The Education, Culture and Sports Committee held on Monday a debate on the confiscation of tefillin from pupils in schools.
Committee Chair MK Yosef Taieb (Shas) said, “I asked to hold this discussion following motions for the agenda that arrived at my desk, and in light of the four cases in which pupils who wanted to wrap tefillin in school were prevented from doing so.”
A pupil who was suspended for putting on tefillin on school grounds said, “After October 7, we did not study for two months, and I decided that something needed to be done to help the soldiers who were fighting on several fronts. I suggested to my classmates at Ohel Shem [school] in Ramat Gan that they contribute money, and we bought tefillin, which I placed in the school corridor because it is not something that should not be hidden. Later, the tefillin were confiscated by the principal. I was shocked. He told me that no student is permitted to wear tefillin at school. The next day, following an outcry in the country, he was forced to return them to me, but claimed they were lost.”
MK Gilad Kariv (Labor) said, “What happened in that school was a cynical political campaign organized by Otzma Yehudit, meant to create supposed friction in state schools, where there was no real friction, to create the impression that the educational space persecutes students who wish to perform mitzvahs. I say that no student should be prevented from performing mitzvahs, but it must be said that the school environment is not the place to conduct a political campaign in the name of Jewish mitzvahs. This must be blocked.”
MK Kariv said that following the incident, he spoke with the principal and other administrators in the school and in the Ramat Gan Municipality. “A convicted criminal broke into the principal’s office and threatened him. The Ministry of Education prevented the principal from speaking to the media about the incident,” he said.
During the discussion, Ministry of Education Deputy Director General Eyal Ben Zaken refused to disclose the findings of the inquiry into the incident at Ohel Shem. This drew criticism from Members of Knesset, who demanded a full report rather than just the ministry’s general policy. Committee Chair MK Taieb demanded that the ministry provide the committee with the findings of the inquiries into the cases. He also announced that another discussion would be held after receiving the information, and demanded that an answer on whether the student’s rights were violated will be provided by then. Ben Zaken said the Ministry of Education was working to include the issue in the director general’s circular, “but the war disrupted our schedule, and I cannot commit to a timeline.”
Holding tefillin in his hand, Minister of Heritage MK Amichay Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit) said, “I hold in my hand the tefillin of grandfather Gedaliah. [The tefillin] survived the Holocaust and were placed on the hands of a group of Jewish people in the ghetto – against the Germans and against all those who tried to wipe out the Jewish people. When I hold it in my hands, I cannot understand how anyone dares to harm this symbol of the Jewish people.”
MK Osher Shkalim (Likud), who initiated the debate along with other MKs, said “Wrapping tefillin in school should not be [viewed as an act of] defiance. It is the most natural act in the world. Anyone who tries to prevent it should understand that this act is not directed against him. Rather, [it is performed] to inculcate the [Jewish heritage] for generations to come.”
A graduate of a high school in the Sharon region said, “It began during Pride Month, when the school hung the Pride flag and pupils took it down and placed a tefillin stand beneath it, as an act of defiance against the community. There is no reason for mass wrapping of tefillin. It is a religious practice that should be between a person and his creator. I saw pupils yelling at other pupils who did not want to put on tefillin, telling them they were not Jews. This is coercion. Wrapping tefillin has long since become something that is more political than faith-based. I expressed my opinion, and was chastised for it, also by the school’s administration.”
At the conclusion of the debate, Committee Chair MK Taieb called upon the Ministry of Education to designate special areas in schools for putting on tefillin, and to allow every pupil to express his faith any way he chooses.
