Education Minister (Yesh Atid) Rabbi Shai Piron is expected to appoint a senior advisor, a member of the chareidi community who will advise him on chareidi affairs. It appears that Yitzchak Ravitz, a son of the late MK and Degel Hatorah leader R’ Avraham Ravitz will fill the slot. Maariv reports that Ravitz will not accept the appointment prior to consulting with HaGaon HaRav Aaron Yehuda Leib Shteinman Shlita. The report explains Ravitz has already requested permission from the Gadol Hador to accept the appointment.
If he accepts the post, it is viewed as a major move by Piron to maintain a dialogue with the chareidim, despite remarks that he will cut funding for all schools that refuse to include ‘core subjects’ in the curriculum. It is far from likely that Ravitz will permit himself to become a figurehead to legitimize the policies of Piron and if the minister does plan to cut school funding for chareidi mosdos; it is unlikely that Ravitz will continue in the position.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
If Piron (and his ilk) were serious about encouraging secular education among hareidim (rather than trying to undermine Torah education, which is their apparent goal), they would be encouraging America-style liberal standards for equivalency testing, open university courses, distance education, etc. A great many hareidim work in jobs the require knowing more than how to learn gemara, but they do so through educating themselves rather than going to schools. Piron (et al, and many others) confuse “schooling” with “education.”
The Ravitz family are terrific choices when dealing with the Charedi and Torah Religious communities vis a via the secular kehillos. His father was welcomed and respected by many.
akuperma, you have lost touch with American Charedi education, now it is Touro, Parnassa Clinics, SYRIT, and many on-site educational courses. Distance education has found to be inadequate for jobs in techo fields. The ability to get a BA after years in Yeshiva gives Bochurim and Marrieds the ability to pursue higher degrees (MA). You are the one confusing ‘Yeshiva’ with ‘Parnassa education’.
#1 – What are you going on about? Israel has long had distance education and an ‘open university’.
The problem is that male Israeli charedim are given almost no general education and most of them fail when they attempt to study in an academic institution. Even in ‘Machon Lev’ (a D”L engineering college in Jerusalem) which opened a preparatory course aimed at charedi men in order to assist them to attain a technical education, almost none have been able to get an engineering degree – the knowledge gap has proven too big for most of them to overcome. Yes, some of the best and brightest are able to get degrees in law and accounting (in second-tier colleges). But that is a limited solution, particularly in Israel which is inundated with lawyers and accountants and where well-paying jobs and careers are found, more and more, in areas which require solid backgrounds in English, mathematics, computers and science. What harav Piron shlit”a (and his ‘ilk’ – ken yirbu) are attempting to do is to pull Israeli charedim out of poverty by giving charedi boys a basic grounding in the subjects that they will need in order to get well-paying jobs and support their families in the future. One can be a ben-torah and know how to solve a logarithm.
Enough already with your blind hatred and canards.
If I’m not mistaken, Rav Ravitz is a RaM at Yeshivat Nehora, a Chareidi Yeshiva Tichonit in Mevo Choron. As such, he would be particularly suited for this position.
an Israeli Yid
Sounds like a decent choice for the moderate libs and reform