Should bible studies remain in Israeli public schools? Teachers' attitudes towards bible teaching as a mandatory subject

Religious Education, Spring 2003 by Idalovichi, Israel

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview and analysis of attitudes of Israeli K-12 educators and bible teachers toward religious studies. Teachers' attitudes toward bible teaching as a mandatory subject are, on the whole, positive throughout the country. The present study addresses the absence of systematic research into the opinions of bible teachers, their worldviews and critical thinking, and how these impact their teaching in practice. The author's findings were integrated within the formulation of a theoretical framework that examined the mainstreams in the cultural-religious structure of Israeli society. Bible studies appear to serve functional needs, and their presence in the Israeli school curriculum is motivated by pragmatic values, not necessarily by religious passion.

SOCIOCULTURAL BACKGROUND

The cultural-religious worldviews of the bible teachers and educators participating in my survey were influenced by the general cultural-religious debates which have taken place since Israel gained independence in 1948, and even prior to the establishment of the State.

Much of Israeli society is situated at the intersection between two extremist rival camps engaged in a cultural-religious war of opposing worldviews. One side would like to see the country continue to exist as a Jewish state-reinforcing its religious identity; the opposing side believes Zionism-the foundation upon which the Jewish state is based-has lost its utility, vitality, and relevance, is an idea whose time has passed. At the extremes, the first worldview draws its strongest support from traditional Jews whose lives and values are tied to the fundamentalist roots of Orthodox Judaism; the latter, "post-Zionist" position, is championed by the extreme left-wing of the secular middleclass and former socialist political elite, who wish to replace Jewish particularism, which they view as narrow-minded, with the ideal of a universal Western man, similar to the "enlightened" European intellectual (Levi, Levinson, and Katz 1993).

In many ways, one of the deepest rifts in Israeli society today is not so much between political left and right, as it is between the forces of religious extremists, particularly the rising voice of radical fundamentalists, and the forces of democratic pragmatists who preach progress based solely on rational, utilitarian considerations (Eisenstadt 1992).

The politicization of religion in Israel (i.e., in general, Israel is a highly politicized society where almost any subject ends up in the political arena) has exacerbated divisions between secular and religious Jews in a host of spheres-including education. Thus, one of the educational issues hotly debated today focuses on the role of religious studies in the Israeli K-12 curriculum. Camps are split among those calling for removal of religious studies, those calling for a fundamental "pluralistic" reform in content, and those calling for an increase in the relative weight of traditional religious studies within the curriculum (Bar-Lev and Katz 1991).

Issues of religious freedom and the relationship between state and religion are subjects of deep concern to the Israeli education system. Bible and religious studies are mandatory in every public school in Israel1 although some teachers and parents appear to believe that if a certain subject with which some people might disagree is taught, such studies are undemocratic.

Indicative of this outlook, Amy Gutmann (1987) claims that in a democratic society only secular reasoning is acceptable:

In a religiously diverse society, secular standards of reasoning accommodate greater agreement upon common education than religious faith. The case for teaching secular but not religious standards of reasoning . . . rests ... on the claim that secular standards constitute a better basis upon which to build a common education for citizenship than any set of sectarian religious beliefs-better because secular standards are both a fairer and firmer basis for peacefully reconciling our (American) differences. (103)

The view that the Ministry of Education should eliminate direct instruction of the Bible in public schools in favor of culturally-oriented overviews of all religious groups in Israeli society is one of the most recent controversies (though probably not the last) to be placed on the political agenda. Religious activities and bible studies extend well beyond the range of specifically moral concerns. The Orthodox establishment advocates policies that support a growing and more vocal commitment to Jewish religiosity. For adherents of Jewish Orthodox culture, the Holy Scriptures are of paramount value by virtue of their being a work of divine design. For the Orthodox, the problem is that the study of the Bible-rather than canonical commentaries-might suggest that there is more than one way to the Jewish religion. The Bible, perceived as a holy text rooted in absolute wisdom, relegates other human knowledge to the inferior status of historiography, philology, and logic. Traditional believers typically have argued that religious teachings provide the larger context within which morality finds its proper place.