Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Torah world in Israel is on the verge of financial collapse

This was on the front page of this weeks Mishpacha magazine.



"We don't have from where to pay the kollel stipends"

Financial terror attack on the Torah world


There is panic in the administrative ranks of the torah institutions because of the economic crisis in the US, the fall of the dollar, the deep problems in the real estate sector in the US, and the rise in prices of basic products (e.g. flour, bread, etc.). For the first time, the administers of the Torah institutions who control huge budgets are talking in terms of a financial crisis that we haven't seen in many years in the Torah world. A number of the large Kollel chains did not pay stipends this past month and don't know how they are going to pay the Pesach stipends. Donors in the US who are affected by the crisis have shut off the flow of money to the Torah world. The heads of Tzedaka funds: The poor will have to make do with less this year.


This is not a surprise to me, the Torah world in Israel has for many years been on a non-sustainable economic path. The sub-prime crisis in the US has just speeded up the timetable a bit. Given what is going on in the US, this is not going to end soon and the damage will be great.

4 comments:

Orthonomics said...

Thanks for pointing me to your newest post. I'm out for the day, but will certainly be linking to it soon.

zdub said...

Please get rid of dumuro's links ASAP! Likely spyware infested...

BrooklynWolf said...

Financial terror attack on the Torah world

Yeesh. Talk about over-hyping and outright lying.

Yes, it's very difficult on individuals and institutions. But a "terror attack?" And it is really aimed at "the Torah world" as if no one else is suffering?

The Wolf

Mighty Garnel Ironheart said...

What will they do? Well, some I know now work quietly on the side, not that they'll boast about it because working means they're not learning and officially they're still doing that full time.
The Torah world will survive. The individual parasites who have lived off others until now and kept the benches in the yeshivos warm will just have to leave that world and find real work somewhere.