[This is the deeper meaning of the “reforms” implemented by the Israel Ministry of Education. A close look at the Dovrat Report shows that Judaica instruction has been reduced to minimum, and the Israeli puplil would not know that he is studying in a Jewish state. – db]

Parents and teachers are furious with the Education Ministry’s decision to allow principals of junior high schools to decide not to teach bible studies in the seventh grade or, alternatively, to elect to study bible studies for half a year and then to study literature in the second half of the year.

Parents of pupils at the Misgav high school, which has nine seventh grade classes, sent a letter to the Education Ministry in which they protested that the subject was dropped from their children’s curriculum of all years just as they were about to be Bar Mitzvahed. “We are puzzled-is this really the Education Ministry’s policy, to give schools the autonomy not to teach a subject so important nationally and to values?” protested the parents. “The State of Israel cannot allow itself those luxuries.” The letter also alleged that this decision belied the Education Ministry’s self-declared policy of instilling values in the pupils and showed that schools still aspired to be factories that churned out pupils with high grade point averages.

NRP Chairman Zvulun Orlev took the matter up with Education Minister Limor Livnat, and noted that he was confident that the school in question would never have considered dropping English language studies or physical education from its curriculum. Orlev said that the principal explained that his decision stemmed from a cut in classroom hours…

This piece ran on October 9th, 2005 in Yediot Aharonot

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