Can anyone explain the Israeli chareidi school system?

salt

Sun, Mar 24 2024, 2:46 am

Standard chareidi school system - I live in Jerusalem so most of what I'm describing is from there.

Girls - beit yaakov -
Goes from 1st - 8th grade.
The girls wear a uniform.
They learn limudei kodesh and chol.
Start learning English from 3rd/ 4th grade.
The school day is from 8am - 13:00 for the younger classes, with an option for tzhaaron.
Older classes more like 8am - 14:30.

High school is called Seminar - 9th grade to 12th grade.
At the end of 11th and 12th grade the girls take either bagruyot or mivchanei chutz (which are the equivalent of bagrut, but not set by the national bagrut board, rather by the beit yaakov school body).

Then there are options in most large Seminars to continue another 2-3 years and get a professional qualification.

Boys
Talmud Torah -
Goes from mechina (parallel of gan chova) or 1st grade to 8th grade.
Main bulk of the learning is limudei kodesh -
Reading, chumash, mishna from ~2nd grade, gemara from ~5th grade.
Basic limudei chol - math, lashon, history.
No English.

After 8th grade, the boys go to Yeshiva ketana - usually in the city where they live.
There are dorms, but most boys don't dorm a full week.
They stay in yeshiva once every 2-3 shabbatot, and have a long day, with a break in the afternoon where they can nap in the dorms. And sometimes dorm over night depending on the yeshiva's rules.

They learn mainly gemara, plus halacha, mussar, etc.
No limudei chol.
Yeshiva ketana is 3 years - 9th - 11 grade, at which point most boys move on to yeshiva gedola, which is full dorming and can be anywhere in the country. From age 18 if they want to continue in yeshiva they have to get an official exemption from the army once a year.

Both boys and girls have tiyulim, shabbatot away sometimes, etc.
Girls school year is Sept - June, with an option of an extra month in July - more like kaytana.
Boys is like the yeshivot - with bein hazmanim like yeshivot (Yom Kippur - Succot. Pesach. 3 weeks in the summer)

There are many variations on this framework.
eg. yeshivot ketanot where they do limudei chol and bagruyot.
Talmudei torah where they also offer English.
Charedi hesder yeshiva.

You can find almost anything you want if you search!
But what I described is the standard.

amother

Sun, Mar 24 2024, 3:05 pm

salt wrote:

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! This is so helpful!
One thing I wasn't so clear on, until what age do boys learn chumash and basic chol?

Brit in Israel

Sun, Mar 24 2024, 3:17 pm

salt wrote:

Standard chareidi school system - I live in Jerusalem so most of what I'm describing is from there.

Boys
Talmud Torah -
Goes from mechina (parallel of gan chova) or 1st grade to 8th grade.
.

For the boys check how it works in your area. Where I live (in Jerusalem) the boys already do the Gan iriyah as part of the cheder. It's with a ganenet from the age of 3 but you apply through the Talmud Torah/cheider and application time is before the regular Ganim so from before Chanuka I think when your child is 2.5 years of age.
In the 2 year of Gan equivalent to Gan kedam chova it is with a ganenet and they also have a Rebbe who comes in teaching aleph beis to the children individually besides the aleph beis they learn from the ganenet.

amother

Valerian

Sun, Mar 24 2024, 6:49 pm

salt wrote:

BY also has rules for families. They expect you not to have a smartphone and if you have to have a smartphone or internet, it better be heavily filtered and the kids should stay away from it.

In my area, we have later days even from 1st grade.

There are more rules than just this. But legally, if they are a government school, not so sure how much they can enforce... It's not like a private school in America.

Also, boys can vary. There are chadarim and there's more "open" schools too. My son's school is a talmud torah. They DO learn English but they don't put much importance on it. They also are allowed to play sports and have a huge area to play. (This is frowned upon in many Charedi chadarim.)

Our schools are getting frummer...