Haredi Yeshiva Suspected Of Bribing Education Ministry

Yeshiva students.

Two officials suspected of taking money in exchange for accepting inflated student lists, increasing the yeshiva's monthly budget allocation.

Two Education Ministry officials are suspected of accepting bribes from the director of an ultra-Orthodox educational institution, in order to increase the Education Ministry’s funding of the yeshiva.

The director of the institution, Shmuel Weisfish, was brought to Jerusalem’s Beit Hashalom court on Tuesday afternoon, along with a teacher at the yeshiva, and the two Education Ministry officials – a division manager and a regional manager.

The police are requesting an extension of Weisfish’s detention.

Jerusalem Police detained the suspects, who admitted to the accusations under questioning, on Tuesday morning. The officials confirmed that they accepted false declarations regarding the number of students registered at the institution, thereby significantly increasing the monthly budget allocation of the yeshiva.

The officials accepted student lists that inflated the number of students registered at the institution. With the falsified lists, the institution received a monthly budget of tens of thousands of shekels from the Education Ministry.