Gov’t, Jewish Agency help cover lost Masa scholarships

The government and the Jewish Agency have promised to help cover the loss in grant money usually provided by the Masa program to foreign yeshiva and seminary students in Israel, after the organization announced last month that it was cutting such financial contributions.

The cuts were made due to new financial constraints imposed on Masa itself by the government and Jewish Agency, although complaints were made that grants were totally cut only for yeshiva and seminary students.

According to World Mizrachi, following the initial announcement, Chairman of the World Zionist Organization Avraham Duvdevani met with Jewish

Agency Chairman Issac Herzog to urge that a solution be found for the shortfall in the funding for such students, following which a committee including representatives of World Mizrachi and the affected institutions met with senior leaders in the Jewish Agency and Masa to discuss the issue.

World Mizrachi said that the government and Jewish agency together would cover 75 percent of the value of the grants if World Mizrachi could find the remaining 25 percent.

Sources in the Jewish Agency said however that the agreement was for the Jewish Agency and World Mizrachi to find funds themselves and that the government would match the combined total of what they put up.

Yeshivas and seminaries are still expecting to welcome their full complement of foreign students for the semester beginning on August 21, the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul.

First year students are obtaining visas through the auspices of Masa, while a similar arrangement is currently being worked out for second year students.

It is unclear as yet where the students will need to spend their 14-day quarantine.

Some institutions are capable of providing the requisite conditions for quarantine, but others are less equipped and the government is yet to issue a decision for this issue.

In a press statement, the Jewish Agency said that it and Masa “attribute great importance in the ongoing arrival in Israel of Jewish studies students as a foundation stone of the building of their Jewish identity and their connection with the Jewish people.”

It said that as such, the Jewish Agency has decided to allocate from its financial sources a sum parallel to the contributions raised by the program organizers, in order to get matching funds from the government of Israel.”

“Both sides will make joint efforts to raise the additional funds to allow the government matching. The support from the Jewish Agency will be given in accordance with the need which will be determined by the number of actual participants, against the background of the coronavirus crisis, in accordance with the regular criteria for receiving the usual stipends from Masa,” the Jewish Agency added.