As Israel faces a growing coalition crisis sparked by the ultra-Orthodox draft exemption debate, the leader of the Gur Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, has left on a major fundraising campaign in the United States aimed at securing tens of millions of dollars for the Hasidic group’s institutions.
His goal is to raise a sum on par with the state stipends for yeshiva students and avrechim (married Torah scholars) that were frozen by Israel’s High Court in June 2023.
Rabbi Alter, who leads Israel’s largest Hasidic sect, flew out Saturday night aboard the private jet of Satmar businessmen Joel Landau and his partner David Gefner, rather than a commercial flight, due to his age and health condition. He was joined by longtime confidant Motti Babchik, chief of staff to Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf and a key figure in the current political standoff.
The trip was organized with the help of Shlomo Kopolovich, a senior Gur activist with close ties to Rabbi Pinchas Abuhatzeira. Kopolovich was seen at the airport to send the rebbe off.
The campaign is focused on securing large donations from wealthy members of the American Jewish community, rather than smaller grassroots contributions. To that end, a high-level pricing scheme was set: entry to a private dinner held Sunday evening at the home of Gur benefactor Shlomo Werdiger was limited to a select group of donors, each of whom committed to giving at least $500,000.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
Another option offered to major philanthropists is a personal visit from the rebbe in exchange for a $1 million donation. In total, the rebbe is expected to meet with dozens of high-net-worth individuals.
According to organizers, the funds raised are intended to cover two years of Gur’s operating budget in Israel. The money is being collected as an emergency appeal for the Hasidic movement’s “Gur Torah Rescue Fund.”
In a shift from past practice, Gur is aiming to deposit the funds directly into the bank accounts of individual avrechim whose state-funded stipends were slashed, bypassing the yeshiva and kollel administrations to maximize efficiency.
During his trip, the rebbe will also inaugurate a new building for Gur’s U.S. boys’ school, “Imrei Emes,” which recently relocated to a multimillion-dollar campus.
The fundraising drive, as well as a parallel initiative involving Sephardi, Lithuanian and other Hasidic rabbis, reflects both a response to the financial vacuum left by the court freeze and a broader message: that Haredi leaders are not counting on Israel’s government to pass legislation reinstating the military exemption for yeshiva students in the near future.