The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel opens with the words, “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.”
The Bible is the basis of the Jewish people’s historical connection to the Land of Israel; it is the basis of the Hebrew language, and its contents are saturated with universal human values. The state’s founders understood the importance of studying the Bible and its role as the cornerstone upon which rests the Jewish nation-state, and that is why they made Bible study a mandatory subject in the curriculum of the state education system.
Bible studies were part of the curriculum from the second grade until the high school matriculation exam in every state school throughout the country. Over the years, the study methods have changed, and the list of included chapters has been updated and changed, but the scope of learning and its definition as a mandatory core subject had not changed – until now.“
Knowledge and identity
The "Disappearing Bible Campaign” of the Meirim organization is fighting to prevent the next generation of Israelis from being robbed of this foundational part of their knowledge base and identity.
All this remained relatively consistent until 2020, with the advent of the coronavirus. The policy of closures, quarantines, and distance learning required the education system to make concessions and adjustments to the scope of the material taught, especially in high-volume subjects (literature, history, citizenship, and the Bible). One such concession was the Education Ministry’s reduction of the scope of Bible study to approximately 40% of the material previously studied.
A second change was that out of the four word-dense subjects, high schools were given the authority to choose one in which students would continue to be subject to testing by an externally administered matriculation exam (standardized, more rigorous).
Students took an internal test for the other three subjects, written and administered by the school. In the internally tested subjects, each school chose what portion of the entire syllabus, as defined by the Education Ministry, to teach. The result was that in many of the schools, they studied the Bible to a very minimal extent (sometimes even only 25% of the complete syllabus).
The pandemic ended, but the concessions remained, and the MACHAR reform (which ended Bible studies as a separate subject and instead combined it with other humanistic studies) by then-education minister Yifat Shasha-Biton was launched. This cut Bible studies even more. Although the reform was canceled, the coronavirus adjustments and concessions remained. When the war began, further dilutions were implemented. As a result, the amount of Bible material being taught is 50% of the scope of the material studied before the coronavirus.
If we don’t act now, the situation will only get worse. The ministry encourages learning through the preparation of written assignments. This began with the reform for meaningful learning during Shai Piron’s tenure as education minister, when it was decided that 30% of learning in high school would be done through research work. This trend in education methodology is gaining in popularity.
On one hand, it’s great that independent research skills are being taught, not just rote memorization of the material. On the other hand, we are in the world of AI, which has become very sophisticated indeed. The students merely input precise instructions, and AI produces the “research papers.” In this manner, the students bypass both the acquisition of research skills and the absorption of the material itself.
Bible study in the country has been reduced
The study of the Bible in the state education system has been gradually reduced and eroded. All temporary dilutions or concessions have become permanent, and the research assignments meant to encourage thinking, completely miss the mark.
The Bible has been defined by the Education Ministry itself as an essential element in the broad common denominator of the Jewish people, and the roots of the people’s culture and values derive from it.
We have been entrusted with safeguarding this most intangible yet precious national asset, which underpins everything we are as a nation. It is imperative to ensure that it is not lost or diluted over time. We must obligate the ministry to return robust Bible study to its rightful place as a permanent mandatory part of the state education curriculum in perpetuity. This will be akin to accepting the Torah anew, as we did at Mount Sinai on behalf of future generations of the people of Israel.
The writer is a private Bible teacher who tutors high school students for the matriculation exam, and is active in promoting the Bible in the education system with the Meirim organization.