In what is most likely the second most important law for the chareidi community after the Tal Law, the Shas Party successfully pushed through the Yeshiva Ketana Law, providing state funding for talmedei torah schools despite the fact they are not complying with the law compelling them to include secular subject matter in their curriculum.
Not long before the Knesset adjourns for summer recess, Shas and Agudas Yisrael managed to push the bill through for its second and third readings, making it law. As such, chareidi elementary schools are now recognized and exempt from including secular subject matter deemed unsuitable by the yeshiva administrators.
In past years, Education Ministry funds were being given to the schools illegally, because they did not all teach the required subjects, which include math, English, science and civics. Due to a Supreme Court ruling, that funding would have ceased this year, but the new law in essence circumvented the high court ruling.
Shas leader Eli Yishai called it a major victory for the chareidim, with the bill passing into law in a 40-6 vote.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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14 Responses
If one truly knows why the Gadol Hador Chacham Ovadia Yosef Shlita is involved in Shas is to simply help out hes fellow Sephardi jews and espesially to help out the chardedi communities at large so we can have frum people can have a say in this anti-religious government! Long Live Chacham Ovadia ‘Ad meah vesrim shana’ – Amen!
Does this mean that the yeshivas are going to get more funding or that they’re not going to lose what they now receive? Does this also include H.S. age (yeshiva kentana) or only Elementary?
Now lets see where all those people who shamble the gadol hador Hacham Ovadia Yosef shlita are.
Lets hear your comments about how the Rav doesnt know what hes doing, how he should quit the government. How hes responsible for every wrong in Israeli politics…
Like BilAAm, the secular Government had no choice but to bless the Hareidim.
To quoteextreme left-wing Israeli Education Yuli Tamir, the bill was allowed to pass, because:
“We did our best under the current circumstances,” she said. “A culture war would not have been beneficial to anyone.”
In other words, they would have squashed the Hareidim had they been able to.
By the way, the Hareidi children in the Yeshivas Ketanos will not get the same funding as the children in the Israeli public schools.
The Yeshivos Ketanos will get 40% less per child. To papaphrase George Orwell:
“All children are equal, but some children are more equal than others.
#3-Seth,
I believe so (but am uncertain.)
That George Orwell quote is ridiculously inapplicable here. There is no discrimination going on – it’s simply a matter of charedim choosing not to be part of the regular system. The state has every right to deny funding to schools which do not give children the skills, education and attitude that is generally required to produce citizens that are economically productive.
Where are all the commenters who bark at the Hacham? Dumbfounded?
So what comes next. When does Eretz Yisrael get a government that will cut off 40% of funding to schools that don’t include Limudei Kodesh as a core part of the curriculum.
Would an American school that excluded American history, excluded any of the classics of English literature, and whose civics instruction was basically in “how to be un-American”? If a Jewish state is ever established in Eretz Yisrael, their first goal should be to close down the hiloni schools.
To Shlomo-x:
So, you claim tha hareidim are not productive. That is a blood libel against ehrlich Yidden, who toil in our Holy Torah to protect ungrateful people, like you, who are under the spell of the secular media.
I guess you might agree with Hitler that Torah scholars are “useless eaters.”
Might be a good idea ANYWAY to include math, english and science (how glorious is the nature that hashem created) into the chadorim, so that parents do not have to find tutors and special chugim for these subjects & pay out of pocket.
Very sad.
Now there will be another generation of people who won’t be employable. Another generation that will live off the hard work of their fellow citizens (both frum and secular).
So unlike chazal – the tannoim, amoroim, and onward, who worked at jobs that produced for society while at the same time learning Torah at levels far beyond what we see today.
To #11.
You may think Slomo X is wrong, but that is not excuse for you comment. I happen to think you didn’t read what he wrote too carefully. But that’s not the point. The point is that, regardless, it is an outright Chilul Hashem and terrible attribute to compare a felow yid’s opinion to the opinion of hitler Y”S just because you disagree with it. Your heart is in the right place, but you are doing the wrong think by making an inflammatory comment like that, and yidden who sincerely toil in learning Torah would probably be the last one’s to wish to be “defended” by a commwent so as you made.
# 13 you are one hundred percent right? This is the worst thing for all of Israel… The government is happy about this because the Charaidim with no math or secular studies will never be part of the Keneset.