Jerusalem buried its dead on Monday after the Ramot Junction massacre, and the first clear fact was this: a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) soldier helped stop the attack. According to security officials, two armed Israelis brought down the terrorists.
One of them served in a haredi unit, the kind of framework that enables strictly observant Jews to fight while keeping their religious standards. That image, a black-kippah combatant running toward gunfire, should have settled at least one argument.
Instead, another image intrudes. On the same day, dozens of wealthy patrons of Keren Olam HaTorah (KOH) arrived in Israel for a whirlwind retreat at the luxury Beresheet Hotel in Mitzpe Ramon. The goal: to convince them to keep giving.
On the program were Torah giant Rabbi Asher Weiss, Chief Rabbi David Yosef, and former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. Musical evenings featured mega-singers Ishay Ribo, Yonatan Razel, Shulem Lemmer, and Zanvil Weinberger.
In other words, donors were treated to a spiritual and cultural spectacle aimed at securing further checks.
The absurdity is difficult to ignore. Current and former chief rabbis, who receive salaries from the Zionist Jewish state, are sitting at a luxury resort urging billionaires to bankroll the very system that exempts tens of thousands from serving in that state’s army, while a haredi soldier was saving Jewish lives in Jerusalem at the exact same moment.
Documents reviewed by The Jerusalem Post show how KOH now functions as a private clearinghouse for state-replaced stipends.
In a circular sent last week to heads of yeshivot (seminaries for unmarried men studying Torah, known as bochurim) and kollelim (institutes for married men, known as avreichim), KOH instructs institutions to file complete rosters of every learner in Excel, sign declarations, and route transfers directly to students’ bank accounts.
The memo is explicit: the funds are for learners only, not for institutional overhead, and no “fees” or percentages can be skimmed.
What is KOH?
This is not ad hoc charity. It is a centralized, donor-financed system designed to sustain mass non-service at scale, even as the government freezes stipends for draft-age men.
The ad that triggered this debate named names: the Karfunkel family, insurance billionaires; Rubin “Rubie” Schron, a New York landlord with tens of thousands of apartments; and Yitzchak Mirilashvili, a tech entrepreneur and philanthropist who owns Israel’s Channel 14 News channel.
Other individuals named included Alberto Safra, heir to the Safra banking dynasty; Leizer Scheiner, investor in senior-care networks; James “Jimmie” Khezrie, the retail-and-real estate magnate; Yitzchok Rokowsky, who runs Tryko Partners in nursing homes and housing; and the Wolfson family, one of the most consequential Orthodox dynasties of the last half-century.
These are serious people with serious means. When they write seven-figure checks, they shape Jewish reality.
The question is: what reality are they paying for?
Love of Israel, not division
Supporters of KOH argue that Torah study protects the Jewish people. No one disputes the spiritual value of study. But the facts on the ground are clear: the men who physically shielded civilians at Ramot Junction wore uniforms and carried rifles.
There is no contradiction between Torah and service. The IDF now runs haredi tracks, the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, and newer frameworks that provide kosher food, modesty rules, and rabbinic oversight.
The haredi officer who fought on Monday did not become less religious by serving. He became the embodiment of ahavat Yisrael (love of Israel).
Instead of promoting division, funding one population to sit while another is sent repeatedly to Gaza and the West Bank, philanthropy could promote love of Israel. Donors could fund Torah, yes, but also fund service.
They could underwrite programs that help religious Jews serve with dignity and continue studying. They could support reservists’ families, stipends, therapy, and reentry into work.
That would be ahavat Yisrael in practice. To the families who gathered in Mitzpe Ramon, the challenge is simple: do not bankroll permanent non-service.
Do not sit in a luxury hotel while haredi and non-haredi mothers in Jerusalem bury their sons and a haredi officer fights to save lives. Announce that your philanthropy will fund frameworks that unify, not divide. Announce that your giving will promote the love of Israel, not the politics of avoidance.
Because Jerusalem has already seen who ran toward the gunfire.