Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara issued an order on Sunday halting daycare funding for ultra-Orthodox men in Torah institution who are dodging the IDF draft.
Many ultra-Orthodox people from the ages of 23 to 26 have young children in daycare, and study in a “Kollel,” which is a Torah framework for married people. If until now studying in a Kollel met the requirements for subsidized daycare, the new legal opinion of the attorney general is that it is not enough if mandatory military service applies to him. Someone who studies in a Kollel and is to be conscripted will not be eligible for a subsidy because he is “breaking the law,” based on a Supreme Court ruling demanding the enlistment of the sector, and is not entitled to a “prize” from the state for his non-enlistment.
In a letter addressed to Labor Minister Rabbi Yoav Ben-Tzur, of the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas party, the Attorney General mentioned that she met with him and other senior Labor Ministry officials at the end of July. During the meeting, the minister presented his position regarding financial support from the Labor Ministry for ultra-Orthodox families in which the father studies Torah despite being required to serve.
“The things that were said in the discussion were taken seriously,” Baharav-Miara wrote, with today’s order serving as a response to that discussion.
“The state is no longer authorized to encourage, through government funding, according to the criteria of times of hardship, the Torah studies of civil servants.” This comes as the military has stated it must receive more soldiers, with the ultra-Orthodox having been exempt for decades from the mandatory army service.
The order will not take effect immediately, instead to start at the beginning of the next new academic year.
“The decision of the Labor Court to deny ultra-Orthodox working mothers the subsidy for daycare, three weeks before the start of the school year, solely because their husbands study Torah, is brutal legal thuggery and an abuse of defenseless children,” the Shas party said in a statement. “This is a damning sign on the forehead of a judicial system that is supposed to be the shield and support of women who have decided to enter the workforce and contribute to the Israeli economy. We will examine the legal tools available to us to cancel this outrageous decision, which has a black flag flying over it.”
Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf of United Torah Judaism said that this was “a direct attack on ultra-Orthodox women, who go out to work to support themselves and seek to live a Torah lifestyle. United Torah Judaism will use all means available to it to cancel this evil decree and ensure that the families of the Yeshiva students will not be harmed.”
Ben-Tzur held emergency deliberations and consultations with professional and legal consultants in his office Sunday morning, to examine the ordered cancellation of the subsidy for daycare centers.
“Unfortunately, the heavy legal arguments that the minister presented to the governmental legal advice did not receive professional and substantial treatment in the letter as published in the media,” the Labor Ministry said in a statement, adding that Ben-Tzur “gravely views the harsh and direct attack against those helpless toddlers who will be left without supervised educational frameworks.”
