Jul 12, 2021

government funded summer tiyulim coming to an end

Having grown up in a capitalist Western society, I sometimes just do not understand how things work in a socialist society, and even more how impassioned people can be about it. 

Meaning, if I want to go to camp, or to send my kids to a camp, the process goes something like finding the relevant camp that fits our budget and signing up, or finding an alternative. If I want to go to an amusement park or a ballgame or a concert, I find the relevant event and decide whether or not to buy a ticket based on the various factors - date, ticket price, convenience, etc.

Aryeh Deri, formerly Minister of the Periphery, South and Galilee, turned the ministry (which was created for him) into a funnel of money to sponsor events in the Haredi communities around the country. According to Haredim10, for example, in 2019 the Ministry funded tiyulim for 46,000 yeshiva students. 86% of tiyulim sponsored and funded by the ministry were for the students in the Haredi yeshivas.

The new minister who has replaced Deri, Minister Oded Forer has decided to put an end to this. While he has not yet announced his plans he did say this will not continue and the entire budget of the ministry will undergo a revision and they will be used to effect a real change in the south, galilee and periphery, whatever that means.

Deri has responded that more yeshiva students got tiyulim but their tiyulim were shorter, and the general population also benefited from the funding with less students participating but for longer tiyulim. The article goes into some of the numbers, blah blah blah. How much they spent on this or that group is not of any interest to me. Additionally, if the entire program is coming to an end and it was distributed equally despite it being distributed differently (as Deri claims), then it is not anti-Haredi to stop the program because it is being stopped for everyone.

I do not understand why the government is paying for kids, of any type to go on tiyulim, to have kumzitz and for yeshivas to have camps in the summer, for bike rides and for concerts. And now they are anti-Haredi because the new people in charge are stopping it. It does not make any sense to me. My family recently went on a tiyul and we paid for it ourselves. I just don't get the need or demand for the government to pay for everything someone wants to do. I guess it is nice that they did until now but it doesnt bother me in the slightest that it is being stopped.




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2 comments:

  1. You pay for your own tiyulim?? what a freier :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This isn't socialism, it's favoring one sector of society over others.

    Well, that *is* socialism, but you get my point.

    ReplyDelete