Meirim
Returning Jewish Identity
to the National Education System
Background on the establishment of Meirim
The State Education Law in the State of Israel states that the goals of the education system are:
"To educate a person to be a lover of his/her fellow man, a lover of his People, a lover of his country, a loyal citizen to the State of Israel, who respects his parents and his family, his heritage, his cultural identity and his language."
Contrary to the language of the law, we find in almost all schools, within the curricula, extreme progressive agendas that achieve the opposite of the goals of this law.
Meirim survey
(The survey was carried out by Maagar Mochot – Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting Institute Ltd. under the direction of Prof. Yitzhak Katz in December 2023. 500 respondents participated in the survey by telephone and an internet panel. The size of the statistical error is 4.4% with a confidence level of 95%.)
The problem is also well reflected in the survey we conducted among parents and teachers in the education system:
Results of the public school teacher survey:
- 80% of the teachers do not think that the current curriculum in the education system provides students with a foundation in the heritage of the Jewish people.
- A clear majority of the teachers (83%) think that the school where they teach should teach more about the heritage of the Jewish people.
Data from the survey regarding parents of children enrolled in public schools:
- 66% of parents feel connected to their Zionist-Jewish roots and identity, however they think that only 32% of their children feel this way.
- Only 27% of parents think that the education curriculum provides a sufficient foundation to students in Jewish subjects such as (Jewish thought, history, Zionism, Bible, etc).
The results of the survey indicate:
The majority of Israeli citizens feel connected to their Jewish identity and want their children to be given strong roots based on knowledge of heritage and tradition, regardless of any observation of mitzvot.
In light of the events of 7.10, parents and teachers became even more aware of the need to do a much better job at providing a strong Jewish identity to Israel’s youth.
The "Meirim" organization is comprised of parents from the center of the country who have joined together to give a voice to the, until recently, silent majority of Israeli parents who are interested in a well-rounded education for their children that includes all aspects of Jewish heritage, along the lines of which Israel had been educating its children in previous generations.
Modus operandi:
To reverse these troubling trends, we work in the following manner:
- On the individual school level – Establishing and supporting parent committees from around the country to work to influence school principals and teachers
- Creating professional educational content with quality lesson plans and content based on the Torah of Israel and traditional Jewish sources to be used by the schools
- On the political/legislative level – Engaging in parliamentary activity that leverages public pressure from the parents to influence the Minister of Education and members of the Knesset to support our agenda.
The leadership of the organization:
Dorit Yitzhak
CEO of Meirim, mother of four from Tel Aviv, holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Tel Aviv University and a master's degree student in Public Policy, director of a Chinese medicine clinic, and is a social activist..
Roni Sassover, Adv.
Chairman of Meirim, mother of four from Tel Aviv, holds a bachelor's degree in law and business administration from Reichman University, social activist, candidate for the 24th Knesset, delegate to the Zionist Congress, and is a member of the executive committee.
Goals for 2024:
- In each of ten selected cities, establish parent committees in ten schools (100 schools, together containing a total of 80,000 students).
- Increase parliamentary involvement via an oversight body to evaluate the decisions of the Ministry of Education and to block their attempts at removing Jewish and traditional content from the curriculum.
- Launch additional campaigns in the public space to increase public pressure on decision-makers.
