The Haredi Torah world is alive and kicking - here's how

Last summer, the Supreme Court declared that there is no legal justification for continued exemptions for Haredi men studying in yeshivahs, and the Attorney General ruled on that basis that government funds for draft-eligible Haredi men must be suspended.

Despite this, the Haredi Torah world is still going strong, with tens of thousands of students in hundreds of yeshivahs being maintained on stipends and other support.

How do they do it?

One very important source of support is the Keren Olam HaTorah or Torah World Foundation, established by the Haredi Gedolim and leaders to raise the necessary tens of millions to maintain such a large community of Torah scholars without any support from the state.

Ever since the Supreme Court ruling, the Foundation has replaced the state in ensuring that money continues to regularly come into the necessary bank accounts every month after the state cut off the funding. It remains to be seen whether this approach is sustainable given the very large sums of money required every year, but thus far, Haredi leaders have averted a feared complete collapse of the kollel and Torah learning system.

Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, one of the leaders of the Israeli Haredi community, expressed his thanks to the Foundation for saving the Torah world in the following dramatic recording:

"The reality is, and now once again, that there are many, many kollelim that without this support would truly be closing! Really! Many kollelim. And perhaps some yeshivas too. And even the yeshivas and kollelim that wouldn't have closed, but would have been very difficult for them. And this certainly helps very, very, very much. It turned out to be a great help.

"And therefore we have come again. A year ago we said, this is something you do once! That's what all the donors said too. No one thought we would do this a second time. No one dreamed of it! But now that the situation has arisen again, truly the donors themselves told me they want to do it again! And they are really waiting for us to do it. And we know that it is very, very, very necessary.

"Therefore, if we have divine assistance, we will do it again. And there is a chance, God willing, that in practice, if needed, we can establish once more, once again whatever is lacking from the kollelim and yeshivas, this will be enough. The wonder and strength and honor of Heaven that occurred, what the donors wanted, And specifically wanted 'I want to be part of the Torah Fund', so it was.

"Even a donor who has a little money came saying 'I also want a part in this'. Everyone wanted to be part of the Torah Fund. It was truly a sanctification of God's name, a very, very great honor to Heaven, what this brought about - this Torah Fund, that donors wanted to be part of it. And this is the divine assistance in this case. Because of this, it is a very great honor to Heaven.

"How the donors wanted it, this is a very, very great honor to Heaven. The Holy One, blessed be He, will grant that we do this again with divine assistance, That we will have the strength to do it. And once again the donors and each and every one will participate in this, And from this will come Once again the great honor of Heaven, which, God willing, will bring the complete redemption speedily in our days, Amen."