Today, in honor of the first day of school, many politicians spent time visiting schools around the country.

According to reports in the news, Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman is putting together a plan that would adjust the school schedule to be more in line with the general working schedule. Lieberman is willing to pay off the teachers to get their agreement to this change - the teachers union has always opposed changes to the school-vacation schedules in the past.

MK YomTov Calfon (Yamina) has proposed a law that would [attempt to] put an end to discrimination in seminaries based on ethnicity.

The Corona Czar Professor Salman Zarka went to pay a visit to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to discuss Corona issues in the Haredi community in regards to the current wave of Corona.

Kol Hai News is reporting that in the fight over the re-opening of the schools there has been an interesting development.

Haredi reporter Yisrael Cohen brought a quote from Rav Chaim Kanievsky on Twitter. To clarify, Rav CHaim Kanievsky did not say it, or anything on Twitter, but the reporter did :-)

According to the report, someone asked Rav Kanievsky about people who snitch to the authorities about schools that are illegally open and operating during the lockdown. Supposedly Rav Chaim Kaievsky said that anyone doing so should be cursed.

 

"תבוא עליהם קללה" כך אמר מרן שר התורה הגר"ח קניבסקי על מי שמנהלים מרדף נגד תלמודי התורה, בתיעודים ופרסומים כדי למנוע לימוד של ילדי תשב"ר (מתוך מאמר חריף שפורסם במוקד הלילה) pic.twitter.com/kTfKb7tGEO

— ישראל כהן (@Israelcohen911) January 23, 2021

 

 That is a pretty harsh statement.

I am not even quite sure how this works. Rav Chaim Kanievsky himself gave orders to shut the schools during this lockdown. It should be noted that most Haredi schools, especially among the communities that treat Rav Chaim Kanievsky as their leader, have been shut until now (though there are reports of some starting to operate). But, I do not get the instructions. The schools are closed on Rav Chaim's orders, but the ones that are operating against his instructions - nobody else should try to shut them down? Does he think they should be closed now or not? I am confused by this.

Telephone school is the worst. Zoom School is pretty lousy, but telephone school is the worst. The phone lines are too overwhelmed. If the kid can get on the line it is usually poor quality audio or it disconnects at some point. Blah.

The news is reporting that in the past day another 13 schools have been shut down due to the discovery of students and/or teachers being infected and possibly spreading the Corona Virus. This brings the total to 31, for now, of schools shuttered up since the recent reopening. In addition, nearly 10,000 students and teachers and other staff members are currently in quarantine because of these recent school-sourced Corona infections.

As difficult as it will be for many parents, it might be necessary to just shut down all the schools and go back to distance learning. This is clearly a major source of current infections and spreading of the contagion. The only way to stop it is probably to shut it down - most schools just don't seem to have the ability to enforce social distancing among their students.

Who knew that sending the kids back to school would raise a new problem of them now wanting more stylish masks???

They now have very specific requests for which style masks they want to wear to school....

The Finance Ministry supports changing Friday from a school day to a day off.

BOOOOOOO

It would not be so bad if.....

What's going on?

Relevant offices have been studying the effects of what it sees as a discrepancy between the work and vacation days of parents versus the school and vacation days of children. There is a big discrepancy, with many parents not working Fridays yet the children have school (half day), and many days where the parents have to work, such as during Hanukkah, Isru Chag, long summer vacation and other such days yet the children have vacation from school.

The effect of this, as has been discovered, is a big hit to the economy. It seems some parents don't bother joining the workforce out of concern what will be on those days they have to go to work yet the kids have no school. Many other parents do go to work but have to find solutions for those days, such as taking vacation or paying babysitters to watch the kids.

This is a big problem for many families, but the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Israel, are looking at it from the perspective of hot i affects the economy. They believe the effect is a cost of 250 million shekels each year from these days of lost productivity.

