beyondBeijing2008.com

TEL AVIV – Will prayer help deliver world markets? If around 2,500 Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have anything to say about it, hope may be on the way.

Concerned about the health of the global economy, Jews in 11 major seminaries across Israel prayed Thursday night for a fast resolution to the world’s financial crisis – and for Jews who contribute to Israel’s cash-strapped yeshivas.

The religious schools rely heavily on donations from American philanthropists, and consequently, the seminaries have started feeling the pinch from the crash of world markets and the weakening of the U.S. dollar.

AP file

Ultra-Orthodox Jews participate in a prayer calling for the end of the worldwide financial crisis at the Yeshivat Ha-Ran Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, Thursday. 

The Ateret Shlomo Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, a city just east of Tel Aviv that is comprised predominantly of Haredi Jews who follow a conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, was packed with seminary students on Thursday evening.