Minister of Finance of Israel Bezalel Smotricha
The head of the Israeli Ministry of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, is using a “fictitious budget” for 2025 to create the impression of significant cuts in allocations to ultra-Orthodox educational institutions, while hiding the real costs, which remain almost unchanged. This was reported by Vesti with reference to the economic publication Kalkalist in an article by Shahar Ilan published on 4 December.
According to the official draft budget, allocations for yeshivas (Orthodox religious schools) are reduced by NIS 1.7 billion. In reality, however, these funds will be received through other channels, including the so-called coalition funds, which are estimated at NIS 5.4 billion. The Ministry of Finance is trying to create the impression of overall cuts, but after the budget is approved in the second and third readings, significant amounts will be added from these funds.
The author of the article notes that the amount of spending on ultra-Orthodox educational institutions in the draft budget for 2025 looks absurdly low – only 367 million shekels, while in 2023 this amount was 1.7 billion. Over the past decade, spending on yeshivas has been steadily increasing, and it was planned that by the end of 2024 it would reach NIS 2 billion, but this decision was postponed due to the war.
Without any protests from ultra-Orthodox communities, it can be assumed that the budget for yeshivas for the next year will remain at the same level, simply compensated through coalition funds.
Similar changes apply to other independent educational networks, such as Shas’s Bnei Yosef, which has seen its funding cut from NIS 1.25 billion to NIS 860 million. The party has already received confirmation that the missing amount will be covered through coalition funds. The same applies to the Agudath Israel network, where the difference between NIS 2 billion and NIS 1.64 billion for 2025 will also be compensated through the same funds.
Separately, the draft budget for 2025 provides for an increase in the salaries of teachers in ultra-Orthodox sectors by NIS 600 million per year.
It is unclear when the Ministry of Finance will bring the budget bill to the Knesset for discussion and in what form it will be presented, as adjustments continue to be made on a regular basis. The actual costs of ultra-Orthodox educational networks will be determined only after the coalition funds are distributed, but it is already clear that the various schemes will increase the costs of these structures beyond the norm.
