Tradition, Innovation, Conflict: Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Israel

4. Tradition and Innovation in Jewish Religious Education in Israel

4 Tradition and Innovation in jewish Religious Education in Israel MORDECAI BAR-LEV INTRODUCTION: Religious education has been perceived in all societies in the past and in most societies today as "that process of teaching and learning by means of which religions have sought for their transmission and self-perpetuation" (Hull1984b). In all religious schools, religious education was a holistic activity, one that demands that educational principles line up with religious values in terms of the teachers' personal commitments, instructional material, and the school's apparent and hidden objectives and agendas. With the growth of modern national educational systems, a struggle began in manycountries between church and state regarding the control ofthese school systems, affecting the status and scope of religious education. These struggles, often carried out in legal forums (Brubacher 1947) as well as in politics and in the media-brought about four major arrangements: 1. Religious education, full or part time, is forbidden in all public and other educational institutions (Nationalist China). 2. Religious education, full or part time can not take place in public educational institutions but is permitted in private *This chapter has been prepared under the sponsorship ofthe Eliezer Stern Institute for Research and Advancement in Religious Education, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University. 102 Jewish Religious Educatian in Israel educational institutions, or departments thereof (United States, Japan). 3. Religious education (part time-2 hours weekly) is provided by public educational institutions. It is optional and requires prior parental agreement. Adult religious education requires the consent of the students themselves. In private educational institutions, the guidelines for religious education are not under state jurisdiction (West Germany, Australia, Great Britain). 4. Religious education, full time, is mandatory in all public educational institutions. Private educational institutions as well must set aside a few weeklysessions for religious instruction (Pakistan, Iran). The third arrangement placed religious education in the respective countries in a "market situation" (Berger 1967) that stressed the significance ofreligious education over religious activity. According to this new outlook, contemporary religious education must legitimize itself by emphasizing educational considerations and criteria more than theological ones. This educational viewpoint was initiated primarily in Great Britain in the late 1960s, under the influence of the writing of Cox (1966) and Smart (1968), where new instructional programs for religious education were brought into the school systems . These programs were to a large extent anchored in educational philosophy and sociology and in modern theories regarding curriculum development. This new approach to religious education represented a radical break with traditional religious education and was even seen as a "secularization ... of religious education" (Hull 1982). Whereas the traditional notion of religious education stressed religious activity, which differentiated significantlybetween Catholic religious education and Islamic religious education for example, the new approach stressed educational activity, which blurred the distinctions between religious groups. This led to the development of pluralistic curriculathat included a heavydose ofstudies based on comparative religion (Hull1984a). Traditional Jewish religious education in the diaspora and in Israel saw its essential function in religious activity. This approach had been dominant for many generations, as long as Jewish society had been all encompassing. According to this outlook, the goal ofreligious education was to mold the student's entire personality, and it was the educator's task to seize the student's soul "to enter it under Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Israel 103 the wings ofthe Holy Spirit." The principal educational objective was thus to bring the student under the dual yoke-the "yoke ofHeaven," accepting the religious beliefs and ideas on an ideological level, and the ''yoke ofmitzvot,"willingly undertaking to perform the precepts of the Law (Enoch 1981). From the 1870s through the earlyyears ofthe state oflsrael, the beliefthat the role ofreligious Jewish education was to promote religious activity became the focus of many bitter conflicts and debates. Elements from the religious community, on the one hand, claimed, at least until the London Agreement of 1920, that public educational institutions in the Jewish Yishuv (community) of Eretz Yisrael (The Land of Israel) were responsible for continuing the tradition ofcompulsory religious education. Militant elements from the nonreligious community, on the other hand, claimed that as part oftheir campaign to restructure Jewish society, the schools must be "conquered,"and a new and modern educational model must be created. Most conspicuous among the many sides to this prolonged controversy were the political parties. The Mizrahi party was founded in 1902 as a result of...