Rabbi Amital Bareli, the head of the Hotam organization, sent a letter to Education Minister Naftali Bennett criticizing a sixth grade textbook which presented Jerusalem as equally holy to the three religions and even referred pupils to the New Testament.
The Hotam organization is dedicated to restoring Judaism's values to the public arena and maintaining Israel's spiritual development in consonance with its economic, social and scientific development.
Bareli stated that the educational unit designed to teach Jerusalem's heritage as the historic capital of Israel was worthy and would add a Jewish significance to pupils' attachment to the city, but the book "In the Paths of Jerusalem" written by Ben Zvi Institute did not aid the adoption of these values.
"In the chapter dealing with Jerusalem written by Tamar Hayardeniit is impossible to find even an allusion to the connection between the Jewish people and the narrative regarding the holiness of Jerusalem," said Bareli. "Hayardeni presents the approaches of the different religions as an observer in order that they can choose which of them they wish to identify with the city.
Hayardeni sends pupils to the New Testament to find information about Christian 'Saints' and to see the description of Jesus's birth. She also refers to the "connection between David and Jesus: Jews believe that the Messiah will be a descendant of David and so do the Christians."
Bareli claimed that this both weakens the basis of the Jewish nation to maintain sovereignty over Jerusalem and also weakens the connection of school children to Jewish tradition. He added
"We may yet be sorry to find a generation to whom Jerusalem means nothing from a national and traditional point of view and this absurdly when the Education Ministry has taken upon itself the task of transmitting the values of Jerusalem to Israeli pupils. I call on you, Minister Bennett, to investigate the matter properly and ascertain if there is a place for such a book in the educational unit on Jerusalem."