Israel's Education Minister adds Bible Studies to core elementary school curriculum

But Education Minister Yoav Kisch has now added Bible to the list of core curriculum subjects that must be taught throughout the year. The other subjects on this list are Hebrew, English, science, math and physical education.

Middle schools currently have more flexibility, and some choose not to teach Bible at all in certain grades while offering more intensive courses in others. Kisch initially sought to require them to teach Bible in every grade as well, but ultimately backed down.

Under the previous education minister, Yifat Shasha-Biton, false reports circulated on social media claiming that the ministry doesn’t define Bible as a mandatory subject. To support the claims, some of these reports included photos of a course schedule that didn’t include Bible, but that was only because the schools in question taught Bible more intensively in other grades.

When Kisch took office, he claimed that Shasha-Biton’s reform of the matriculation exams last year had removed Bible and history from the mandatory high-school curriculum, but that was also false. The reform only changed the exam format; the curriculum itself was unchanged.

In April, Kisch said the Education Ministry considers Bible studies to be of the utmost importance and wants to expand them: “There is great value to studying the humanities and culture, first and foremost, of course, the Bible,” he said at the finals of the annual International Bible Contest, held on Independence Day.

He added that the move was "not about religionization, but about strengthening our connection to our history and our sources.” Kisch has frequently talked about this issue in internal ministry forums as well, where he sought to determine what steps the ministry could take to bolster the subject’s status.

Shira Kadari-Ovadia