MK Yitzchok Pindrus retraces the battle to bring yeshivah and seminary students to Israel
After months of uncertainty, the 11th-hour agreement negotiated by Degel HaTorah MK Rabbi Yitzchak Pindrus and Rabbi Nechemiah Malinowitz, director of the Eretz Hakodesh Israel office (the new Orthodox party and big winner in the World Zionist Organization elections earlier this year), gives yeshivah and seminary heads responsibility for their students abiding by the strict “capsule” arrangements that have allowed many Israeli yeshivos to operate even as the country battles a new COVID-19 wave.
Underlying the agreement for the return of foreign students was the formation of a groundbreaking new body representing the full spectrum of Torah institutions, called the Vaad Hayeshivos Libnei Chul, headed by Rabbi Malinowitz and Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald, dean of the Meohr Bais Yaakov seminary.
“On a Zoom call with the roshei yeshivah, we realized that we needed to show the authorities that we were taking responsibility for the bochurim,” says Rabbi Pindrus. “We needed to have a professional plan to adopt the same model that has worked for Israeli yeshivos.”
Creating a common front for the spectrum of institutions, from Modern Orthodox to chareidi, is a notable achievement in itself. But the political backstory shared by Pindrus also reveals the precarious environment in which the Israeli Torah world is currently operating.
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