State-subsidized daycare for children of military-age yeshiva students officially ended over the weekend, marking a significant financial sanction that could ramp up pressure on haredi (ultra-Orthodox) politicians and on coalition stability.
Seven thousand families will be affected by the change, according to the Finance Ministry. The average monthly discount per child was NIS 2,200, a ministry spokesperson said.
Education is free from age three. According to the law and Labor Ministry guidelines, some families are eligible for state-subsidized daycare for children under the age of three.
The criteria are built to incentivize low-income parents, who otherwise may not have been able to afford daycare, to continue working or to study higher education. For approximately 20 years, “higher education” also included yeshiva study, such that families with a working mother and yeshiva-student father were eligible for the subsidy.
However, in July 2023, the legal mechanism that enabled these yeshiva students to continue their studies expired, and many of them were legally required to enlist for IDF service. The Attorney-General’s Office ruled that yeshiva students who ignored IDF enlistment could no longer receive a financial benefit for their status.
The subsidies were initially scheduled to cease prior to the 2024-2025 school year. Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara permitted them to continue for three additional months for the Labor Ministry, which is responsible for administering the subsidy, to prepare for the change. However, the High Court in late November gave the ministry an additional three months, which ended on Friday.
Haredi politicians continue their threats to break the coalition
The change came as haredi politicians continue to threaten to leave the government if it fails to pass a new law that will exempt a large number of yeshiva students from IDF service.
The most serious threats in recent weeks came from United Torah Judaism chairman and Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, who represents the Gur Hassidic sect, the largest hassidic group in the Agudat Yisrael faction of UTJ.
Haredi news outlet Behadrei Haredim reported on Thursday that Gur’s spiritual leader had sent a delegation to other large hassidic groups in an attempt to come up with a coordinated political strategy.
The main question is whether to condition the party’s support for the 2025 budget on a conscription bill passing first. The budget must pass by the end of March, or else the government automatically falls.