Chief Rabbi Yitzchok Yosef wrote to chareidi MKs asking them emend the new draft law. He said that due to the new law, dozens of small kollelim, particularly Sefardi kollelim in the periphery and in small towns, are ceasing to exist so far as the government is concerned. This is preventing their yungeleit from being considered full time yeshiva students, cutting off their government funding, and causing some of them to stop learning.
Under Israeli law, a government recognized kollel must have at least ten members below draft age. This was no problem when yungeleit and bochurim were exempt from the army until their late twenties. But with the law only exempting yungeleit until the age of 24, any kollel with less than ten yungeleit below that age is regarded as non-existent and not legible for government funding.
MK Yisroel Eichler, Minister Aryeh Deri and Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush said that they would do everything possible to emend the situation.
{Matzav.com Israel}
The Israeli governments reluctant funding of torah is the ONLY reason the government exists. By their cutting off funding to Torah learning they are in effect suffocating their ownselves to death, and will soon cease to exist. This is not a klala(curse) but rather the natural effect their own actions. Torah is life, and it’s cessesion is death.
Cutting off funding? Israel is the largest supporter of torah wordwide! Chutzpah!
Why do we want money from the government? We want money from HaShem…
Did the Cheif rabbi use the word yungeleit? thats funny
Does the chief rabbi speak english