The letters I didn’t send

Dear Sir,

You were wrong when you wrote that “I’ll very likely throw out your letter without even reading it.” I am always happy to receive letters from the ultra-Orthodox community, as I still believe that we must engage in dialogue.

You are also wrong to write that the demand to include core subjects in the school curriculum threatens your children. Nobody is interested in imparting to them values that you do not believe in through “the back door.”

In fact, the word “core” is misleading. We are not talking about the hardcore of education or its ideological premise – rather, it happens to be the Hebrew acronym of “basic studies in the national education system.”

It may surprise you, but I am willing to forego, to begin with, any attempt to impart values at your children’s school. I will be satisfied if in exchange for the (outrageous) sums of money handed over to these schools by the State every month, your children will study English, Math, computer science, and Hebrew.

There is no secret conspiracy to bring them over to the Zionist side, but rather, merely an attempt to provide them with tools that one of these days will allow them to turn into productive citizens.

I fail to understand what is so wrong about that. All over the world, we see religious Jews working and making a living for themselves and their families; why shouldn’t your children do that too?

Yet if you are still uninterested in this arrangement, why are you so surprised that I’m unwilling to foot the bill? I am the one who pays for your son’s education, and I am at least allowed to ask that I no longer need to sponsor him after he completes his studies.