And yet implementation of the most basic core secular curriculum is fiercely opposed by Charedi leaders. The pushback is harmful both to the State and to themselves. And yet they are blinded to the the obvious repercussions of such opposition. They argue that any government forced implementation of secular studies into the Charedi schools system is anti Torah.
As I have said in the past, to say that it is anti Torah to have a curriculum that includes secular studies is to paint the entire Diaspora which has had secular studies programs in the most Charedi of schools since their earliest days as anti Torah. This is pure nonsense. It casts aspersions upon the Gedolei Torah that endorsed it. And sent their own children to those schools.
When confronted by this contradiction between 2 worlds, their response is typically something along the lines of ‘What’s right for America is not what’s right for Israel’. I have always questioned that assertion. We do not have 2 Torahs. We have one. If secular studies programs are valid here, they should be just as valid there. So when the Israeli government tries to impose such programs in Israel American Charedi leaders tend to cast it in the same terms as their counterparts in Israel as anti Torah using the same vitriolic language about it. To me this makes absolutely no sense.
Meanhwhile the poverty rate of Charedim keeps increasing because of their fertility rate, the influx of Charedi immigrants to Israel, those in the Dati Leumi (Modern Orthdox) world that have gravitated towards Charedism, and the increasing number of Baalei Teshuva that choose the Charedi path.
When the status quo agreement was created that allowed Charedim – almost of all whom studied full time in Yeshivos and Kollelim, there were 400 such people. Today Charedim comprise over 1 million people. These numbers will surely multiply exponentially as time passes. These increased numbers of Charedim will suffer the same impoverishment that so many of them do now. And as their numbers increase with the attendant increase in the number of uneducated and unemployed people their proportion of the entire population will increase… and everyone will suffer. As I and many others have said, this situation is unsustainable.
But Charedi leaders aren’t budging. This was recently manifested in their announcement that they would not join any governing coalition until all the ‘draconian’ anti Charedi legislation is reversed. Including restoring to previous levels the funding of Charedi schools that do not offer a core secular curriculum.
The question is, what can be done about it? If Charedi intransigence is so strong, how do we overcome the necessary ingredient for economic success of the Charedi world – which will in turn advance the economic success of the entire country?
Mr. Lavi seems to acknowledge what many Charedim say. That government coercion of of a core secular curriculum is doing the exact opposite of its intended effect – because of the strong opposition by the Charedi leadership. He doesn’t think it’s helpful for the government to keep insisting on a program that is being fought tooth and nail.
He has a few intriguing suggestions that he feels might work in their stead. They are surely worth pursuing. But I do not agree with abandoning the determination of the government to condition funding of Charedi schools on the implementation of a core secular curriculum. Because only a universal program that has the force of the government behind it will have any chance at countering the massive Charedi opposition to it. Eventually the unsustainability of continuing the ‘ways of old’ will kick in. There has to be an educational infrastructure in place for them to pick up the pieces.