To lessen the negative effect on the economy, they are proposing cancelling school on Fridays. In its place would be an option day of enrichment with some sort of optional extracurricular activities programming.
source: Ynet

Unless I am misunderstanding, I do not see them proposing that instead of Fridays the children would have school on Hanukkah and Isru Chag and some of the summer vacation will be cancelled. They are simply doing away with Fridays. While it might be nice to have the possibility of a family day on Friday, I do not see how it helps the parents or the economy on all those other days.

In addition, turning Fridays into an optional day of enrichment will be an extra financial burden on the parents, or it won't be because many parents will opt not to send the children because of the extra charge. They will be increasing the par between wealthy and needy, or the wanting, with only the wealthy being given access to enrichment activities.

Besides for that, I like my Friday mornings without the children home.

If they were making up for the Fridays by having school on Isru Chag and Hanukkah and shortening the summer vacation, that would be great. It would put the various systems more in sync. Just cancelling the Friday school-day is not, in my opinion, a reasonable solution.

A few days ago, a school in Herzliya held a holiday exhibition. I was going to ignore the issue but in honor of Christmas today I have decided to mention it.

It seems the students preferred to celebrate Christmas more than Hanukkah and put on an elaborate and glittery Christmas display while putting on a small and drab Hanukkah display.

Much of the religious press protested and criticized the school, teachers and students for the display, for allowing it and perhaps even for promoting it.

בית ספר חילוני בהרצליה חוגג:
לא את חנוכה,
אלא את כריסמס.
האמת,
בושה וחרפה pic.twitter.com/tj00qkTiOg

— ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) December 22, 2019

It seems to have scaled up a bit but the trend for Israelis and Jews, not really celebrating but commemorating in some way, Christmas has been increasing in the past decade, by my eyeball test. This year I was sure I noticed less of it, but then this happened. So yes, this is on a larger scale, but the trend was already there.

I don't know who is to blame so I dont know who to criticize, so I will just leave it at being a shameful display, a sorry and sad state of affairs that the pining for a foreign holiday is greater than for one that is our own.

And I find it interesting that when anything Jewish is introduced in the Israeli school system there are immediately screams of "hadata" - religious coercion in making the students study or experience something of Jewish religious significance, yet foreign religious experiences are embraced with nary a peep against.

Sure it is just one school. A very small incident with such a small number of people involved. For now. What starts with one will eventually be joined by many, as they find it fun and exciting, unless it is stopped and considered beyond the pale of an acceptable school exercise. people can personally celebrate whatever they want, but Israeli schools in the Jewish sectors of Israel should not be promoting and celebrating Christian, or other foreign, holidays.

According to the Independent, a new clause in the funding contract between schools and the Department of Education is on the brink of causing a crisis.

The relatively new clause says that a school cannot teach any views that are contrary to scientific or historical evidence.

According to the article, Rabbis are concerned that they will not be able to teach issues such as age of the universe in the classic traditional sense of the world being less than 6000 years old as scientific evidence proves the world being billions of years old. Those working on this issue are saying that signing the new contract could be considered heresy.

While nothing in the Torah excludes the possibility of the world being billions of years old, I don't think Jews should be obligated to teach that, as the traditional approach is also valid from a Torah perspective. I doubt they will agree to teach even the possibility of the world being billions of years old.

How this will be resolved remains to be seen. I expect political clout will be used to have the clause removed. I have a hard time believing all Orthodox Jewish schools will forgo all that government funding. I wonder what the relevant Christian schools (the ones that also believe the universe is less than 6000 years old) teach and how they will deal with this issue.

The "Education Committee of the Knesset has passed new regulations obligating all educational institutions (i.e. schools) for children up to the age of 18 year sold to serve a daily hot meat meal to the students.

This regulation obligates all schools -secular, religious, Haredi, public and semi-public schools.

The approved meal list includes a selection of, for the main item, pargiyot, chicken breast, turkey, pieces of meat, shnitzel and hamburgers.

Had the regulation been passed just for the secular, MK Eichler surely would have gone on one of his fire and brimstone  attacks about discrimination against Haredim an dhow come they deserve less, etc. Yet, now that the Haredi schools are equally obligated, the Haredi MKs instead want an exemption. The representative of the yeshivvot ketanot is saying that this will double the food expense of the yeshivas, which will end up being passed on to the parents. Rather, the State should be paying for it, if the State wants to obligate them to serve such meals.

