Education Min. now seeking to adopt Leviev Jewish identity program

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If your identity is something that has to be educated into you, is really your identity?

In a stark turnaround, the Education Ministry is in advanced negotiations with the Lev Leviev Foundation to approve its Zman Masa (Journey Time) program for bolstering Jewish identity.

For the past two years the ministry steadfastly objected to using the program in state elementary schools, but it has approved it for the upcoming school year under two key conditions: The course booklets must undergo major revisions, and the program must be taught by faculty members or student teachers, not Orthodox teachers from outside.

Sources at the Leviev Foundation said the curriculum material is being rewritten, and that they hope to secure the necessary permits by mid-August. However, it remains unclear whether the program will indeed be taught exclusively by secular teachers. This past school year, Zman Masa was taught at 66 elementary schools in Rishon Letzion, Netanya, Petah Tikva and Beit Shemesh. The Leviev Foundation covers the cost of instruction hours (two hours a week) and course materials. The foundation previously submitted two versions of the program for Education Ministry approval, and both were rejected, partly on the grounds that they take an Orthodox approach.

When ministry officials met in late April to discuss the matter, pedagogic secretariat head Prof. Anat Zohar said that "the essential concept was not amended," and "the program is written from the viewpoint of faith, observing the commandments, and accepting God's sovereignty." Another official at the meeting said there had been "'patchwork' revisions, not a change of concept."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1003478.html