Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Education Ministry Overturns Decision To Cut Civics Budget

The education policy debate — most notably the decision to cut funding for the high school civics curriculum in favor of increased spending on Bible studies — in Israel last week is turning out to be rather uncivil.

The decision — overturned after national uproar — reflects Israel’s ongoing internal discussion over the limitations of operating as a “Jewish democratic state,” and whether or not those two qualifications are inexorably polarizing. The new funding cuts would have given high school students less opportunity to learn about democracy and government; some schools most likely would have shut down their programs. Even with the policy reversal, the civics budget, according to Haaretz, “will still be about half as last year’s.”

A stated goal of the new education minister, Gideon Sa’ar, has been to introduce more Jewish studies programs, according to the Los Angeles Times. That means more time spent on yeshiva-style learning, like Tanakh and Talmud, as well as Jewish philosophy.

Naturally, some teachers thought the changes were to discourage debate over democratic citizenship and discrimination. “It is not possible to sweep under the carpet the rifts in Israeli society,” one civics teachers told Haaretz.

Israeli civics classes, teachers argue, are meant to engage students head-on with the country’s often-divisive social fabric. “There are raucous discussions in class, but they are genuine because they touch on issues that are among the most painful in society,” another teacher said. “This is how I was taught education should be. The Education Ministry decision to cut the support says that the subject of civics is too risky for the pupils, that there should be no challenge to accepted views.”

The decision to overturn the funding shift couldn’t have come at a better time. A Tel Aviv University poll last week of Israeli teens 15 to 18 shows that 64 percent believe Arab Israelis “do not enjoy full equal rights in Israel.” More startling, however, is that 59 percent of that group is okay with that. Twenty-three percent said they wouldn’t want to share a classroom with homosexuals and 50 percent of the 500 respondents said the same of Arab students.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.