JERUSALEM (JTA) — About 10,000 yeshiva students will lose their grants under a ruling on state aid by Israel’s Supreme Court.
The court on Monday voted 6-1 that allocating assured income to married yeshiva students is illegal since it does not apply to all students, and ordered the item to be removed from the 2011 state budget. A similar grant for secular higher education students was eliminated from the budget in 2000.
About 10,000 students qualify for the grant, which applies to families without other employment and three or more children.
The case was in response to a petition filed in 2000 by then-Jerusalem Councilman Arnon Yekutiel, who died nine years ago.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai of the religious Shas Party decried the ruling, saying that the Knesset would enact legislation to counter the ruling.
