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In ultra-Orthodox Israeli societies, the male leadership controls sources of knowledge and education. The women are directed towards fields of knowledge regarding education and social welfare, so that they will remain in a home environment. Even when working outside the home. In contrast, this article will demonstrate that there is an ultra-Orthodox society in Israel, in which the male political and spiritual leadership encourages women to acquire an academic and professional education so they will be able to fulfill themselves and make a respectable living. The test case is the leadership of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party and its attitude to women's education and their employment outside the community. The article will also demonstrate that despite the modern values of education and employment, the men's hierarchical status is retained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the reasons why countries change their educational policies, using Israel as a case study. Employing quantitative and qualitative methods, I show that political constraints can cause governments to modify their educational policies without professional pedagogical discourse. Using the example of the ultra-Orthodox ethnic political party Shas, I demonstrate how--thanks to the political power that the party had gained, as well as the weakening of nationalist values--it succeeded in establishing a network of party schools with state funding despite the fact that some of these schools teach neither the state's values nor the core curriculum determined by the Ministry of Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic-religious communities of memory have been active in Israel for the past twenty years. These are peripheral communities with their activity concentrated around sacred burial sites. They utilize and fashion their ethnic-religious memories according to their political requirements, so as to create communities. This study will introduce three such communities in Israel and describe the circumstances surrounding their establishment and operating methods. We will discuss communities of Libyan, Moroccan and Tunisian origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maayan Hahinuch Hatorani is a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) educational network for elementary aged children in Israel, founded by Shas, a Sephardi ultra-Orthodox political party. The network's beginnings were in the second half of the 1980s, during the Shas' first Knesset term. It then consisted of around 30 smallTalmudei Torah(Haredi elementary schools for boys), set up independently by Sephardi Haredi educational activists. This article describes their motives and activities in establishing schools for the Mizrahi community and explains the decisive contribution of two additional factors to the establishment of Maayan Hahinuch Hatorani: the senior Sephardi rabbis who awarded religious legitimacy, and the Shas Movement which provided political and financial support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the ethnic religious politics in Israel in reference to the Shas Party, an ultra-orthodox religious political party in Israel. It informs that the party was founded by ultra-Orthodox rabbis, second generation Jewish immigrants from the Arab countries. It mentions the reasons for the success of the political party and mentions that the Shas Movement began in Jerusalem in 1983. It informs that the strength of Shah Movements lies with the citizens who are culturally, religiously and economically inferior. It reflects the reasons for the political organization of second-generation immigrants from Arab countries.

The current study examined trends regarding religion and spirituality among Jewish and Bedouin female students studying education and sciences at Achva Academic College, a rural secular college in southern Israel. The Bedouin women all originated from an isolationist traditional society, vigilantly maintained over many years. Contrastingly, the Jewish women come from a secular or traditional society, which is not isolationist. Science and education are two completely different worlds of content. Science studies include analytical research, with the students carrying out experiments in laboratories and within the community, whereas education studies focus on pedagogy and transfer of knowledge. The study employed a questionnaire with Likert items regarding religion and spirituality. We found the Bedouin students were more religious than the Jewish ones, but spirituality levels were similar. This finding indicated that the Bedouin students have indeed broken down the barriers to academic education, but still have retained their traditional community framework. Likewise, we found that the students of science were less observant of religious practices in comparison to those studying education, but they were similar regarding spirituality and the theoretical aspects of religion. This finding showed that practical aspects of religion can be a factor influencing the choice of field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]