US-based Haredi charity says raised $130 million for Israeli draft evaders’ yeshivas

A US-based ultra-Orthodox charity has raised over $130 million (some NIS 400 million) for Haredi yeshiva students in Israel, according to its website, in response to welfare and funding cuts imposed in response to draft evasion among military-age Haredi men.

Kerem Olam HaTorah announced on its website that it has raised over $130 million since a June 2024 High Court of Justice ruling that outlawed continued government funding to yeshiva students evading conscription.

Explaining the urgency of its cause, Kerem Olam HaTorah says it is trying to sustain 1,489 Haredi yeshivas and seminaries due to government funding cuts impacting over 350,000 yeshiva students and their families.

“The government turned its back, but the people never will,” the organization says on its website.

“With an average distribution of one million shekel every day, the need is relentless. We can’t slow down, we cannot afford to. Because we understand we are upholding the very purpose of our existence. We’re not waiting for a savior, we’re looking in the mirror,” Kerem Olam HaTorah states on its website, adding “Nothing has changed, but us. We stopped asking, ‘Who will step in?’ and started answering, ‘We will.'”

The group says its goal is to raise $12 million each month, but at present, the monthly donation rate comes in at slightly under $11 million.

Kerem Olam HaTorah appears to primarily receive donations from sympathetic Jews in the United States, although it says it receives funds from 42 countries globally. A UK-based branch of Kerem Olam HaTorah said in September 2025 that it had raised more than £10 million ($13.38 million as well).

The charity offers different one-off options for willing donors, including sponsoring an unmarried yeshiva student for $152 a month or $1,824 a year, or sponsoring a married yeshiva student for $276 a month or $3,312 a year.

The charity implores sympathetic parties to “stand on the side of Torah. Give any amount to be part of what keeps us, us.”

Over the past months, waves of ultra-Orthodox anti-draft demonstrations have taken place across the country, where protesters blocked roads and vehicles near recruitment offices and clashed with police who have deemed the protests illegal.

Demonstrators have held up signs reading, “It was better to die as a Jew in the Holocaust than to spiritually die in IDF camps” and shouted, “We will die and not enlist.”

Early in September, the High Court annulled an arrest ban on Haredi draft dodgers, ruling unanimously that a contentious law passed in July by the coalition to keep the IDF and police from arresting draft evaders was found unconstitutional since it did severe harm to the principle of equality.

Some 80,000 Haredi men aged 18 to 24 are currently eligible for military service but have not enlisted. Haredi leaders have fiercely opposed compulsory enlistment, arguing that military service threatens their religious way of life. The issue has become increasingly contentious as the IDF has reported an acute manpower shortage after years of war and heavy reserve duty.