FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)Quebec has ended a 24-year arrangement that allowed fervently Orthodox Jewish students to study at a Montreal junior college at public expense.
Quebec Education Minister Michelle Courchesne announced recently that the province will cut funding to three Chasidic schools next year because of their religious focus.
Since 1985, the Jewish schools have been operating in tandem with Marie-Victorin CEGEP, a public, post-secondary college in Montreal. Students in Quebec generally attend CEGEP for two years before proceeding to a university.
Teachers at the Jewish colleges are hired and paid through CEGEP, and the Jewish students learn the same curriculum as their non-Jewish counterparts. Women and men are segregated in some classes.
Quebec “cannot accept” that schools with such religious restrictions are funded by tax dollars, Courchesne said.
The decision came as a surprise to Eli Meroz, academic coordinator at one of the Jewish schools, the Torah and Vocational Institute, who said the school focuses on job training, not religion.
“I’m a little bit surprised because we’ve not adapted any of the content in the courses,” Meroz told CBC News. “There may be some small adaptations in terms of calendar—we don’t offer classes on Jewish holidays.
“The main objective here is to provide job training to these communities, so that students from these communities can access the job market. There are communities that in the past have not had access to CEGEP programs and this type of job training because they were not comfortable in the public CEGEP system.”
Meroz added that not every class is segregated by gender.
About 800 Jewish students are affected by the funding elimination.
Jewish Soccer Fan Killed in Rio
A Jewish soccer fan set to visit Israel was killed while celebrating his team’s victory in the Brazilian championship.
Flavio Seade, 26, was run over Sunday by a truck driver who tried to detour around the enthusiastic crowd of thousands of Flamengo supporters partying along the elegant streets of Leblon, the wealthiest neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro.
The driver, who works for a supermarket chain, accelerated in order to avoid the crowd when he hit Seade.
Seade, who grew up in a Jewish children’s home, was scheduled to visit Israel next month on a Taglit-Birthright trip.
With some 35 million supporters, Flamengo is considered the largest soccer team in Brazil. It won the annual championship for the first time in 17 years.
Egypt Aiming to Deter Smuggling with Iron Wall
Egypt has started to build an iron wall on its border with the Gaza Strip, an Israeli newspaper reported.
The wall is being constructed to shut down smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported.
It will be about 6 miles long and go down about 100 feet into the ground, according to the newspaper, citing Egyptian sources who said the wall will be impossible to cut or melt.
Ha’aretz said that Egyptian security officials nearly every week try to destroy or render impassable smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.