JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Popular Israeli radio broadcaster Menachem Toker has teamed up with businessman Dedi Graucher in an attempt to establish a Kollel for Torah study adjacent to the prime minister’s residence in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Rehavia.
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Toker, an energetic and innovative broadcaster at the Kol Chai chareidi radio station, has led a number of initiatives recently including the Hakol Haba program in which would-be chareidi singers demonstrate their talents and compete to be crowned “The Voice” in a chareidi mimic of the popular shows worldwide.
Toker’s logic is based on the fact that during the course of coronavirus demonstrations have taken place almost daily at the prime minister’s residence with no police intervention, while at the same time Torah study has been severely restricted. He therefore wants to establish a Kollel at the same place where the demonstrations are taking place, although it is not clear whether it will in a closed location or (in the summer) with an open roof.
Toker told Kikar Hashabat that part of his goal is to strengthen the prime minister since every week thousands of demonstrators against him come and crowd together with no maintenance of the basic health guidelines.
“For them everything is permitted while the media attack chareidi gatherings so we thought that the only place where people can gather freely is at Balfour and decided to exploit this to allow Torah study.”
Toker says the kollel will serve all sectors “without any distinctions- Sefardim, Ashkenazim, Chasidi, and national religious all together,” and will be funded by a group of businessmen and people who support the Torah world.