Minister, opposition slam cabinet's proposal for yeshiva stipends
According to new recommendations, full-time yeshiva students will be able to receive government stipends for five years only.
By Barak Ravid Tags: Israel news ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students KadimaOpposition lawmakers and at least one government minister strongly condemned on Friday a Knesset committee's recommendations to the curtail stipends to religious seminary students to a maximum period of five years, but not end them altogether.
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Ultra-Orthodox men studying in yeshiva. |
| Photo by: Micha Odenheimer |
Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer of the Labor party harshly criticized the plan. Ben-Eliezer said of the proposal, "The decision that will be voted on by the cabinet on Sunday will in effect perpetuate the impoverishment of the Haredim and their non-integration in the job market."
Earlier on Friday, the Cabinet is expected to adopt recommendations on Sunday that would limit the amount of time that yeshiva students can receive government stipends.
According to the committee's recommendations, full time yeshiva students will be able to receive a stipend for four years only. During their fifth year, the amount of money they receive will be reduced and they will be expected to integrate into the workforce.
The number of students allowed to receive stipends after five years will be capped at 2,000 and the figure they will continue to receive will be NIS 1,040 per month.
Ben-Eliezer criticized the plan, saying, "This is a backtracking from a draft that was originally presented to the ministry. [In the new recommended version], there will be no improvement or conditioning of stipends on professional training, and religious students over the age of 29 will be exempt from working forever – that's more than 90% of the people [receiving stipends].
Kadima party members attacked the stipend proposal as well, contending that "Netanyahu is once again lying to the public, evading responsibility and selling out the values of the state in the name of his political survival. The government proposal is a lie, it's a fraud wrapped in cellophane."
Officials in Kadima continued, "Netanyahu is passing the buck onto subsequent governments, enlarging the budget of the religious seminary students to NIS 127 million, reinforcing poverty in the Haredi sector of the population, normalizing the inequalities among those carrying the tax load, and is spitting in the faces of [university and college] students."
"Netanyahu must bring the proposal to the Knesset for a vote, and not evade a public debate," added the Kadima officials.
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Who are these guys and why on Earth do they get money for studying ... what ? Is their study going to materialize anytime in the near future into something vaguely productive? The answer is ... no. How the hell can the government sustain these guys and give them free education and at the same time the real important study, which is done in Universities, is kept under fees?
I believe this is an acceptable compromise. For while Israel's reason for existing and it's real protection stems from Hashem's Holy Torah, which this men are learning with all thier hearts, the country still needs all citizens to do their part to stimulate the economy and fight in the military. 5 years is a nice amount to learn and then work.
Better they should go out and work to earn money to study or get their parents to pay or some rich philanthropists to give them money but stop taking it from us, the Israeli taxpayers!!! Maspik kfar!!!
FATHER GOD SAID...HE WHO DOES NOT WORK.. SHOULD NOT EAT.. THERE ARE PARTICULAR SITUATIONS WHERE PEOPLE CANNOT WORK..BUT THIS IS NOT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE CASE ESPECIALLY IN A JEWISH NATION ...THAT HONOURS SHABBAT ...THERE SHOULD BE NO REASON A PART TIME JOB COULD NOT BE INCORPORATED INTO THEIR STUDY LIFESTYLE... NOW IF THE EMPLOYER IS UNGODLY...THAT IS DIFFERENT FOR A LITTLE LEAVEN LEAVENS THE WHOLE DOUGH....BUT WHO IS WITHOUT SIN...NOT EVEN HAREDIM....
This is the sort of social welfare that undermines a progressive society like Israel. Those that want to study should do so at their own expense! Let them be a productive member of society and capitalism will reward them with money to study whatever they want.
This is baffling to millions. Why do they not seek gainful employmennt in the labour market? Perhaps the goverment should conduct a national exam in Talmud in which students are presented with social problems that need to be addressed and see which students come up with the best responses that could be utilised for the betterment of society and those students who were most productive and contibuting something concrete would be exempt. But I suppose their rationalisation for not working is that studying Torah itself is a value. Certainly not working does not have precendent from earlier times when many of the rabbonim were known for their professions.
Increasing the generosity of the benefits simply increases the burden on those from whom the taxes must be raised.