Recent data from the Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance on the budgets of Haredi yeshivahs reveal how badly some of them have been hit - with a decrease of 80% and even 90% in government support.
According to a report by Nati Toker in The Marker, the large yeshivots lost up to 20 million shekels - an amount that may cloud their continued operation in the current format in the long term.
The sharp cuts were imposed on the yeshiva world after the High Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that the arrangement for deferring service for yeshiva students was illegal. According to the data, the complete cessation of yeshiva support for those defined as "deferring" reached a total amount of approximately 350 million shekels that year.
However, the blow was partial, as it only began in mid-2024, and only gradually affected yeshiva students whose service deferrals had expired.
Data from the Accountant General of the Treasury and the Corporate Authority of the Ministry of Justice, presented on the Guidestar website, shows how hard this blow was for some of the Torah institutions in the current budget year - 2025.
The sanction prevents funding for about 80,000 yeshiva students and avrechims - who did not receive support, which ranges from 470 shekels per month per yeshiva student to about 850 shekels per month per avrechim.
Thus, while in 2023 the total support of the Torah world approached 1.8 billion shekels, after a sharp increase with the establishment of the current government, in 2025 the Treasury allocated only 1.1 billion shekels to this item.
Data from the Accountant General and the Registrar of Associations reveal which Torah institutions have been hit hardest. Naturally, the institutions that have been hit hardest are those whose student body includes more young people aged 18–26 - who are now defined as "defectors." On the other hand, long-standing comprehensive programs, whose student body consists mainly of adults who have been exempt from military service for years, have been hit less.
According to the data presented by Toker, the Slobodka yeshiva has received about 5 million shekels from the state every year for the past decade, and after the signing of the coalition agreement in 2023, it received 6.8 million shekels. However, the sanctions that began in 2024 hit it hard, and support for Slobodka was cut to 4.5 million shekels. And what about 2025? The Accountant General's data for the first three quarters of the year reveal that so far Slobodka has received support of only 2.2 million shekels.
This amount may increase in the months remaining until the end of the year, but according to the current trend, this means that support has been cut from more than 501,000 organizations.
The Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak suffered a much greater decline: in 2023, it recorded record revenues from the government of 22 million shekels, and these have fallen to only 7 million shekels so far in 2025.
Yeshiva Mir, the largest yeshiva in Israel, received 56 million shekels from the state in 2023, and so far in 2025, the yeshiva has received only about 29 million shekels. The budgets remain relatively high because the yeshiva has many Abrahi, including many adults.
The Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem benefited from support totaling almost 9 million shekels in 2023. This amount was cut by almost 901,000 shekels, and so far in 2025, the yeshiva has received only about 800,000 shekels.
One of the yeshivahs that suffered the most painful blow is Orchot HaTorah in Bnei Brak, which is mostly made up of young yeshivah members. The yeshiva benefited from total support of almost 17 million shekels in 2023, including from the Ministry of Social Affairs. However, in 2025 so far, the yeshivah has received only about 1.3 million shekels. At this rate, support for the yeshivah will be cut by more than 801 million shekels in 2025.
The Porat Yosef Yeshiva suffered a drop from 1.9 million shekels in 2023 to only about 240,000 shekels so far in 2025. A similar decrease of 75% in the budget was also recorded at the Kis Rahamim Yeshiva.
The Hasidic community also suffered a blow: the budget of the Viznitz Yeshiva was cut by only a third, amounting to a little over 6 million shekels. Similar cuts were made to the Sfat Emet Yeshiva in Gur, the Beit Matityahu Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and others.
The Marker noted that some yeshivas received compensation for these budget cuts from the World Torah Fund. According to information provided to The Marker by the fund, in the past year the rate of payments it made to Torah institutions reached approximately $9 million per month. This means that the total payments from the fund will reach approximately NIS 300 million in 2025.
This is still a very partial reimbursement compared to a decrease of approximately 700 million shekels, according to the Ministry of Finance's budget.
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