United Torah Judaism chief Yitzhak Goldknopf on Saturday night said that learning math has not advanced the country's economy, drawing criticism from those on the center-left.
"They are withholding budgets from the haredi schools, because they do not learn math and English," Goldknopf told Channel 12 News. "Why? 'Because in another 20 years....' I have been hearing that sentence for 20 years already - I have not seen that math advanced the State's economy."
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) responded, "Goldknopf, who said that the State of Israel belongs to two nations - the haredim and everyone else - is making light of the IDF soldiers' service and eyeing the Finance Ministry so that he can provide funding to those who do not work and do not contribute, at the expense of the middle class, those who serve, work, and pay taxes."
"This is the man who parties from all ends of the political spectrum are chasing after. Only a strong and large Yisrael Beytenu will ensure that Goldknopf and his friends remain in the opposition, and thus bring about the integration of the haredi sector into Israeli society and ensure equality in sharing the burden of the economy as well."
Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli (Labor) responded, "More than Goldknopf is destroying the future of secular Israelis, he is destroying the future of the haredim. A society without the core curriculum is a society without a future, without hope, without a dream."
"The haredi community deserves national haredi schools which will help them acquire the freedom to choose. This is our truth, and we are fighting for it."