EDUCATION l BY MAYAAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN | jns.org
ISRAEL'S EDUCATION SYSTEM A TOOL FOR ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY, UNITY
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recent controversial decision by Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett means that haredi (ultra-Orthodox) students in Israel may continue to miss out on the secular education they need to succeed in Israel’s modern employment market. In a widely panned decision, Bennett nullified earlier legislation that would have required all haredi schools to teach core subjects to receive government funding. Israel’s education experts say more is needed to bring together students of diverse backgrounds and level the playing field with an eye toward the country’s future. Nearly 75 percent of Israelis are Jewish, while 20 percent are Arab (both Muslim and Christian), and five percent are other non-Arab Christians and members of other religions or ethnic groups, such as the Druze, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. Among Israeli Jews, 49 percent are secular, 29 percent are traditional or Masorti, 13 percent are national religious and 9 percent are haredi, the Pew Research Center reports. Division among Israeli Jews is most prevalent in its separate Jewish education systems run according to each group’s worldview, beliefs and national identity. 20
L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017
PHOTO COURTESY TZAV PIUS
First day of school at one of the new Tzav Pius integrated schools.
According to a 2015 report by the Education Ministry, first grade classes are composed of about 38 percent secular Jews, 15 percent national religious, 25 percent Arab Israeli and 25 percent haredim. While the majority of Israeli public schools teach the same core curriculum, haredi schools operate independently and don’t necessarily follow the core requirements. “The challenge of our education systems is that when students leave school they have not learned to live in a multicultural system,” explained Eli Palay, chairman of the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs. “The big challenge is how to create some kind of … partnership.” BASIC SKILLS
About 76 percent of haredi elementary school students study in officially-recognized educational systems. These schools are allocated 75 to 100 percent of the state budget and are required to teach the same percentage of the Education Ministry’s curriculum. Yet schools that don’t teach all of the required material often aren’t leveled a penalty. In the last 30 years, a growing number of youth (24 percent) have enrolled in haredi chederim, unofficial schools focusing on Torah while only providing a few basic skills needed to maintain