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

Religious Education, Spring 2003 by Idalovichi, Israel

Even those secular Israelis who have adopted classic Jewish wisdom (Maimonides, Spinoza, Freud, H. Cohen, Buber, Rozenzweig, etc.) have not denied their universal social-cultural life. Some hold that the return to the Jewish bookshelf amounts to self-abnegation in the face of the ultra-Orthodox; while other argue that it is no more than a broadening of people's cultural horizons. More militant secular Israelis say it is a welcome return to roots and yet others claim it is part of the tactic to "know your enemy." Looking at Judaism in a more comprehensive manner and realizing that religion does not exist on a separate, artificial plain but rather takes into account the whole Jew with all his thoughts and feelings, may pave the way for vital but cautious development in the realm of Jewish culture.

STUDY METHODS AND OBJECTIVES

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview and analysis of attitudes of K-12 educators and bible teachers toward bible studies. The underlying assumption that motivated this study was that teaching of bible studies in Israel reflects a conservative worldview of the educational establishment that assigns biblical texts a role in providing social and cultural cohesion. Moreover, those who choose to become bible teachers come, for the most part, from conservative backgrounds and they themselves hold a conservative outlook in general.

There is a huge literature of different historical schools of bible criticism as well as a large body of literature on teachers' predispositions, attitudes, and values (i.e., Feiman-Nemser and Beasley 1992, 1997; Feiman-Nemser and Featherstone 1992). However, the purpose of this research was to find out what are the attitudes of bible teachers toward their subject in Israeli schools. Israel is one of the few democratic countries where the Bible is a mandatory subject and most of the teachers are not religious persons. These teachers, who are not religious persons said clear and loud that it is hard to carry a true dialogue between the biblical text and both Israeli social-political reality and Western civilization. There are other controversial discussions about different episodes in Jewish and Israeli history, which developed themselves on the same paths as in other Western countries. However, from my point of view, the situation of bible teachers in Israel is in certain forms unique and therefore it is very important to acquire more information and knowledge about their worldviews and educational attitudes. Consequently, it is hard to make any comparison with other societies, which are either fundamentalist societies or Western societies where the Bible is not a mandatory subject in every school.

Sample

The sample consisted of 64 bible teachers, chosen by area and type of school from the southern part of Israel. This particular area of Israel is considered to be at a lower socioeconomic and educational level than other districts of the country. Each teacher was interviewed, based on a special questionnaire.