Israel’s Channel 10 has no trouble finding haredi ‘full time’ yeshiva students who want to work off the books while still collecting government subsidies for their ‘full time’ yeshiva study.
New Haredi Fraud
Israel’s Channel 10 has no trouble finding haredi ‘full time’ yeshiva students who want to work off the books while still collecting government subsidies for their ‘full time’ yeshiva study.
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Do haredi yeshiva students really study all day?
Or are many working in jobs for haredi companies that pay them in cash so that the ‘yeshiva students’ can keep their employment secret – thereby keeping their draft exemptions and government subsidies given to them only because they are full time haredi yeshiva students who do not work?
Channel 10’s Dov Gilhar wanted to find out. According to Ynet, Gilhar posted help wanted ads throughout the haredi city of Bnei Brak for a fictitious haredi company, Ohel Avraham, in order to see how many haredi yeshiva students would apply to work and ask to be paid off the books.
Haredi rabbis make the claim that yeshiva study provides divine protection for Israel, and claim that haredim do their ‘national service’ this way. In fact, some haredi leaders have claimed, this form of ‘national service’ is more important than serving in the army.
To see if the claim made by haredi rabbis was really being taken seriously by haredim, Gilhar set up fake offices equipped with hidden cameras and hired a former haredi man to act as the company’s ‘chairman’ who interviewed candidates and ‘hired’ them. After explaining the job’s requirements, the ‘chairman’ told applicants that the job was on the books and asked each applicant if he had any problem being paid legally.
One yeshiva student who applied told the ‘chairman’ that working on the books was a problem for him because he would lose his draft exemption. He told the ‘chairman’ that when he had worked for another haredi company, his paycheck went to someone else and, eventually, the yeshiva student was paid – but all in cash.
This enabled the yeshiva student to remain exempt from military service, to continue to receive state subsidies for his ‘yeshiva study’ and other welfare benefits, and to avoid paying taxes.
According to Ynet, a married yeshiva student receives about $197 as a government subsidy plus another $257 in income stabilization funds, along with a subsidy paid by his yeshiva from government funds the yeshiva is given for that purpose. That subsidy can be as little as $120 per month or as much as $490 per month, Ynet reports. The married yeshiva student also gets city tax and childcare discounts.
The yeshiva student would lose all or most of these benefits if he worked on the books.
He would also be forced to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.
Haredi yeshivot, which are supposed to make sure their registered students are actually studying full time, appear to be complicit in this fraud.
"I'm just registered at the yeshiva, but I can work from 6 am to midnight. They (the yeshivas) get money for me, around NIS 700," a haredi yeshiva student to the ‘chairman.’
Another haredi yeshiva student said he could work from 10 am to 4-5 pm. A third said he was free to work from 1 pm to 9 pm.
Ynet reports that 9 out of 10 haredi yeshiva students filmed in the Channel 10 sting had “extensive knowledge” in “backdoor dealings that were meant to ensure that no one take their tax-payer supplied stipends.”
"If worse comes to worst, I write down the name of a friend who has an absolute exemption," one of those haredi yeshiva students told the ‘chairman.’
Shockingly, another haredi yeshiva student claimed that being paid on the books wasn’t a problem for him – not because he was willing to serve in the military but because he had been paid on the books several times before and hadn’t been caught.
"I don't think the military will check. The second you have problems at the yeshiva, or if you move [they military will look at your record and check the yeshiva to see if you are really a full time yeshiva student]…but a guy registered in a yeshiva for a year or two – there is no reason for them (IDF) to check the details," another haredi yeshiva student told the ‘chairman.’
But what happens if a haredi yeshiva student is caught working? Will he really lose all his benefits and be forced to serve in the military?
Apparently not.
One haredi yeshiva student, described as being between 19 to 22 years of age, said that while working under the table has always carried risks,there has also always been a solution if the yeshiva student gets caught. He then mentioned the name of a well known haredi politician Ynet does not identify, saying, "I'll talk to [the politician], NIS 1,500 ($370) and it [the loss of benefits and being forced to serve in the Israel Defense Forces] all goes away.”