Education Fund
For Orthodox Schools
Jerusalem (JTA) — A $7 million Divon said he was also "told by
Israeli government budget item sources that the monies for this
for Diaspora Jewish education year were already exhausted," de-
made a big splash last spring spite the fact that the deadline
when it was "discovered"
through an ad placed in
a daily newspaper here.
Foreign Ministry offi-
cials touted it as prime
evidence of the new kind
of Israel-Diaspora part-
nership Deputy Foreign
Minister Yossi Beilin has
been championing.
But the fund, admin-
istered by the Finance
Ministry, is in fact a
long-standing example
of a different sort of Is-
rael-Diaspora partner-
ship.
According to sources
familiar with the fund, it
helps Diaspora Jewish
schools virtually hand-
picked by a wealthy pro-
Israel activist. The
activist, they say, has Avraham Burg:
leveraged his Washing- Wary of special interests.
ton influence to win the
favor from Jerusalem's
for applications had not yet ar-
state budget.
For more than 15 years, the rived.
money has almost exclusively
Sources say the fund has not
supported fervently Orthodox been publicized abroad and that
and non-Zionist schools with each year the money has been
more than an estimated $50 mil- awarded to the same non-profit
lion.
"amutah," or association.
The World Zionist Organiza-
For years this amutah was
tion was part of the association called the Association for Jewish
that disbursed the government
fund for the past 10 years. But it
recently pulled out of the part-
nership, citing its dissatisfaction
with how the allocations are
made.
Similar discontent may soon
spread to the Knesset Education
Committee. Knesset Member
Avraham Burg, who chairs the Secondary Education in Board-
committee, said the fund is "cor- ing Schools in the Diaspora. The
rupt" and serves special interests. name was later changed to the
At the conclusion of a recent in- Fund to Aid Diaspora Jewish Ed-
terview with the Jewish Tele- ucation.
graphic Agency in his Knesset
The association disburses mil-
office he asked an aide to arrange lions of dollars of government
a special Education Committee money to about two dozen schools
meeting to investigate the fund. annually. Most are Orthodox and
"I think it's very important the non-Zionist and most are in
State of Israel support Jewish ed- France and the former Soviet
ucation abroad and I'd like to Union, but schools in North
know the educational concepts of America also receive its money.
the Finance Ministry," he said, It submits detailed reports every
three or four months to the Fi-
smiling.
The Foreign Ministry subse- nance Ministry, according to its
quently was deluged with appli- chairman, Moshe Haskell.
According to an expenditure
cations from communities all over
the world, said Haim Divon, head sheet obtained by JTA, in 1992,
of the ministry's World Jewry di- for example, the association gave
$435,000 to She'erit Israel Yeshi-
vision.
But the Foreign Ministry was va in Brooklyn. The association
forced to retrench after a few in- also allocated $780,000 to what
quiries at the Finance Ministry, was listed as the Queens Acad-
where it was advised that the emy for Russian Immigrants in
fund is about 15 years old. Mr. New York.
Sources say the
fund has not been
publicized abroad.
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