Religious education in israel

The value of education in Jewish tradition is without comparison. Jewish communities were the first to introduce compulsory education for which the organized institutions, not less than the parents, were responsible. The rift within Jewish society, starting with the Renaissance and Enlightenment and continuing with Zionism, circled to a large extent around the issue of education. Segments of the Jewish people that were attracted by the Enlightenment Movement changed the curriculum at school. So did the segments that followed Zionism. The Orthodox circles, feeling threatened by these new trends, closed themselves off from the outer world and clung to the traditional teachings. They, moreover, kept their children from being influenced by the outside world.