The Ultra-Orthodox Community in Israel and the Right to an Exclusively Religious Education

תקציר

In 2008 the Israeli parliament passed the Unique Cultural Educational Institutions Act which allows Ultra Orthodox (UO) high schools for boys not to teach their students any part of the mandatory state core curriculum while still being generously funded by the state. These schools have for years restricted their curriculum strictly to religious studies, since according to UO ideology the study of the Torah is every man’s highest obligation and is the equivalent of all other religious commandments. The article questions the soundness of the Act from comparative and theoretical perspectives and especially in light of the unique circumstances of the UO community in Israel, and the distinctive relations between religion and state that exist in this country. While it is customary to compare the situation of the UO minority in Israel to that of religious minorities in western liberal states, I will argue that although such a comparison may expose some of the shortcomings of the Act, only a deeper analysis of the illiberal nature of religion state relations in Israel and of the central role that the UO community holds in the Israeli religious establishment and in its politics can fully capture the flawed nature of the Act.