Last update - 00:00 10/10/2007
Haredi Taglit-style program scores government funding
By Anshel Pfeffer
Ultra-Orthodox politicians have recently allocated NIS 10 million in public funds to encourage young Haredis to visit Israel, Haaretz has learned. The funds would build a Haredi alternative to the largely secular Taglit-birthright Israel trips.
The money is earmarked for ultra-Orthodox programs within the Education Ministry. Among other politicians, Shas Minister for education and welfare matters in the Finance Ministry Meshulam Nahari aided in securing the funding. Advertisement
Taglit provides educational peer-group trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. In its first seven years, Taglit received donations from some of the richest Jewish businessman in the world, including Haredi Jews. In August, Billionaire Sheldon Adelson announced he would donate $60 million to Taglit. Additionally, the program receives $17 million annually from the government.
It was Taglit's success that prompted the ultra-Orthodox philanthropist Ze'ev Wolfson to begin efforts toward establishing a Taglit-like Haredi program to introduce participants to various yeshivas across Israel.
Wolfson is expected to match the funding Nahari had secured. The initial capital is meant to fund a three-week tour in Israel for some 900 ultra-Orthodox students. The upcoming tour will be twice as long as in the Taglit program.
Participants will visit both religious and Israeli heritage sites. The former will include Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem and Ammunition Hill, the site of one of the toughest battles in the Six Day War.
The NIS 10 million Nahari obtained for the project will be made available to the Education Ministry through a special budgetary clause for "Jewish education for Jews living abroad." However, the ministry has yet to prepare the criteria that would allow the money to be transferred to the program.
Despite initiatives by some philanthropists, Taglit accepts all candidates who qualify for immigration to Israel in accordance with the Law of Return. Three years ago, businessman and philanthropist Lev Leviev donated $1 million to Taglit under the caveat the funds go to participants who qualify as Jews according to halakha.
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