(JTA) — The Israeli Education Ministry said it recalled some 30 teachers working with Jewish communities abroad.
The educators in the Heftzibah program, which was established in 1990 to instruct Jewish children in the former Soviet Union and Latin America in Hebrew studies and Judaism, were told to return to Israel in March in connection with the coronavirus crisis, several teachers told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Last month, the ministry told the teachers, who are sent on five-year stints, that unless they are assigned jobs in Israel in the current school year, they may be eligible to receive severance payments in November, Makor Rishon reported Tuesday.
Some of the teachers took the letter informing them of this possibility as a notice of termination.
However, Michal Tzadoki, a ministry spokesperson, told JTA that the termination was not final and that the Heftzibah program is scheduled to resume with the same teachers when the circumstances around the coronavirus allow it.
“The Heftzibah project is continuing without change,” Tzadoki said. “To be clear, the teachers were not fired and they will return to their work after the reopening of educational framework and institutions in the relevant countries.”