 Senator Bob Dole interceded on its behalf.Dole had been a beneficiary of Balkany's political fundraising and got involved after the proposal had first been rejected by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID).The request was in relation to funding to set up computer training programs in Russia, run by the Yeshiva "Ohr Torah" of Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a controversial rabbi in the Israeli occupied West Bank.