ממש א געוואונס פאר רעיון פון קרן הצלה
Haredi schools plan break with state
Mati Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST
Feb. 8, 2005
Following in the footsteps of more radical ultra-orthodox groups such as Satmar and Toldot Aharon, the mainstream haredi community plans to break ties with the state and set up its own education system for about 40,000 elementary school aged boys.
Haredi education leaders are poised to launch a massive international PR campaign to disparage Israel for discriminating against the haredi education system in the allocation of funds.
Over the past two years, since United Torah Judaism was exiled to the opposition and replaced in the government with Shinui, Talmudei Torah (haredi elementary schools) that are defined as exempt institutions (mosdot ptur) have suffered a series of budgetary setbacks, resulting in a total cut of 30% from NIS 369 per student per month to NIS 262. The total annual budget has fallen from NIS 177 million to NIS 125m., say well-informed haredi education sources.
"We're waiting to see if any headway is made [by Degel Hatorah and Agudah] in the government," said Rabbi Avraham Pinzel, manager of Chochmat Shlomo, which with a student body of 800 is the largest Talmud Torah elementary school in Jerusalem.
"But at the same time we are planning to launch a massive fundraising campaign in the major Jewish communities of the world to raise enough money to ensure complete autonomy," added Pinzel.
"We will appeal to both orthodox and non-orthodox Jewry and the governments of the western world and notify them that the State of Israel, which was established on the detritus of the Holocaust, discriminates against authentic Jewish education.
"Each haredi family in the Diaspora will be asked to adopt a child and donate $80 a month," explained Pinzel. "That's enough to allow us to break ties with the state."
The goal of the fundraising effort is to replace the department in the Education Ministry that budgets "exempt institutions," which are called by this name because they are exempt from the Mandatory Education Law.
As a result, they determine their own curriculum without Education Ministry intervention. But they also receive much lower state subsidies. Rabbi Ben-Zion Kugler, manager of Chavas Da'as, an elite Talmud Torah in Jerusalem, said a haredi pupil enrolled in an exempt institution receives from the state just 25% of what his secular or national religious counterpart gets.
Budget cuts for exempt institutions have put pressure on school principals to swap some pedagogic autonomy for more state funds.
By changing their status from exempt to "recognized but not official" (mukar aval eino reshmi), the institutions receive more money from the state.
But haredi spiritual leaders strongly oppose this move.
"We will not tolerate anyone interfering with the way we educate our children," said Pinzel. "We'd sooner detach ourselves completely from the state, and that is what we will do."
Pinzel said that some 15 of the largest Talmudei Torah have joined forces for the endeavor, which has already managed to raise $1 million abroad. Another $500,000 for advertising expenses was donated by a single Canadian philanthropist.
On Tuesday evening an official bank account was opened at Poalei Agudah Bank in Bnei Brak in which the money raised thus far was deposited.
Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkovitz, one of the most senior members of Degel Hatorah's Council of Torah Sages, is directing the efforts, which include enlisting a battery of lawyers and accountants to set up the legal infrastructure.
Since Rabbi Lefkovitz first devised the plan two months ago with the blessing of all the leading Lithuanian haredi rabbis, numerous meetings have taken place at his home across the street from the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.
Haredi schools plan break with state
Mati Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST
Feb. 8, 2005
Following in the footsteps of more radical ultra-orthodox groups such as Satmar and Toldot Aharon, the mainstream haredi community plans to break ties with the state and set up its own education system for about 40,000 elementary school aged boys.
Haredi education leaders are poised to launch a massive international PR campaign to disparage Israel for discriminating against the haredi education system in the allocation of funds.
Over the past two years, since United Torah Judaism was exiled to the opposition and replaced in the government with Shinui, Talmudei Torah (haredi elementary schools) that are defined as exempt institutions (mosdot ptur) have suffered a series of budgetary setbacks, resulting in a total cut of 30% from NIS 369 per student per month to NIS 262. The total annual budget has fallen from NIS 177 million to NIS 125m., say well-informed haredi education sources.
"We're waiting to see if any headway is made [by Degel Hatorah and Agudah] in the government," said Rabbi Avraham Pinzel, manager of Chochmat Shlomo, which with a student body of 800 is the largest Talmud Torah elementary school in Jerusalem.
"But at the same time we are planning to launch a massive fundraising campaign in the major Jewish communities of the world to raise enough money to ensure complete autonomy," added Pinzel.
"We will appeal to both orthodox and non-orthodox Jewry and the governments of the western world and notify them that the State of Israel, which was established on the detritus of the Holocaust, discriminates against authentic Jewish education.
"Each haredi family in the Diaspora will be asked to adopt a child and donate $80 a month," explained Pinzel. "That's enough to allow us to break ties with the state."
The goal of the fundraising effort is to replace the department in the Education Ministry that budgets "exempt institutions," which are called by this name because they are exempt from the Mandatory Education Law.
As a result, they determine their own curriculum without Education Ministry intervention. But they also receive much lower state subsidies. Rabbi Ben-Zion Kugler, manager of Chavas Da'as, an elite Talmud Torah in Jerusalem, said a haredi pupil enrolled in an exempt institution receives from the state just 25% of what his secular or national religious counterpart gets.
Budget cuts for exempt institutions have put pressure on school principals to swap some pedagogic autonomy for more state funds.
By changing their status from exempt to "recognized but not official" (mukar aval eino reshmi), the institutions receive more money from the state.
But haredi spiritual leaders strongly oppose this move.
"We will not tolerate anyone interfering with the way we educate our children," said Pinzel. "We'd sooner detach ourselves completely from the state, and that is what we will do."
Pinzel said that some 15 of the largest Talmudei Torah have joined forces for the endeavor, which has already managed to raise $1 million abroad. Another $500,000 for advertising expenses was donated by a single Canadian philanthropist.
On Tuesday evening an official bank account was opened at Poalei Agudah Bank in Bnei Brak in which the money raised thus far was deposited.
Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkovitz, one of the most senior members of Degel Hatorah's Council of Torah Sages, is directing the efforts, which include enlisting a battery of lawyers and accountants to set up the legal infrastructure.
Since Rabbi Lefkovitz first devised the plan two months ago with the blessing of all the leading Lithuanian haredi rabbis, numerous meetings have taken place at his home across the street from the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.