Rabbi Yitzchok Yehuda Yeruslavsky, the
secretary for Chabad’s beit din in Israel and the chief rabbi of Nachlas
Har Chabad, ordered Chabad schools to join the battle against Israeli
government efforts to get haredi schools to teach Israel’s core
curriculum.
Rabbi Yitzchok Yehuda Yeruslavsky
Chabad Is No Different
Chabad Schools To Refuse Government Mandate To Teach Math, English, Secular Subjects
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Yeshiva World reports that Rabbi Yitzchok Yehuda Yeruslavsky, the secretary for Chabad’s beit din in Israel and the chief rabbi of Nachlas Har Chabad, ordered Chabad schools to join the battle against Israeli government efforts to get haredi schools to teach Israel’s core curriculum.
Yeruslavsky reportedly told Kfar Chabad Magazine that outsiders have no place deciding what will be taught in a yeshiva or heder. Yeruslavsky acknowledged that government agencies cut funding to schools that do not follow government requirements, but he said Chabad schools should not buckle under that pressure. He noted that a Chabad school in Kiryat Malachi was told by the government to add English to its curriculum. The school refused and, as a result, it lost some of its government funding. “But I am certain we acted correctly, in line with God’s will,” he said.
During these times, “when so many threats to the souls of the young pure children lurk in every corner, so many spiritual dangers, we must resist these efforts at all costs,” Yeruslavsky reportedly said.
In Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Chabad’s massive Oholei Torah yeshiva, founded by Chabad’s late rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, does not teach any secular subjects and never has, because Schneerson ordered it not to.
[Hat Tip: The Lion.]