Outgoing Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton informed her successor on Sunday that a dispute with Poland over the content of Holocaust education in major Israeli schools, whose visits were canceled, had been resolved, and said remaining security considerations would be resolved in the coming years. Days.
For his part, newly installed Education Minister Yoav Kisch announced that he would oppose a primary replacement of the school enrollment formula that Shasha-Biton had struggled to introduce, but had not yet been implemented.
“I have a wonder for you,” Shasha-Biton told Kisch at a classic rite of delivery held at the Ministry of Education in Jerusalem.
“For the past few months, we have been working with the Shin Bet [security service] regarding content and security disputes when we travel to Poland, and we have resolved the content issue,” Shasha-Biton said.
Shasha-Biton said that in the coming days, officials also expect security issues.
“I hope that in the near future, the efforts will pay off and the [high school] teams will be on the road again,” Shasha-Biton said.
In June, Israel canceled education in Poland for thousands of students from top schools.
The Foreign Ministry said at the time that the Polish government was considering the Holocaust curriculum being taught to children.
There is no comment from the Foreign Ministry on Shasha-Biton’s announcement.
In addition, the Polish government had refused to allow Shin Bet security agents to bring weapons into its territory, contrary to the practice of previous years, according to a report by the Walla news site.
The cancellation of Holocaust school trips had reignited long-standing tensions between the two countries over Poland’s remedy for its Jewish citizens from the Holocaust.
Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said on Twitter at the time that “the existing formula of organized trips of young Israelis to Poland demands adjustments due to systematic disorders that lead to the reinforcement of false stereotypes, which has a negative effect on Poland. “-Israeli relations. “
In October, the Ministry of Education warned personal corporations to oppose any attempt to set options for students.
Young Jewish Israelis historically went to Poland in the summer between grades 11 and 12, visiting former Nazi camps to learn more about the Holocaust and commemorate those murdered. The holiday has long been regarded as a rite of passage into Israeli education, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, some 40,000 Israeli academics participated each year.
Poland, the first country invaded and occupied by the regime of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, never had a collaborationist government. Members of the Polish resistance and the government-in-exile fought to warn the world of the Jews’ bloodbath, and thousands of Poles risked their lives. lives to help the Jews.
However, Holocaust researchers have collected enough evidence of Polish villagers who murdered Jews fleeing the Nazis, or of Polish blackmailers who preyed on defenseless Jews for monetary gain. Six million Jews, adding up to almost all of Poland’s approximately 3 million Jews, were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. the Holocaust, and the main Nazi death camps were in Poland.
These accounts of mourning have been a great tension between Israel and Poland.
Kisch, a Likud deputy who assumes his first portfolio as a full minister, spoke of the Education Ministry in “strengthening Jewish identity,” a key slogan of the new coalition.
He also announced that he would oppose a board reform that Shasha-Biton had tried to implement.
“It is no secret to anyone that we are going down the same path and the Ministry of Education is going to restore direction,” he said.
“I intend to act to oppose the outgoing government’s resolution to remove humanities studies, adding Bible and history, from the high school curriculum,” Kisch said. “We will reintegrate those subjects into the curricula of the best schools and baccalaureate. “
In fact, subjects were not removed from the curriculum in the adjustments announced last February, but exams in those and some other subjects would be replaced through internal tests and grades at each school.
During his own speech, Shasha-Biton chided Kisch for listening to what he had to say.
“Listen,” she said. This will save you a lot of time to move forward. “
Kisch, in response, fired: “We’ve been listening to you for a year and a half. “
Kisch added that he will seek to introduce flexible education for all children aged 0 to 3, as stipulated in coalition agreements, and will pay special attention to special education.
She said the case is close to her center because her son, who died at age 13, had special needs.
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