Religious Education Forum Releases Stark Video Amid Budget Dispute

The Religious Education Forum has launched a new, sharp video highlighting the implications of the ongoing dispute over funding for the state-religious education system. The video, under the slogan 'When they try to erase religious state education, they try to erase all that is good in the State of Israel,' depicts various institutions, activities, and figures disappearing from the screen as if being deleted.

The video shows a person at a computer deleting folders, while schools, soldiers, volunteer activities, laboratories, community centers, and public institutions vanish from view. It concludes with a plea: 'This must not happen.'

The video's release comes amid a freeze on funds by the High Court of Justice, which immediately threatens the continued operation of religious state education. This is part of a public struggle against petitions filed by left-wing organizations concerning the funding methods for this educational sector.

Sources within the Religious Education Forum claim that the discussion about 'budgetary gaps' actually conceals a danger to the core components that define religious state education as both state-run and religious: religious studies, prayer, identity programs, and other unique characteristics of the system.

According to the forum, the video aims to illustrate that the damage to religious state education is not merely a budgetary issue but an erasure of a system that has nurtured generations of action, service, volunteering, and leadership within Religious Zionism and Israeli society. The forum stated, 'Those who act and harm religious state education are not truly seeking equality. We tell the public clearly: harming this education harms one of the central life projects of the State of Israel and a system that has built generations of dedication, responsibility, and love for the country. This must not be allowed to happen.'