Sefardi Program In State Schools

Following recommendations of a panel established by Education Minister Naftali Bennett two years ago, Israel schools will include twelve key elements of the Sefardi tradition in the state curriculum.

These will include Rav Ovadiah’s Yosef’s legacy, the Damascus Blood Libel, the Zionist underground in Iraq, the religious culture of Middle East Jews, the Old City’s Mugrabim neighborhood, West Yerushalayim’s old Bucharim neighborhood, the life of the great 17th century Yemenite Moroccan paytan Rav Shalom Shavzi, the forcible conversion of the Jews of Mashad and Persia and the destruction of North Africa’s Jewish communities.

“I am proud of this program that has finally done justice and given Sefardi Jewry its proper place in the history of the State of Israel,” Bennett said.

A survey undertaken by the Smith Institute among secular and traditional Israeli Jews found that fifty percent of them are interested in their children getting a Jewish education.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}