10 The Jewish Herald • Friday, March 22, 2013 9 EXCLU S ION S


‘Charedi Students Fail As They Lack Secular Studies’ Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s daughter says lack of English, Math a serious obstacle to helping charedim


J E R E M Y S H A R O N J


ERUSALEM — Adina Bar-Shalom, the eldest daughter of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said last week that the lack of English


and Mathematics education in charedi schools was a serious obstacle in increasing the numbers of charedim in higher education. Bar-Shalom established the Charedi College


in Jerusalem, the first academic college for chare- di men and women in Israel, where students can study for degrees in numerous fields such as com- puter science, medical science, psychology, social work and others. Speaking at the first meeting of the Knesset Cau-


cus for the Integration of Charedim into the Labor Force and High Tech Sector last Tuesday, she re- ferred to the necessity of providing charedi students with remedial courses in core educational topics be- fore they can begin an academic degree. “It’s not possible to learn English or Math in a one-


CHAREDIM


Vent Anger In Knesset In fit of pique, all UTJ MKs leave plenum when


Netanyahu reads out Bennett’s name as minister J E R E M Y S H A R O N


J


ERUSALEM — Charedi MKs continued to vent their anger at the exclusion of their parties in the Knesset plenum during the debate on Mon-


day preceding the vote to confirm the new govern- ment. In a fit of pique, all seven of the United Torah Ju-


daism MKs got up and left the plenum when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu read out the name of Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett as minister for economy and trade. Despite this demonstration, the UTJ MKs did re-


enter in order to deliver withering speeches from the podium denouncing the “racism” and “discrimination” of the incoming government for preventing the chare- di parties from joining the coalition. Former Knesset Finance Committee Chair MK


Moshe Gafni stood at the Knesset plenum and sym- bolically ripped apart the coalition agreement saying, “terrorist are not harmed the way Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid want to harm the Torah students.” Outgoing Deputy Health Minister MK Yaakov Litz-


man started his speech sarcastically by thanking the Knesset for allowing someone who wears a yarmul- ke and has a beard and peyos to speak, saying that it would not be long before a charedi person would not be able to be elected to the Knesset. He continued, saying he hoped Israel’s citizens from


all sectors would survive “the iniquitous deeds of this evil government which, unfortunately, is based on ha- tred and polarization.” “The representatives of UTJ will be here for you as


a voice and as faithful servants in order to prevent this racist government, which hates the religion of [the Na- tion of] Israel from carrying out what it intends,” Litz- man informed the audience and his public. Addressing the agreement in the coalition agree-


ment to increase charedi enlistment in national ser- vice, Litzman said that ominously that “the hand” of anyone harming the ability of yeshiva students to study would wither, calling the plan “irrelevant.” “The result of it will be like that of all those who lift-


ed up their hand against the Torah of Moses, and tried to hurt the world of Torah . . . your plots won’t work, it


year pre-college preparatory course,” said Bar Sha- lom. “More than 50 percent of students who come to us do not succeed in English.” She continued saying that this failure caused many


students to drop out of college altogether. The overwhelming majority of charedi education-


al institutions teaching grade nine and above do not include any secular education in their curriculum at all, focusing instead on religious studies. Girls gen- erally continue with a general education throughout their time in elementary and high school. There are approximately 7,000 charedi students


enrolled in higher-education programs, representing a dramatic increase over the last decade but a small percentage of the number of college-aged charedi youth. According to a recent study by the Taub Center


for Social Policy Studies, charedi employment for men has fallen from close to 88 percent in 1979 to 48 percent in 2011. The rate of employment for charedi women is approximately 61 percent, according to the Bank of Israel, with the national average for women standing at 66 percent.


won’t happen” he said, adding, “We won’t agree to any compromise.” Litzman continued his harangue by attacking Yair


Lapid for his words earlier in the day that his party and the government would represent charedim in the absence of UTJ and Shas from the coalition. “I heard Lapid say he’ll take care of the charedi pub-


lic. This sounds exactly as if Ahmed Tibi would say ‘I’ll take care of the settlers,’” Litzman said in reference to the fiercely anti-settler pro-Palestinian MK. According to charedi news website B’chadrei


