Bayit Yehudi to hold US-style fundraising dinner to pay debts

Of the NIS 3000 price to attend the dinner, NIS 2300 will go to the party.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: DECEMBER 31, 2015 04:06
"Nous devons cesser d'avoir peur". Le leitmotiv de Naftali Bennett (photo credit: GUR DOTAN)
"Nous devons cesser d'avoir peur". Le leitmotiv de Naftali Bennett
(photo credit: GUR DOTAN)
Bayit Yehudi is set to hold a NIS 3,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner Thursday night, in what is a novel concept in Israeli politics.
Bayit Yehudi chairman Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan are expected to address party supporters at the sold-out event in Tel Aviv.
While fund-raising dinners are common for American political candidates and parties, they are almost unheard of in Israel.
“I think it’s a good idea. It’ll be a nice dinner and a legal way to raise funds and give supporters an overview of what we’re doing, to connect them to the party,” Shaked explained.
“These dinners are common in the US. There are good things we can learn from them,” she added.
Of the NIS 3,000 price to attend the dinner, NIS 2,300 will go to the party.
Bayit Yehudi CEO Nir Orbach adopted the idea while looking for a way to cover its debt of tens of millions of shekels, about NIS 34m. of which it inherited from its previous incarnation, the National Religious Party.
Other debts were incurred because state funding for election campaigns is relegated according to faction size, and the party lost a third of its Knesset seats in the last election.
The party plans to first use the funds to pay individual activists who were not paid for working on the campaign.
Some went to the press with their complaints in the months following January’s election.
In addition to the debts, Shaked said some of the money raised will go to the parties various forums - women, Druse, secular, Anglos, and others.
The funding will be used to pay for modest refreshments for events the forums hold, and for them to pay for buses and signs for them to participate in rightHAIM KATZ wing rallies, among other expenses.