On yeshivas and universities
Op-ed: Interior Minister Aryeh Deri's new move, equalizing the status of yeshiva and college students when it comes to municipal jobs, is another step that disguises preferential treatment to yeshiva students as the promotion of equality.
We should take note of the fact that this is great news for about half of the ultra-Orthodox public, since women are forbidden from studying in kolels or becoming rabbis. This is, of course, not due to any intellectual deficits with ultra-Orthodox women, but due to the ultra-Orthodox sector's unequal perception of the two sexes.
This little fact also shows us why the Interior Minister's revolutionary move is actually a step backwards. "It cannot be," Deri said, "that a (young person) who finishes a degree in the humanities will be able to contend and be selected, and would be favored ahead of a (yeshiva student) who studied and (continued his education) in Judaism." Why not? Perhaps because the humanities are nonsense, and there's no real reason for those studying non-academic nonsense to be thought of as less valuable than the nonsense college graduates.
Or maybe it's that Mr. Deri doesn't care what you study, just that you do. And maybe it doesn't really matter very much to him how your studies go: Lots of exams, very few exams; many papers, few papers; a closed study community that learns obedience, an open community that learns the proper implementation of doubt—it may just all be the same to the interior minister. What's important is that you "study."
Those who doubt this is truly good news can always be appeased with the ultimate ultra-Orthodox carrot used to sooth secular Israelis: This is one of many incentives the state can give ultra-Orthodox men to cause them to willingly take a break from their holy unemployment schedules and join the job market. If you dare hint that these same men should go serve in the military, they will surely be insulted and return to the kolel.
If you were to tell these men that studying a serious profession (let's say, computer science, not the humanities) would mean conforming with the secular world's rules, according to which they must study and make a living—which would mean accepting the tutelage of teachers with two X chromosomes, studying in the same class as women, and generally playing by rules that all those not in their holy group already must abide—they will be insulted and return to their kolels, and you secular people will have to provide for them till the end of time. You've been warned.
The problem with Deri's reform is that it distorts equality under the guise of providing equal opportunities. First, it determines that different types of knowledge are all equally valuable; it determines that there's no difference between modern universities and their development of new knowledge and the ancient, static nature of ancient religious texts; it doesn't distinguish between academic standards of testing and screening processes and the way kolels conduct their business.
If we go by Deri's logic, why not call those who have studied Maimonides' medical book a doctor—on the condition that they be certified by other people who've also studied the same books? After all, it's inconceivable that a young person who finished medical school should be seen as having a higher degree of importance to someone who studied books by one of the greatest Jewish religious thinkers in history. You can legitimately claim that a college degree shouldn’t be required for "quality positions" in municipalities. You cannot, however, claim that these two sets of knowledge are equivalent.
Second, Deri's move isn't meant to give acknowledgement to a valuable knowledge base—it seems obvious that he believes the knowledge gathered during studies at a yeshiva is much more valuable than that accumulated by university students—but is just another clever maneuver meant to allow yeshiva students to have their cake and eat it too, as well as allowing rabbis to keep their flocks in their grasp—since they will now hold the power to determine who gets "quality" municipal jobs and who doesn't.
These rabbis have already decided that no woman is qualified. You can once again look the other way. You can keep maintaining the crumbling yeshiva world, with women—as always—losing out on the benefits. But I ask you: Isn't it time we opened our eyes?
