High Court Delays Cancellation of Daycare Subsidies by a Year

The High Court decided Wednesday to push off canceling the subsidies for daycares given to children of parents who learn in kollel.

The court blocked Finance Minister Avidgor Liberman’s crackdown on subsidies until the next school year. The justices did uphold Liberman’s authority to make the reform but required him to give the families more advance notice to plan for the rules and budget changes.

According to Liberman’s decision, families where the husband-father learns in kollel but is not part of the workforce are not eligible for certain subsidies for childcare under age three.

The court ruled that doing this in the middle of the year was impossible, and the subsidies will therefore need to continue until the year’s end.

Multiple lawyers and chareidi organizations had filed petitions against the policy shift as discriminatory against chareidim.

MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) said, “I am glad that the High Court judges also understood that Liberman’s convictions against the students’ children were not appropriate and should be rejected.

“We will continue to fight for the welfare of the children and until next year, we hope this evil malicious government, which harms the values of religion and tradition, raises the cost of living, and acts with cruelty towards the weak populations, will fall.”