Report: Nonprofit founded by Shas candidate for bereaved families diverted funds to yeshiva students

By Ariela Karmel

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20 September 2026, 11:44 am

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Maj. (res.) Dror David Amos. (Shas)

Millions of shekels in public funding awarded to a nonprofit founded by Shas Knesset candidate Dror Amos to assist bereaved families were instead used primarily to fund stipends for married yeshiva students, while relatives and associates of Shas officials benefited from jobs and contracts linked to the organization, according to a Channel 12 investigation.

Amos, a reserve IDF major who heads the Haifa Religious Council, was recently given the No. 6 spot on the ultra-Orthodox party’s Knesset slate ahead of the upcoming election.

The nonprofit received NIS 4.8 million ($1.45 million) in 2024 ostensibly to assist bereaved families in the wake of the October 7 attack. Yet numerous bereaved families and affected communities told Channel 12 they had never heard of the organization. Instead, more than NIS 2.5 million ($760,000) was reportedly spent on stipends for yeshiva students.

The investigation also found indications that multiple public bodies — mainly Shas-linked local authorities and religious councils — paid the nonprofit for services already funded by the Shas-controlled Religious Services Ministry, raising suspicions of double funding. It also alleged overlaps between the nonprofit, Amos’s relatives and private family companies.

Amos reportedly left the nonprofit over conflict-of-interest concerns after becoming head of the Haifa Religious Council in May 2025, but was replaced by his brother.

Shas denounces the report as a “false investigation” intended to harm the party, while the Religious Services Ministry says Amos’s conflict-of-interest arrangement “was duly approved in accordance with the law” and that “nothing was concealed.”

Religious rights group ITIM says it will ask Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to open a criminal investigation into the allegations.

The group earlier this week petitioned to disqualify Amos from the election, arguing that he illegally remained in his public post as head of the Haifa Religious Council after joining Shas’s slate rather than resigning by the required deadline.