Committee head MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) continued to pass the regulations, drawing the ire of the UTJ opponents, though he had the approval of Health Minister Yaakov Litzman. MK Yaakov Asher complained, but Litzman said his job is health and his role is to approve this as a healthy initiative, and if he has a problem with it he should turn to the Ministry of Education to request an exemption for the yeshivot ketanot. After trying to pressure Minister Aryeh Deri to push Margi to stop it, Deri said they should go to Porush who is Deputy Minister in Misrad Hachinuch and they should leave Shas alone. .

Margi's response to this whole thing is basically that some jokers think that everyone has to eat healthy food except for Haredim and he won't approve an exception for the yeshivot ketanot.
sources:  Kikar, Kol Hai

Such a program gives an opportunity for many kids who would otherwise not get a hot, healthy, meal with protein. We've heard many times in the fight over kitzvat yeladim that lowering the subsidy is taking food out of the mouths of kids and there are so many kids who go to school with no food. This is the same situation. What will they do about paying for it? I am sure they can find a way to get more money out of the government to cover most of the costs. They've been able to increase the budgets tremendously over the past two years, yet somehow the tuition rates have not been lowered, so it seems there is no direct correlation between government budgets and tuition. At the end of the day the parents will probably have to pay for it. What will parents who cannot afford it do? Good question

It is always upsetting and troubling when teachers, or employees in any profession, get fired from their jobs for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability to perform their responsibilities, nothing to do with professionalism.

That is true of the Haredi kindergarten teacher in a public school in the Tel Aviv region who was fired for being Haredi (until a Ministry of Education spokesperson backtracked on the reason), and that is also true of the Haredi teacher in the Haredi school system who was fired for learning how to drive (I am not sure if it is relevant that the reason she learned how to drive was to be able to drive her special needs daughter to treatments and that she had permission from her rav to do so).

There are angles to consider:
1. if the Haredi school scan discriminate against non-Haredim and non-religious teachers and refuse to hire them, why can't the non-Haredi schools discriminate in return?
2. If the Haredi schools can discriminate against Haredim and that is allowed to happen, can people really get so upset when non-Haredi schools discriminate against Haredim?
3. Is it wrong for schools, whether Haredi, Secular or Dati Leumi, to want to employ teachers who match the lifestyle ideals the school wishes to impart to the children?
4. or, perhaps the school should show diversity and be open to exposing their students to other types of people and ideas and as long as the teacher is professional and acts professionally, the teacher should be given the platform to teach.
5. or maybe any teacher should be hire-able in any school, as long as the teacher is qualified and professional. I assume schools could have guidelines for teachers - dress codes, topics that should or should not be discussed, etc. and as long as the teacher is willing to follow those guidelines, nothing else besides for professional reasons, should be a valid reason for firing.

The Ministry of Health has released new directives for healthy and nutritious eating in educational institutions, such as gans (nurseries), tzaharons (afternoon day care centers) and other educational centers in which food is supplied to the children by the school.

The new directives prohibit foods that are not considered healthy, such as ketchup, sugar, salt, and the use of soup mixes in foods. Their dietitians have put together a list of allowed foods that include a lot of vegetables and are all low in sodium and low in fats. Cereals would all be from whole grains. Soups would not be allowed to be made from soup mixes, no pickles and no salt shakers allowed. Ketchup would be allowed once a week at the beginning, but from 2016 it will not be allowed at all. Only water can be served as a drink and no sugary drinks. No sugar in food, and no sugar replacements such as honey or silan. Food should be cooked by steaming, baking or roasting, but no frying. Only lean cuts of meat or skinless chicken. And there are some more details.

Also, food sold on premises should also be healthy - no unhealthy snacks...

