An understanding has been reached between Shas and Yahadut Hatorah and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the Bayit Leumi party, regarding the bill being pushed by Shas and Yahadut Hatorah. As reported earlier, the bill seeks to eliminate the compulsory introduction of secular subjects into chareidi schools, but leaves the decision to the individual schools.
The chareidi parties, which were in opposition during the last administration, are working to change the current law which compels teaching basic secular studies in chareidi schools wishing to receive state aid. This would include subjects like math and English. Chinuch Atzmai and other chareidi systems remain opposed to any and all state intervention in the curriculum of their schools.
According to a Kikar Shabbos News report on Wednesday, Gafne and Yaakov Margi spoke with Bennett earlier in the day, and the bill will be represented, this time as a government bill following a discussion in cabinet. From Yahadut Hatorah’s perspective, Bennett and his colleagues are bound by coalition agreements, which stipulate the bill must be backed by coalition partners.
It appears Bennett was angered to learn of the bill in the media and by pulling it and giving him control via the cabinet will suffice to make it palatable for him.
The chareidim continue the same mantra, that the bill is mentioned in the coalition agreements so one way or another, Bayit Yehudi is going to have to back it.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
Politicians are the lowlifes but the lowest of the low are those in charge of schools that will not teach the basics necessary to succeed in life. The children attending are forced to live a life of poverty and/or be forced to to depend upon their leaders and government for support and in some cases steal.
We in the Chareidi community want our boys to become roshei yeshiva and roshei kollel. Since ein kemach, ein Torah — roshei yeshiva and roshei kollel need to fundraise.
In the previous generation, Israeli fundraisers knew Yiddish. In contemporary Israeli society, very few Chareidi kids outside of Yerushalayim know conversational Yiddish, let alone English. In what language will the future fundraisers converse in America? In Hebrew?
Indeed, Chareidi girls learn English in school. Will the next generation of fundraisers only be relegated to the graduates of Beis Yaakov?
For this reason, I think that foreign languages are an important subject in school.
#1:
This and other articles are misleading when they write sentences like “this would include subjects like math and English.”
Anyone who lives here knows that EVERY CHAREIDI SCHOOL teaches the “3 R’s” – reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic. Every single one, including the chadarim. In other words, every school teaches math, reading comprehension, and writing/written expression skills – i.e. the “basics necessary to succeed in life.”
What is up for grabs is science – which all girls’ schools and many chadarim teach, English – which most girls’ schools teach but is not taught in chadarim – and other “cultural” subjects. It’s those subjects the state wants to force into the charedi schools and to have control over. And it should be very easy to see why the chareidi schools are fighting it tooth and nail.
@1 I agree 100%.
Children in Chareidi schools acquire excellent learning skills and motivation, far better than those in the general school system, and when they decide that they need secular skills they pick them up very quickly and often surpass those who learned them as children. This is why the secular population is scared of having Chareidi competitors in the workplace and why they face an uphill battle getting jobs. Not to mention that the rates of violence, crime, and drug use are far lower among Chareidi graduates than the secular population, which is one of the reasons why the Chareidi leaders are so against giving the secular establishment any entry into their traditional curriculum. The Ministry of Education knows all this but ignores it because their overriding goal is to turn as many Chareidim as possible into mainstream Israelis and are using their control of the educational system and the army as tools to accomplish this goal.
Ey mom and por, I have no complaint as long as you can document what you say that they teach required subjects and they are motivated and do indeed succeed. As a resident here for almost 40 years I find very few charadei professionals that are able to support a family while many seem to find their way to my door asking for help
#1, the czar also wanted to get involved in the “chinuch
” of Yiddash kinda in the alter heim, we outlived him and we will outlive the Zionists who themselves don’t believe in Zionism anymore as they give away land and move out of the country, by 2050 55% (a majority, you see I know math) of the people in Israel will be anti-Zionists either Arabs or Chareidim.
#2. While I agree with your conclusion, I must question how we can expect everyone to become roshei yeshiva and roshei kollel. Aside from capabilities, how many such positions are available?
the problem is because of blatant discrimination very few charedi professions can find work with non-charedim incl. the gov’t.Learning English won’t change a thing towards getting jobs.