Inside Keren Olam HaTorah's fundraising tours

Helicopters, luxury estates and gourmet catering

Against the poverty in Israel, footage published on social media and in chareidi media outlets from the fundraising tours of the heads of the fund around the world, from the US to Switzerland, Panama and Argentina, presents a completely different and opposite visual reality.

In summary videos from the "dinner" events held at the homes of billionaires and multi-millionaires (known as negidim in chareidi parlance) abroad, the heads of the Lithuanian sector are seen together with the heads of chareidi institutions, being flown in private jets and helicopters and driven in luxury vehicles. The fundraising events are held at luxury estates with swimming pools, gourmet catering, expensive alcohol and tight private security.

The stark visual gap between the harsh descriptions of poverty and the conspicuous opulence at the fundraising events has sparked sharp public debate, particularly at a time when the wider Israeli public is bearing a heavy economic and military burden.

Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlita at a fundraising event by a pool in New Jersey.

"This is how fundraising from negidim works"

Sources involved in the fundraising mechanisms and in international chareidi philanthropy reject the criticism and explain that this is an accepted and necessary practice. According to them, at events intended for major donors (the "negidim") in the US and South America, the high culinary standard and hospitality are an integral part of local hospitality norms, designed to honour the donors and encourage them to open their wallets for donations of millions of dollars.

In addition, those close to the fund emphasise that the costs of the tours and productions are not taken from the fund's coffers designated for avreichim, but are financed entirely separately by dedicated donors. They further note that the flights on private jets and special arrangements are intended solely to preserve the health, time and security of the roshei yeshiva and elderly rabbanim, some of them over 90 years old, who at their advanced age are wearing themselves out to save the yeshivos from collapse.

Are we heading towards privatisation of the Torah world?

Alongside the mutual claims, the fundraising tours of Keren Olam HaTorah illustrate the profound shift in the yeshiva world: from reliance on Israeli state budgets to the creation of an independent international philanthropic model on a massive scale.

The economic right in Israel supports the "privatisation" of the Torah world and the closure of government budgets to yeshivos, as with other subsidised activities (sport, culture and even education). The establishment of the fund is a first test of the economic viability of yeshivos under private funding, though it is far from certain this is even possible.

The budget the state gave to yeshivos reached over a billion shekels a year. Donations totalling hundreds of millions of shekels from private individuals is an event that can take place on a one-off basis and in a more limited format as an annual event (recall the fundraising campaigns for Lev L'Achim or the Siyum HaShas for Agudas Yisroel).

The central question is whether Keren Olam HaTorah will be able to continue the massive funding of yeshivos until the draft law is settled and the economic sanctions by the state are lifted — when no one knows when or if at all.

In addition, whether the reputational cost of the Lithuanian gedolei Torah going door to door among the wealthy like beggars can continue.

Either way, we have been given a glimpse into the two extremes of the "Torah world": the impoverished who are prepared to give everything for Torah study on one side, and the luxurious lives of the wealthy who are prepared to support them on the other.