School

B"H

The summer vacation is still on in Israel although some religious schools have already started their new year. Most Israeli kids, however, are going to start their new year in school next Tuesday (1 September). September 1, has an important tradition and even the media has been reporting about it for the past week. How the kids buy their new books, their pens or their note books.
Israel is a small country and everything seems to be so incredibly important.

The Israeli school system is not for free and I am not used to that. Where I grew up in Germany, every student receives a FREE education and only later pays a small fee; in case he is going to study at the university.

I have no clue of how religious Israeli parents can afford having all their kids in school. The national religious are probably better off than their haredi counter parts. Usually national religious parents work and have much better jobs (due to their education) than haredi parents. I am referring here to Israelis and not those academic Haredim who made Aliyah from abroad !
I was told that if religious parents get a reduction when they have a few children at the same school. But still, how do haredi parents manage buying all these new books, pens, backpacks or note books ?

September 1 always means a financial disaster for parents and right afterward, ususally Rosh HaShana (Jewish New Year) starts and the holiday is another financial chaos. Nevertheless, education is important in any society today. Our ancestors probably understood this very well in their times. Just look at the Rambam or the Vilna Gaon who knew any kind of science including mathematics and astronomy. Today, unfortunately, especially Israeli haredi education has a total lack of those studies and thus qualified people. Just look at the Bagrut (high school degree) of the haredi girl's school Beit Yaakov: Here the girls finish school with a Bagrut but it is a special one and not accepted at Israeli universities. Their national religious counterparts or the secular finish off with a regular Bagrut and are allowed to go to the universities.

What kind of a life has an female Israeli haredi woman ? From the beginning limited in her education ?
Okay, her goal is to have a family but nevertheless, if any of the those girls has the abilities, why not developing her G - d given qualities ?