[IsraelTimes] Starting this week, hundreds of yeshivas will see their budgets slashed, prompting leading rabbis to look abroad to raise the funds needed to continue operating.
What does the ruling mean in practical terms, and how will it affect the over 1,000 yeshivas that have, until now, received monthly payments from the Education Ministry?
The background
For decades, ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, men of military age have been able to avoid the draft by enrolling for study in yeshivas and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the national age of military exemption, currently 26.
These repeated deferrals — de facto military service exemptions — and the government stipends many yeshiva students receive through age 26 have infuriated the wider general public, sparking numerous legal and legislative efforts to ensure what advocates of universal conscription call “equality of the burden.”
The court decision, issued on Thursday night, came after the government repeatedly delayed submitting a proposal to the court for plans to increase ultra-Orthodox military enlistment. It took effect following the expiration on Sunday night of a legally dubious temporary regulation that instructed the IDF conscription authorities not to draft Haredim — a regulation the government issued last summer just before the expiration of the law that enshrined the annual deferrals.
As of Monday morning, the ruling applies to funding given by the state to Haredi yeshivas for students who reached enlistment age after the expiration of the law last year — as the legal framework for deferring their military service no longer exists. Although they were unable to receive deferrals, these students were not called up for service because of the government’s order not to enforce enlistment, but they are now eligible for the draft.
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