Chair: Robin Horn, Former World Bank Education Manager and Chair of the 1818 Society Education Alumni Group
Presenter: Laurence Wolff, Former World Bank education staff
Discussant: Harry Patrinos, Practice Manager, Education Global Practice, World Bank
Description: Israeli society is divided between Arabs and Jews and between religious and non- religious Jews. Reflecting these divisions, primary and secondary education consists of four separate sub-systems – three Jewish ones – “secular,” “orthodox”, and “ultra-orthodox” and one Arab one, where the language of instruction is Arabic. Children in the different sub-systems not only do not meet each other but are educated towards different values, ranging from Israel as a liberal and multinational democracy to Israel as a state based on Jewish religious law. Over the last few decades, efforts have been made to encourage greater tolerance within and outside the school system, including the teaching of secular subjects in ultra-orthodox schools and efforts to support engagement between Jewish and Arab students and between secular and religious Jewish students. While these innovations are promising, there are deep challenges as well to education as a force for cohesion. As other countries around the world seek to build social cohesion in conditions of religious, ethnic, linguistic, and educational divisions or conflicts, an understanding of Israel’s situation, including its positive efforts, can be enlightening.
About the Speaker:
Laurence Wolff. From 1974-1998, Laurence Wolff was a senior World Bank education specialist where he worked on analytic and operational work in the LCR, MNA, and AFR regions.
He subsequently consulted and provided advisory support for the Interamerican Development Bank, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and non-profit think tanks including PREAL. He has written and published widely on education policy issues and reform in Africa and Latin America as well as on education, religion, and pluralism in Israel. Currently he works closely in support of a well-known reform synagogue in Tel Aviv (Beit Daniel), which was built by his in-laws and is named after them.
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