Israel to introduce new curriculum

Israel’s education ministry decided to introduce a curriculum containing the Jewish-Israeli culture for its non-religious pupils from grades three to nine. Education minister Naftali Bennett fears a decline of the Jewish story within the people if it won’t be shared with the youngest students. He wants to face this upcoming problem by teaching the knowledge about their forefathers, the Maimonides.

The new lessons are about Yehuda Halevi’s peotry, the life of Haim Bialik, the writings of Ahad Ha’am and other significant cornerstones of the Judaism. According to Bennett this is and will be as important as mathematics. But despite the importance of these lessons he doesn’t want any of the pupils to feel religious coercion while learning the new curriculum contents.

Instead, the classes are supposed to strengthen the students’ identities as Jews, as Israelis and as humans. Furthermore the classes are thought to give the students diverse experiences and to promote the ability to have respectful dialogues which is very important in Israel’s modern society.

Editorial team (sz)

Sources

Photo credit: Three boys from Hand in Hand's Galilee School by IraKerem / CC BY-SA 3.0
Information source: jpost.com