Top Torah leaders wrap up North American fundraising tour
A two-and-a-half-week fundraising tour for the World Torah Fund ended Thursday, with Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, the head of the yeshiva, expected to land in Israel overnight. The delegation, which also included senior yeshiva heads Rabbi Avraham Salim, Rabbi Yitzchak Eichnenstein and Rabbi Yitzchak Chevroni, traveled through Jewish Torah communities in the United States and Canada to raise money for Torah institutions in Israel amid severe financial strain after budget cuts.
The final leg began in Toronto on Tuesday, where the leaders attended several private dinners with major supporters. At one event hosted by donor Shimon Samuars, Hirsch said that the honor of Heaven generated by supporting Torah through the visit would bring the Divine Presence back into the world. At another dinner hosted by Ariel Mashayev, the discussion stressed Jewish unity across origins, and Eichnenstein warned that there is an effort today to erase Torah, saying it is aimed not only at a group but at all of Israel.
On Wednesday afternoon, a central rabbinic gathering was held in Queens, led by Hirsch, to discuss current challenges facing Torah study in Israel. Additional meetings with donors followed in the area, and organizers said many participants expressed strong sympathy for the financial distress affecting yeshivas and kollels and a willingness to join the fund's donor base.
The final closing dinner took place at 5:30 p.m. U.S. time at the Manhattan office of donor Shimon Glik. Glik recalled a conversation with the late Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, saying he had warned that the draft controversy could also lead to financial problems for Torah institutions. He said he had not imagined court action ending kollels' subsidies, cutting study subsidies, removing discounted housing opportunities, taking away tax benefits, or even imprisoning people, but that Shteinman had already foreseen such possibilities. The tour ended with a final strengthening gathering at the Israel and Samson synagogue in Manhattan before the leaders headed to the airport.
