9
WHERE PROFESSIONAL SERVICE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE!
Shas' school curricula include secu-
lar classes, but schools with a strictly
haredi student body place more
emphasis on Judaic studies. The com-
mon denominator in all the schools is
to keep a close watch on the children,
even when they are not in school.
"We take care of the children day
and night, in and out of their homes,
and that is one of the secrets of our
success," said Yitzhak Kakon,
spokesman for the Shas education net-
work. "We are in very close contact
with parents. We check if the children
have enough to eat, or if there is
domestic violence.
"We are making a big contribution
to the state and saving people from
crime and drugs," Kakon said. "We
can't understand why everyone is out
to get us.
But Naomi Hazan, a member of
Knesset from the liberal Meretz Party,
said there is more to Shas than meets
the eye. Its schools, she said, enjoy
state funding but do not permit
Ministry of Education inspectors to
supervise educational content.
Sharabi, the Talmud Torah principal,
rejected the criticism and showed JTA
an official Education Ministry license
that states his school is supervised.
The ministry says there is supervi-
sion — by Orthodox inspectors only.
Inspectors or not, what worries many
secular Israelis is what the children are
being taught behind closed doors.
This is a special concern, Hazan
said, because the movement has persis-
tently challenged the legitimacy of the
institutions of Israeli civil society.
"The most important and funda-
mental issue is clearly the issue of rule
of law," Hazan said. "There is a clash of
world views. Shas is unwilling to accept
the supremacy of civil law and ... that
undermines the entire foundation of
democratic government in this society."
Indeed, according to the Yediot
Achronot newspaper, a Shas pirate
radio station this week called on its
listeners to take to the streets and
launch a violent struggle against Shas'
secular enemies.
"If we must slaughter, we will
slaughter," said broadcaster Boaz
Arnon, in warning Supreme Court
judges that God would kill them.
Sharabi said his students are not
taught citizenship classes like in other
schools. "But they are taught that
Jewish law gives legitimacy to a gov-
ernment to make order in society —
so long as there is no conflict with the
halacha," or Jewish law, he said.
"When there is a conflict with secular
law
such as our objection to allow-
7)
ing Reform conversions in Israel —
our students know that the halacha
will always prevail."
What also bothers Hazan of the lib-
eral Meretz Party is that Shas institu-
tions use funding methods that allow
it to enjoy support from several min-
istries, and offer services at far lower
costs than elsewhere. Shas claims its
schools are provided proportionately
less funds than secular and modern
Orthodox state schools.
"Shas is an organization that breeds
on poverty and perpetuates that pover-
ty in order to increase their political
power," Hazan said. "Fundamentalist
organizations such as Hamas do exact-
ly the same thing — they build educa-
tional institutions and provide cradle
to grave services that people cannot
afford."
Experts say the proliferation of
Shas' education and welfare network is
the result ofgovernment failure.
"The enormous growth of Shas
marks the failure of the 'melting pot'
concept of Israeli society," said
Moshe Lissak, a professor emeritus
of sociology at Hebrew University in
Jerusalem.
The problems stem from the early
years of the state, and the widespread
perception among Sephardim that the
Labor Party's Ashkenazi-dominated
elite had treated their people as sec-
ond-class citizens.
Lissak pointed out that although
Likud was in power for most of the
past 22 years, and the party was con-
sidered more sympathetic toward the
Sephardim, it failed to make the right
investments to bridge the socioeco-
nomic gaps.
"Since 1977, when Likud came to
power, the gaps between Ashkenazim
and Sephardim have grown wider,"
said Lissak.
This was an invitation for an orga-
nization like Shas to fill the vacuum.
"It was particularly successful,"
explained Lissak, because of the corn-
bination of a respected spiritual leader
like Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and an extra-
ordinarily talented political leader like
Deri, who both disseminated a funda-
mentalist message of a Sephardi cul-
tural renaissance.
Tapping into ethnic frustration, the
needs of the poor and a thirst for
Judaism was a strategy that has
allowed Shas to flourish.
"For us, the party is a means
toward fulfilling a bigger agenda. For
other groups, the party is the goal,"
said Kakon, the Shas education
spokesman. "This is why Shas cannot
be crushed." Fj
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