It is great to go healthy. Thankfully Israel does not have a problem with obesity like the problem that exists in the USA. A program like this seems to be a good way to educate the children to eat healthy. I do think, though, that it is a bit much. Maybe they can implement some of it, or give a bunch of options and make the schools or classes keep to 60% or 75% of the list. How many kids are going to want to eat steamed vegetables without even salt, or anything similar? Give them a little bit of variety. I don't think it is so bad that all sugar and all salt and all fat must be cut out.

I also wonder where the budget for this will come from. Eating healthier generally costs more money. Will the Ministry of Education fund this? The Ministry of Health? A different ministry? The schools? the parents?

We have a principle that says – no school strikes. The haredim never have strikes. Our sages said that the verse 'from the mouths of babes You have instilled force' hints that the world exists only for the breath emanating from the mouths of children who study Torah. Even if we study in croiwded conditions, even if things are difficult, you don't stop studying. Because 'Torah does not exist – except from difficulty.' And look at the great education that comes from us. Look at the wonderfully educated students who come from our crowded classrooms! In a recent survey on violence among pupils, the haredi sector came out with a statistic of 0% violence!


-- MK Menachem Eliezer Mozes (UTJ)

Mozes said this when explaining why the Haredi sector was not participating the strike of the "sardine protest". He explained that they support the goals of this strike, but the Haredi sector does not strike especially in regards to schools..

Is what he said correct? I don't know what studies he references. There isn't the classic violence of knives and beatings and whatnot, but there is definitely bullying and verbal abuse to anyone slightly different.

According to INN, MK Oren hazan (Likud) has proposed a law that would make it obligatory for schools to teach Arabic language from first grade all the way to 12th grade.

His logic is obvious. We live together, work together, ride buses together, we should be able to converse and understand each other.

It makes sense to me. The entire region of nations we live in speaks Arabic. It would behoove us to have some knowledge in that language and culture. Whether to help make peace, to do business, sports, or whatever else, we should be familiar with our neighbors. Kind of like the way Spanish is so popular, and even has status as an official language, in much of America.

By that token, we might also want to include Chinese - not because we are together so much, but so much of our commerce is centered in China, it makes sense to have our future business-people know the language.

So, it looks like the long-running saga of the 2 schools in RBS A has come to an end..

Iryat Bet Shemesh has announced that the City and the Ministry of Education have come to an agreement by which the Safot vTarbuyot school will be moved to Old Bet Shemesh and merged with another school and have a building refurbished to their needs, while the Mishkenot Daas school will move into the vacated building in RBS A.

The Iryah is also being pressured by the MoE to shut down some of the smaller schools in town that have suffered from dwindling registration in recent years, or to merge them with other similar schools.

According to Kikar, Mishkenos will move into the building with 900 students. Safot will move out with 144.

I think it is a good move, especially coming with an agreement and not like thieves in the night.

What is left unsaid is:
1. is this building large enough to hold the entire Mishkenos? can it really hold 900 kids? what about future growth?
2. what happens to the plot of land that was allocated years ago to Mishkenos? Will it be reallocated now for other schools? does it make a difference if the Iryah will never move the caravans off it?
3. Was the issue of under-utilized plots held by Haredi schools (or other schools) that moved off the plots and found ways to hold on to them to collect rent or just hold control ever looked into? Will the city move other needy schools into those plots?
4. What will happen to the building and caravans Mishkenos Daas is currently in? Schools should start lining up requesting it. I would suggest they populate with a school that is currently in caravans on some plot, get those caravans off and start building, eventually moving a school into a building, and thereby start a cycle of removing caravans and building buildings.

Late development:
According to a report on Shemeshnet, this might not be happening so quickly.. the Parents Committee of the Safot school issued a statement saying that they are not leaving so quickly and parents should wait for further developments. They said the school will continue operating in its current location until further notice. They said that the complex suggested by Iryat Bet Shemesh was inadequate, and considering the poor financial situation the City finds itself in, they might not be able to refurbish the building.

In my opinion, this has been such a major priority for the mayor, Moshe Abutbol, that he will find the money for this even if it means taking it from other budgets.