Prime Minister’s Office funding ultra-Orthodox influencers’ recipe videos – report

Video clips on what to eat ahead of Tisha B’Av fast carry caption showing they were made ‘in cooperation with the Haredi Authority in the Prime Minister’s Office’

Ultra-Orthodox social media influencers have apparently been paid by the Prime Minister’s Office to make videos suggesting recipes for the community, Channel 12 reported.

According to the Tuesday report, the influencers may have been paid thousands of shekels to make the clips, though the network did not offer further details.

In the videos, posted to Instagram, influencers explained to the ultra-Orthodox community recipes and ideas in preparation for the Tisha B’Av fast, a 25-hour fast observed by Jews that begins at sundown on Wednesday. The fast commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem, in 586 BCE and in 70 CE.

Recipes included ideas for fish meals and quinoa salad. Text accompanying the posts included a caption: “In cooperation with the Haredi Authority in the Prime Minister’s Office.” According to the report, at least two influencers posted clips with the caption.

The Authority for the Social and Economic Development of the Ultra-Orthodox Sector is a government body that aims, according to an official explanation, “to lead a process of economic and cultural development in the sector, while coordinating and organizing all government, local and social entities involved in the field.”

It works with the aim of “integrating all actions, resources and initiatives designed to deal with the complex challenges facing the Haredi sector, and to bring holistic solutions to improve its economic and social situation.”

Channel 12 said that the PMO did not give a formal response to a request for more information about the clips.

However, a source in the PMO told the network that they were “part of the information campaign for the Haredi sector, which in the past included clips that deal with, among other things, paying attention to instructions from the IDF Home Front and other important topics that should be emphasized in the sector.”

In March, the Knesset approved Israel’s largest-ever budget that included providing billions of shekels to Haredi institutions. Critics lament any special funding or stipends for Haredim over the community’s widespread efforts to block the state from conscripting ultra-Orthodox men into the military.