Show of Faith

Right-wing media star Yinon Magal is both loved and loathed, his themes few and simple: total victory over Hamas, clipping the wings of the left-wing elites who still dominate Israel’s power centers, and the preservation of the country’s Jewish character. A Shabbos observer who puts on tefillin daily yet will never wear a yarmulke in public, he’s a banner for the New Right and the back-to-roots shift in the public domain

Just when you thought we’d hit Peak Matching — that every possible crowdfunding campaign had been seen and done — along came Israel’s right-wing media star Yinon Magal.

Last month, in the wake of the High Court’s move to defund the yeshivah system, Magal’s hundreds of thousands of followers woke up to a post.

“One of the most moving things that I’ve merited to do,” he wrote to his fans, alongside a picture of himself with a kollel avreich. “A partnership agreement (like in the days of Yissachar and Zevulun) in which I pay a stipend each month to an avreich (above draft age), and the merit of his learning is divided between us. Together let’s increase all the Torah learning we can!”

Within hours, the game was on. Under a blizzard of announcements headed, “Brothers, Partners,” a shaven-headed TV presenter was pictured with an avreich with long peyos, a soccer star had adopted a Yissachar, and the campaign was well on the way to 1,500 partnerships, totaling over a million shekels.