Moshe Feiglin: University Students Cost Government Much More than Torah Kollel Students

The High Court ruled yesterday that students in Ultra-Orthodox Torah institutes (kollel) will no longer receive government stipends. In principle, I am in favor of this ruling. It would be good for the Torah world to free itself from its dependence on the State.

The problem is that nobody has examined the costs to the State of the students in the anti-religious kollels (institutes). For example, there are the students in university learning ‘gender studies’. This is a new type of study and nobody dares challenge it. Or the Humanities and Social Studies, in which the ideological winds blow in one certain direction.

Let us compare the cost of the kollels from both sides of the ideological divide. Or in other words, how much does an Ultra-Orthodox kollel student cost us as opposed to a Humanities ‘kollel’ student?

Here are some facts and figures taken from government publications:

Number of Torah kollel students: 77,000

Annual cost to government per student: 8,400 NIS

Annual cost to government for Torah kollel students: 646.8 million NIS

 

Number of Humanities students in universities: 48,404

Annual cost to government per student: 20,200NIS

Annual cost to government for Humanities kollel students: 977.9 million NIS

 

Number of Social Studies students in universities: 41,805

Annual cost to government per student: 31,800NIS

Annual cost to government for Social Studies kollel students: 1,329,200 billion NIS

 

Annual cost to government for ideological university students:2,307,100 billionNIS

Annual cost to government for Torah kollel students: 646.8 million NIS

 

Those are the facts – without the hyperbole.