even
approved by a government decision, was the timetable for
reporting on enrollment. As originally proposed, enrollment
figures could only be submitted twice a year, which has now
been doubled to four reporting dates.
Since the yeshivas are supposed to report a student's leaving
immediately, if there are only two yearly opportunities to
add students, it means that the education of transferring
students would not be funded at any institution for up to six
months. This applies to thousands of students who get married
every year in addition to many more who transfer for other
reasons. Thus, the addition of two more reporting dates has
significant budgetary consequences. The original proposal of
only two reporting dates was a bureaucratic attempt to impose
a cut in funds on yeshivas that was not authorized by the
Knesset or the Cabinet. That this was the original intent was
clear after this consequence was pointed out by chareidi
politicians and the bureaucrats refused to budge until
massive pressure was applied.
Nevertheless there are still numerous criteria that present
obstacles to receiving regular funding, such as the 40
percent reduction in the allocation for foreign students and
students over the age of 22 studying on the basis of a
military deferment.
The new criteria, most of which were drafted by De-Hartoch,
require students at yeshivos gedolos to study at least
45 hours per week between Sunday and Friday and even
delineate the hours of study: between 8:00 am and 9:00 p.m.,
and between 8:00 am and 2:00 p.m. on Fridays, although "there
is no obligation to hold studies more than five days per
week." The criteria also state, "Study hours may include
Tefillat Minchah and Arvit, but not Tefillat
Shacharit."
Similar regulations also apply to kollelim.
Avreichim are required to study no less than 45 hours
per week with the exception of avreichim who performed
military duty, who must study a minimum of 35 hours per week.
A kollel must have a minimum of 15 members. A half-day
kollel is defined as a program with a minimum of four
and a half consecutive hours per day, during the morning or
afternoon hours, and an avreich is eligible for
stipend money only if he studies at another half-day
kollel for at least four hours. Yeshiva and
kollel students over the age of 65 are ineligible for
support.
The criteria further state that an extension of a
kollel must number at least 10 students, but may not
exceed 40 percent of the number of students studying at the
institution submitting the request. This institution must be
in operation for at least five years and supported by the
State for at least two years. As originally proposed the
requirement was that all the learning take place at only one
institution, which would have imposed an onerous burden on
kollel fellows who generally do not learn that much at their
primary kollel, but only reach that number of hours when
adding in night kollelim which are generally closer to their
homes.
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, who took part in many of the meetings
with Education and Justice Ministry officials along with
other MKs, says no other sector in the country is forced to
comply with such stringent, hair-splitting criteria and
irrational regulations. "These cuts are unbearable and all of
it is part of aims to harm the Torah world," he said. "The
chareidi and religious representation agreed with the
Education Minister's moves on the issue of criteria only
after the fact as a means of damage control, but primarily in
order to avoid delaying the transfer of regular funding,
which has been withheld at length due to the lack of the new
criteria."
According to Ha'aretz, a decade ago the yeshivas'
budget stood at about NIS 1 billion and supported 220,000
students, while the Education Ministry's budget for yeshivas
now stands at NIS 544 million and the number of students has
dropped to NIS 105,000.
The allocation per advanced yeshiva student reached a high of
NIS 590 ($131) per month in early 2002, has dropped by nearly
40 percent to NIS 361 ($80). Foreign passport holders who are
not Israeli citizens get just 60 percent of this sum, NIS 215
($48) per month.
The budget for kollel students (married men) reached a high
of NIS 736 ($163) per month in early 2002 and is now less
than NIS 400 ($90). Clearly this was not more than a small
fraction of a kollel student's monthly budget, even at its
height.
One of the stated purposes of the changes in the rules is to
make it harder to report fictitious students. No respectable
institution ever did so or justified doing so. Moreover, for
years the government authorities have instituted a series of
measures designed to expose the fraud: the auditing of the
yeshivas' books by accountants; various reporting and
verification measures and the transfer of handling these
allocations to the Education Ministry. So far no significant
amounts of fraud have been uncovered.
