How many North American Jews are they going to alienate before they realise they are causing harm to a relationship that is very important to them?
Today’s charming story is about the Education Ministry continuing to refuse to accept Yeshiva U degrees. Yale and Harvard accept them, but apparently in Israel the standards are higher than at Yale and Harvard.
The Education Ministry is still not recognizing Yeshiva University degrees, more than a year after former minister Limor Livnat pledged to solve the problem.
After the issue was first reported in Haaretz, and a number of key politicians, including Livnat, rushed to the media and pledged their immediate assistance. In a March 2005 letter to YU President Richard Joel, Livnat said that the ministry would reach a “comprehensive solution whereby all Yeshiva University degrees are certified by the ministry.”
But now a new minister is at the helm, and two more YU graduates who immigrated to Israel have had their degrees rejected.
Way to charm supporters of Israel, guys. Let us know when you need your next donation or named building. Wait, I know, let’s encourage aliyah.
It’s pure bureacratic BS. The bureacrats are actually incredibly jealous of American success and don’t want US aliya because it’s a threat. They also don’t know how to discern between real academic degrees (and, while I have my problems with YU academically, it is an accredited institution and highly ranked). However, Nefesh which is the only group (besides, obviously YU) working on it don’t know how to fight it. I had a problem w/ the MoE not accepting my US degree and I had to get the US government involved.
It’s accreditation is recognized by the US Department of Education. They really ought to be getting the Dept of Education and US Embassy involved.
Yet another giant F.U. to the American Jewish community. However, as this non-recognition of degress is limited to only YU (and I’m assuming it’s for undergrad degress), it’s more of an F.U. to the Orthodox American Jewish community. Who the hell do they think is making aliyah these days? Buying houses? Cars? It smacks of old-time chiloni hatred of datiyim. Honestly, if the Rabinate in Israel gave a shit about American Judaism they’d get involved as this is a direct threat to their potential future constituency. However, given the recent debacle of who can convert a Jew in American and who can’t, they obviously don’t care. I’m glad the religious and non-religious in Israel have finally found something they can agree on – hating American Jews and keeping them out of Israel.