Yeshivas in Israel are private. The situation is different than NY yeshivas where the yeshivas are semi private, but basically open to anyone that wants to sit and learn Torah day or night. Still you need to be part of the program. This can be confusing for a person coming from the USA to Israel. For example, you can have person who is used to the situation in NY where he can just walk in to any Lithuanian yeshiva and sit and learn any time. --But to have lunch -he needs to be accepted as part of the program. He might then come to Israel, and then find himself thrown out of places that tell him he is not wanted there. (And he will be surprized since he was asked many times to contribute charity to those places that said they accepted anyone who wanted to learn Torah.) This happens a lot more than you can imagine. It seems to be based on this kind of misunderstanding about the basic set up. Yeshiva in Israel are mainly for the ages 18 to 22. The whole structure is totally different than in the USA.
