Following the court’s decision, yeshivas mobilized to raise a large sum of money to replace the halted state budget. The funds, intended to support each yeshiva student aged 18 to 26, paid monthly either to the institution (for unmarried students) or directly to the individual (if married), covered around 90,000 students.
Leading rabbis launched a global fundraising campaign among Jewish communities, establishing what they called the “World Torah Fund.” The campaign successfully raised over $100 million to sustain the yeshiva system in the absence of government support.
But now, a year later, that money is nearly depleted. On Monday, Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, a leading Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox figure, told Rabbi Eliezer Filz, head of the Tifrah yeshiva, who visited him in Bnei Brak, that the previously raised funds are nearly gone and that new fundraising efforts must be considered to sustain the yeshivas for another year.
“This will run out within a month,” Hirsch said. “The donors want to continue.” Filz responded earlier, saying, “Rabbi Hirsch deserves our gratitude. Without him, we wouldn’t have had anything to eat.”
