Today (Thursday), nearly 200 representatives of communities and kollels will arrive at the Kiryat Yoel Moshe Housing Office, located in the Ezrat Torah neighborhood in Jerusalem, to receive scholarships for thousands of kollel abrachi - totaling three million dollars - which are being provided by the 'Shekel Hakodesh' foundation of the Satmar Rebbe.
The Satmar Rebbe decided, in light of the decrees against Torah students, to grant a special scholarship of several hundred shekels to every Abrech studying in the kollel "on the purity of the Holy" - that is, who do not benefit from the budgets of the Zionist state and do not enlist - before Passover as a "Kamcha de'Pesacha".
The distribution committee has appointed representatives for each group and community, who will appear with the full details of the avrechims, and will receive checks - which will be handed over to the avrechims before the holiday. According to the plan, each of them will receive 800 shekels.
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An additional $3 million will be distributed after the holiday to over 150 institutions, some of which are not funded by the state and others that will commit to doing so in the future.
The special scholarship is distributed through the "Pure Shekel" initiative, which was established by the Rebbe about a year and a half ago, during his visit to Israel, and aims to fund educational institutions that boycott state budgets.
When the fund was established, the plan was to provide a one-time grant, but in light of the difficult situation in Israel, the Rebbe decided that the fund would continue its operations, and at the beginning of winter, another distribution was sent from the United States.
This time, the Rebbe decided that most of the distribution funds would be transferred directly to thousands of kollel abrachi, but educational institutions would also benefit from it.
""The time has come to apply Israeli law in Mea Shearim as well""
In response to the division, Hiddush CEO, Attorney Uri Regev, told Walla: "Every avrechim who detaches himself from the public purse should be appreciated. Of course, the goal is for as many avrechim as possible to go out into service and work and contribute to the national effort. But certainly, those who insist on not working to support their families would do so at the expense of working Haredim in the United States, rather than on the backs of the Israeli taxpayers." Regev also noted that "it is doubtful whether these are amounts that are truly capable of financing thousands of avrechim who have so far received money from the state.".
However, Regev emphasized: "If the Satmar Rebbe did indeed condition the payment on a commitment not to report to the draft office, then this is a long list of criminal offenses, including: rebellion, incitement to evasion, and solicitation to commit a crime." According to Regev, "the time has come to apply Israeli law to Mea Shearim as well and to arrest those who distribute money intended to pressure and help the Abrahim to violate the Security Service Law and the Penal Code.".
The Hasidic newspaper 'Der Id', which appears today in the US, publishes a list of kollelim whose students will receive the coveted scholarship.
