From the Liveblog of
Monday, May 5, 2025
Senior Israeli rabbi to fundraise in US in June for yeshivas facing cuts over IDF draft ruling
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the senior leaders of the so-called Lithuanian stream of ultra-Orthodox Jewry, is slated to go to the United States in early June to raise funds to compensate for cuts to yeshiva budgets implemented in the wake of last year’s High Court decision ending draft exemptions of Talmud students, according to the ultra-Orthodox news site Behadrei Haredim.
Last April, an interim order by the High Court of Justice barring the government from providing funds to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas for students eligible for IDF enlistment went into effect, effectively ending the transfer of subsidies for tens of thousands of full-time students.
In the wake of these cuts, Hirsch, 87, and Rabbi Dov Lando, 94, reportedly raised nearly $100 million in the US to cover the shortfall.
Despite the cuts, the 2025 state budget included more than NIS 1.8 billion ($498 million) in coalition funds for the Haredi community.
This included NIS 1.27 billion ($351 million) for yeshivas, NIS 75 million ($20.7 million) for women’s seminaries, NIS 87 million ($24 million) for strengthening Jewish identity, NIS 60 million ($16.5 million) for yeshivas for overseas students, and NIS 2.9 million ($792,000) for matters relating to Jewish “family purity” laws.
The coalition funds also included NIS 28 million ($7.7 million) for programs to prevent Haredim from dropping out of yeshivas and NIS 8 million ($2.2 million) for “coordination and liaison bodies” — a reference to groups that arrange military exemptions.
The Times of Israel Community.