In the latest disconcerting decision by the High Court,
yarmulke-wearing Judge Edmund Levy ruled that funding for
chareidi educational institutions will be discontinued in
three years if they fail to adopt the Core Curriculum Program
guidelines. Saying that continuing the funding harms the
principle of equality since these institutions do not meet
the government's pedagogical requirements, the court upheld a
petition filed by the Organization of High School
Teachers.
The petition was filed against chareidi educational
institutions, and claiming that the failure to teach students
in accordance with the Core Program in spite of the NIS 180-
million ($42 million) share of the total upper-school budget
chareidi institutions receive from the State violates the
principle of equality.
According to the Education Ministry's stance in the case the
funding transfer is indeed problematic, but the State's
Attorney noted that the Education Ministry plans to expand
its oversight of chareidi educational institutions to ensure
that every student studies the required curriculum —
even though the Core Program has been strictly banned by
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
The Organization of High School Teachers asked that all
funding of chareidi institutions be discontinued immediately,
but the Education Ministry claimed since 26,000 students are
enrolled in these institutions funding cannot be cut off so
abruptly. The State also claimed that severing funding
immediately would lead to the removal of Education Ministry
oversight of the chareidi institutions and therefore should
be delayed until a plan to enforce Education Ministry
oversight of chareidi institutions is added to the Core
Program.
In his decision, Judge Levy wrote, "When the executive branch
elects to channel budget funds to a given institution it does
not distribute its own money but money it holds for the
public good. Channeling money to institutions that do not
uphold the conditions anchored in the law and that do not
realize the goals of government education represents a
divergence from the authority emanating from the legislature
and is a breach of the obligation of loyalty the authority
owes to the public from which it derives its power. The
funding of educational institutions which do not meet the
demands and regulations of the law arouses concerns of
violations of the principle of equality."
The Education Ministry was pleased with the decision, which
serves its aim of breaking down the chareidi institutions'
unwavering refusal to allow any outside intervention in
curricular matters as instructed by maranan verabonon
gedolei Yisroel shlita, headed by Maran HaRav Eliashiv
and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
Following the court's decision, Degel HaTorah Chairman MK
Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz said no change will take place three
years from now either. "We will get through this decision,
too. I am very surprised at the High Court of the State of
Israel, which pretends to be a liberal-minded and democratic
high court. It defends the right of every abomination to
exist, relying on the fundamental right of freedom of
expression and human dignity. Why is this High Court, in such
a liberal nation, unable to see clearly that people have the
right to educate their children as they see fit, particularly
in the case of a form of education that has continued for
thousands of years—3,335 years? It sounds audacious to
me that they want to teach us how to educate children. Are
they coming from a position of stunning success in the
secular education system? How can they preach to us and
interfere with our lives?
"There is a story about a certain nobleman who would beat the
Jews until they began to cry. But the nobleman told his
minions to continue beating them. Then the Jews began to
laugh. Then the nobleman said, `If they are laughing it's
dangerous.' When the High Court mobilizes to fight against
tens of thousands of yaldei Yisroel, I begin to laugh.
This is unconscionable. They will not succeed in a war
against tens of thousands of yaldei Yisroel. The world
will not accept it. The [cultured society] in the State of
Israel wants to show how liberal it is. The world will see in
this endeavor one of the backward nations that enters homes
seeking to exert control based on its worldview."
Degel HaTorah Secretary MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni told Yated
Ne'eman that the High Court made its claim from a legal,
moral and ethical standpoint. However the court erred from a
legal perspective, he said, because the law states that the
character of chareidi education is to be preserved as
determined by gedolei Yisroel and therefore any
outside intervention is illegal. Rabbi Gafni said the
decision cannot be executed either now or in the future
because the chareidi education system will not change in the
least. All surveys have shown that the chareidi educational
system excels in imparting both knowledge and values, and
they point to the success of chareidi education in contrast
to the collapse of secular education.
Rabbi Gafni said that instead of interfering with chareidi
institutions the heads of government education should be
taking care of their own bankrupt system. The heads of the
chareidi system will continue their success in education
based on the directives of gedolei Yisroel shlita and
will not allow any outside entity to destroy the purity of
Kerem Yisroel, he concluded.
Rabbi Avrohom Yosef Lazerson, one of the heads of Chinuch
Atzmai, said that under no circumstances will the chareidi
education system accept the High Court ruling, which
represents a serious and intolerable infringement on the
complete independence of chareidi education, whose status has
been legally recognized and entrenched by the Israeli
government for over five decades. "Our core is our absolute
autonomy in scholastic matters and not relying on any
government figure or entity except being subject to
gedolei Yisroel, who have always been the sole
authority in determining instruction and teaching methods at
our institutions. This arrangement has existed for more than
50 consecutive years. It is the cornerstone of our Torah
education, which is the apple of our eye, and has no
connection to the principle of equality cited by the High
Court, because there is no favoritism, but rather a basic and
official recognition of our fundamental right to educate our
children in the ways of our forefathers."
