Director for Religious Institutions at the Ministry of Education Amos Tzayada
sent a letter to deans and administrators of state-funded yeshivot on Sunday
forbidding their students from political campaigning during study
hours.
“Studies must continue as usual during the election period and
students must be present at the institute [of study] for all hours,” Tzayada
said.
In recent weeks, several senior haredi rabbis have called on
full-time yeshiva students to campaign for the haredi parties, Shas and United
Torah Judaism.
In a recent speech, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia
Yosef called on yeshiva students to leave their studies and knock on doors for
the party’s electoral campaign.
“I call on all married students to go out
and strengthen the [Shas] movement,” Yosef said.
“Get up from Torah study
and go out to influence [events]; everyone needs to vote and campaign for
Shas... Go from house to house to garner support for those who preserve the
Torah, so that, God willing, we will have many [Knesset]
seats.”
Full-time yeshiva students receive government grants of NIS 828 a
month, as well as other government subsidies and benefits, but are obliged to be
present at their yeshivot during study hours and are prohibited from working
during that time as well.
On Friday, Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman,
spiritual leader of the Ashkenazi haredi world, also issued a call to deans of
yeshivot instructing them to tell their students that “everyone was obligated to
vote and work for United Torah Judaism.”
Hiddush, a lobbying group, sent
a letter to Tzayada last week, calling on him to prevent yeshiva students from
engaging in political campaigning during study hours, since such activity
constitutes an infringement of the terms of their agreements with the state in
return for state grants and exemption from military service.
Hiddush
director and Reform Rabbi Uri Regev welcomed Tzayada’s letter but said that the
real test was in enforcement of the instructions. Regev called on the Education
Ministry and the Ministry of Finance to increase inspection of yeshivot during
the run-up to the election, as well as to perform surprise inspections, in order
to prevent “the mass enlistment of yeshiva students to the election
campaign.”
According to Hiddush, a married full-time yeshiva student aged
28 with 3-4 children receives NIS 4,800 a month in state benefits if his wife
does not work, and NIS 4,100 if she does.
Up to NIS 1,700 of this sum
comes in the form of subsidized housing, which in practice is available only for
members of the haredi community living in haredi cities such as Betar Illit, the
organization says.
Other discounts, such as for municipal taxes, are
granted to full-time yeshiva students automatically, whereas other citizens have
to prove they are working, looking for work or unable to work in order to get
such benefits.