Chief Rabbi Yosef: Science, math are nonsense, study in yeshiva instead
The chief rabbi spoke proudly of not finishing school or having a high school diploma, and said learning Torah was far more important.
Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef at a Remembrance Day 2021 Ceremony
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef described
Israel’s school core curriculum studies program as “nonsense” and said
pupils should study in yeshivas instead where only religious studies are
taught.
Yosef’s
comments sparked criticism toward the Sephardi chief rabbi, who was
accused of promoting dependence on government handouts and charitable
donations instead of advancing self-reliance.
“There
is nothing like the holy Torah, the Torah is above everything,” said
Yosef in a recent synagogue address, first reported by the Kikar Shabbat
news website.
“If
a pupil is asked where do you want to go, a yeshiva high school [where
religious studies are taught together with the core curriculum] or a
holy yeshiva, there is no doubt, a holy yeshiva, there is no doubt,”
declared the chief rabbi.
“There they learn Torah without secular subjects, without the core curriculum, without all this nonsense, they sit and learn.”
Added
Yosef proudly, I myself, did I learn the core curriculum? Did I finish
school? Until today I don’t have a graduation certificate, not a
high-school diploma and not a graduation certificate, did I miss
anything? It’s nonsense, the most important thing is our holy Torah.
The
large majority of ultra-Orthodox boys do not study the core curriculum
of math, English, science and computer studies at elementary school
level, and the overwhelming majority do not study this curriculum at
high-school level.
Socioeconomic
experts have warned that this failure to provide a basic education to
boys in the ultra-Orthodox sector combined with the high rate of
population growth in this community means that Israel’s economy will be
imperiled in coming centuries with an inadequate workforce for the 21st
century.
The
Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah (NTA) organization panned Yosef’s comments
saying that his “disparagement of yeshiva high schools is testament to
how the chief rabbi is out of touch with the broader community that he
is supposed to serve.
The
organization said Yosef had turned himself into the rabbi of a small
group of people “who withhold from themselves and their children the
possibility of getting an education and earning an income with dignity,
and [instead] making them dependent on donations and cronyism.”
NTA
said that Yosef’s comments demonstrated the need to drastically change
the system of electing chief rabbis in order to reduce political
influence and increase public influence over the manner in which the
positions are elections.
