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Many Israelis see yeshivas as promoting "ignorance" in Israeli society. (LA Times photo) |
CAIRO — Religious schools, which only teaches the Torah and the Talmud while abandoning basic subjects such as science and math, are booming in Israel.
"I don't feel I'm missing anything here," Yossi Ravitz told the Los Angeles Times on Monday, August 18, at the spacious campus of the Hebron Yeshiva, one of Israel's most prominent religious academies.
About 90,000 Israelis study to master the Torah and the Talmud at ultra-Orthodox schools that shield them from secular teachings that might shake their faith.
Ravitz, 22, has never had a class in math, science, civics or English since he was a boy.
"They want to turn us into what they see as 'enlightened people of the world,' who will integrate into Israeli society," he said, referring to mounting calls for yeshivas to teach basic subjects required at all Israeli secondary schools.
"But we do not want to integrate into that society, because of its many temptations."
Last month, the Knesset adopted a bill guaranteeing yeshivas 60 percent of funding secular schools get from the national treasury.
It classifies yeshivas as "culturally unique" schools, exempt from the obligation to add on a basic secular curriculum.
"Blessed is he who performed this miracle for us!" said Eli Yishai, the ultra-Orthodox deputy prime minister, after helping engineer the bill's passage.
Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox, known as Haredi Jews, spend a lifetime of religious study on the public dole.
Haredis make up 7 percent of Israel's population.
Ignorance
But many accuse yeshivas of promoting ignorance in society.
"What was fitting for the 18th century does not fit in the 21st," said Avshalom Vilan, a Knesset member from the leftist Meretz party.
"It is unacceptable that a high school graduate will enter the work force with fourth-grade math."
The mass-circulation Haaretz has denounced the Knesset law as legalizing "publicly funded ignorance".
"I had no social studies, no history, and certainly no English at the yeshiva," said Yossi David, who abandoned his haredi community when he was 18.
He has failed to qualify for specialized training in the army.
"I'm still catching up," said David, who has finished his freshman year as a sociology and communications major at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"Almost every day I come across things that are general knowledge but new and alien to me," he noted.
"Ultra-Orthodox education is driven by a fear that people empowered by knowledge will leave the community.
"The leaders keep the people incapable, disadvantaged, dependent and poor in spirit and knowledge."
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