Will the government's severe attack on kollels and yeshivots lead to the closure of yeshivots and kollels? According to data in the possession of 'Haredim 10', dozens of yeshivots and kollels are considering reducing the number of young men and women as early as the summer or the upcoming Elul period.
The 'Imrei Zvi' Yeshiva, headed by the Gaon Rabbi Aharon Dov Freund, will not hold student registration for the 2015 school year. The students received the official announcement on the day of the wedding of the yeshiva's daughter. In a Torah collection published in honor of the wedding, the yeshiva's head wrote a letter to his students in which he expresses regret over the way registration for large yeshivahs is conducted, with yeshiva heads chasing students and charging huge sums of money to register in order to obtain good young men. The yeshiva's head made it clear that this conduct does not suit him, and therefore there will be no registration for Shiur A next school year. Haredim 10 has learned that the economic situation also influenced the decision.
At the Ateret Yisrael Yeshiva in the Beit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem, the Ramim and the spiritual and secular staff have not received their salaries for eight months. The heads of the yeshiva are working to close some of the boarding schools and leave in the yeshiva "only those who study seriously." One yeshiva member who was hinted at having to leave told us: "It's a shame that they are harming the weak young men who, according to the new conscription law, will simply leave the world of Torah in favor of working on the streets.".
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The Netivot Hochma Yeshiva in the Beit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem is also in dire financial straits: Some time ago, the late Rabbi Yehoshua Nobirt, who supported the yeshiva with all his heart, passed away. Since his passing, his son has had difficulty meeting the expenses his father had raised for the yeshiva. Rabbi Nobirt has another yeshiva called Hochmat Shlomo in Beit Vegan, and there, too, the financial burden falls on him. The yeshiva heads were recently informed of the closure of Rabbi Nobirt's apartment building, which served as a boarding school for the yeshiva's students. The closure of the building will result in a large reduction in the existing boarding schools that have housed the yeshiva's students until now. Yeshiva head Rabbi Daniel Wolfson informed the young men who enrolled in his yeshiva that he agrees to accept them on the condition that they manage independently with a boarding school.
Another yeshiva that is having difficulty paying salaries to its staff is the Be'er HaTorah yeshiva - also in the Beit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem. The entire staff has not received a salary for about six months.
The Beit Matityahu Yeshiva in Bnei Brak has seen drastic cuts to the dining hall budget for several months. One of the yeshiva members says that the young men are forced to buy their own food every day, and on Shabbat they are simply looking for hosts for meals... Some of the suppliers have stopped supplying food to the yeshiva until the debts are paid.
Re-registration at Ateret Shlomo'
In the kollel halls, the situation is no more encouraging: in the large kollel network - 'Ateret Shlomo', the avrechim and the heads of the kollel have not received their salaries for five months. Another surprise for the avrechim of 'Ateret Shlomo': the head of the institutions, the gaon Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, announced re-registration for the summer. The avrechim will be required to go through the re-registration process and, according to estimates, only 65% will be accepted back into the kollels. The goal: to filter out the weak avrechim who are not truly immersed in Torah.
It has been learned that Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotzkin plans to establish a large yeshiva in Jerusalem next year, in which he intends to invest most of the chain's financial investment - an investment that will inevitably lead to a reduction in kollel activity. A rabbi from a branch in Bnei Brak says: "Bottom line, Bennett won. The weak rabbis are being thrown out into the workforce. The head of the kollel, Rabbi Sorotzkin, is investing more in the yeshiva he is establishing. The rabbis of the small yeshiva of the 'Ateret Shlomo' chain received holiday vouchers to purchase clothing for Passover, while this year the rabbis will not receive any.".
Another kollel network that is struggling to withstand budget cuts is Rabbi Elchanan Weisbord's Yishkhar Be'alich network. The students have not received scholarships for several months, and sources close to the management are aware of an imminent reform in this network as well.
Yeshivahs that will undergo changes that are not necessarily related to the economic issue are the Or Elchanan Yeshivah for Young People in Berchfeld in Modi'in Illit, and the 'Tiferet Yisrael' Yeshivah in Jerusalem. The Or Elchanan Yeshivah for Young People in Berchfeld announced that they will not open registration for the next school year, due to the "modern" name given to the yeshivah. The yeshivah will continue next year without a Shiur A. A well-founded rumor says that the yeshivah will reopen in a different format, headed by the rabbi Yaakov Baruch Sampolinsky in Kiryat Sefer. .
At the Tiferet Yisrael Yeshiva of the Gaon Rabbi Yisrael Meir Druk, the young men were surprised to hear that the yeshiva had decided to close its doors. The yeshiva's head informed the young men that in the near future he would open an alternative setting for them in the Ramot neighborhood, where one of the spiritual staff members would move with them. There is great confusion in the yeshiva regarding the head's desire to close the yeshiva, due to rumors that this was only a way to filter out the weaker young men and open a new setting for the better ones under a new name and with a different staff.