Charedim, spiritual leader of the charedi world Rab- bi Aharon Leib Shteinman last Thursday described Yair Lapid as “an evil [man], who grew up with an evil father,” referring to the Yesh Atid leader’s secularist father, Yosef (Tommy) Lapid. In a meeting with Degel Hatorah MKs, Shteinman


said charedim were being persecuted, asking, “what do they care if a charedi person wants to remain chare- di?” adding that it is impossible for an ultra-Orthodox man to maintain his religious identity in the army. Gafni said one of the worst governments in Isra-


el had been assembled, both in spiritual and mate- rial terms. He continued, saying that Bennett had had a chance


to bring about the creation of a right-wing religious government but had preferred to be partners with a party “whose members are, in the majority, on the Is- raeli Left and anti-religious.” Gafni slammed Education Minister Shai Piron, say-


ing he was less interested in the failing State school system than “in harming the successful charedi ed- ucation system.” The Israeli newspaper Yated Ne’eman did not hold


back, with the headline “Government of Evil” splashed across its front page.


—Jerusalem Post The new Knesset caucus was established by Yesh


Atid MK Dov Lipman, who, together with MK Erel Margalit (Labor), chairs the group. Lipman said he founded the caucus because of the


large number of requests he received from charedim during the election campaign asking for assistance in matters of employment. “The time has come for us as the country’s law-


makers along with government ministers to do more to assist charedim to enter the work force and sus- tain their families,” said Lipman. “There is a gap between the charedi political leadership and the charedi street, and it is here where we can make a real difference.” In the previous Knesset, Yoel Hasson, a former


MK for Kadima, established a similar caucus in 2012 along with several other MKs, including David Azou- lai of Shas. As of yet, Lipman’s caucus does not include any charedi MK members, although he maintains he personally invited all charedi MKs to join. “My focus is on the charedi community who have


simply not been represented by their political lead- ers,” said Lipman. “My entire goal was to establish something apolitical to simply help charedim. We need to get funding for education programs for them, to help get them into work.” “This morning,” said Margalit, “in the Knesset


task force to help charedim enter the work force, we learned that the revolution has already begun. We are speaking about a process and a fantastic oppor- tunity for the country. When we are talking about a process which also benefits businesses and compa- nies, then the forces of the market are at work, and it can happen even more quickly.” Amichai Katz, the administrator for the charedi


sector in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said at the meeting that nearly every week, private entre- preneurs turn to him and ask to get involved in em- ploying charedim, because they see the vast poten- tial in this community. He emphasized that the goal is not to change the


charedi sector’s way of life but to help them with their needs.


Worries continued from previous page


ed on in its agreement with David Ben-Gurion in 1947, which was needed by him to demonstrate the unity of the Jewish community in Mandate Palestine to the U.N. ahead of its vote on partition. A United Torah Judaism official described the chare-


di education system as “the basis of charedi society” and the tool through which members of the commu- nity gain their identity. He described incoming Education Minister Shai Piron


of Yesh Atid as “the most dangerous man in Israel” for the charedi community because of his and his party’s insis- tence that secular subjects be introduced to the charedi school system, where they are barely taught at present. Cohen said that the measures on State benefits and ed-


ucation would cross red lines for the community and lead to serious civil opposition from the ultra-Orthodox world. But it was not only charedim who were displeased


with the coalition agreement. Secularist activist group Free Israel expressed dismay that the deal includes the provision that all parties must agree to legislative changes on matters of religion and State. Because this includes the national-religious Bay-


it Yehudi party, Free Israel said that Orthodox inter- ests and groups would still have a monopoly on the re- ligious status quo and that all that had been achieved in terms of reform to matters of religion and State was “to change the yarmulke from black to knitted.” The group accused Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid of


abandoning his election promises. Lapid had promised “to do everything in my pow-


er” so that all Jewish denominations in Israel would be placed on an equal legal footing, and vowed to in- stitute civil marriage.


—Jerusalem Post —Jerusalem Post


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