Rabbi Shalom Cohen, Shas’ new spiritual leader, recently came out against higher education for ultra-Orthodox women, a belated reaction to a 15-year-old education revolution in the community he represents.

Rabbi Cohen wrote in an official letter Shas party letter: “women students should not even think of enrolling in academic studies in any setting whatsoever, since that is not the way of the Torah.” According to the Hebrew-language Haredi website Kikar Hashabbat, which published the letter on Monday, it is the first official letter Rabbi Cohen has written since he took office about two months ago.

Though the letter specifically addresses the issue of female students, his objections apparently apply equally to men.

In the letter, Rabbi Cohen wrote, “We are witness to the fact that women students, graduates of religious seminaries, wish to enroll in academic studies. Our rabbis, the sages of Israel (may their merit protect us), were absolutely opposed to academic studies, even in Haredi colleges, since many of the lecturers are university graduates and do not have the purely Torah-based outlook in which we were brought up,” He added, “The material studied in the colleges is based on scientific research and methods that fly in the face of Torah-based views! Therefore, women students should not even think of enrolling in academic studies in any setting whatsoever, since that is not the way of Torah.”