[Links in original - Bolding mine]

Supreme Ashkenazi haredi rabbinic leader Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman wrote a letter for participants at last night’s emergency conference on secular studies for women. The conference was held at the invitation of the Councils of Torah Sages of the two factions – one hasidic, one not – that make up the so-called mainstream Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism Party (UTJ) that is a part of Israel’s ruling coalition.

According to a report in Kikar HaShabbat, Steinman came out strongly against secular academic studies for women and insisted that the only education haredi girls and women are allowed to have must come from UTJ’s Beth Jacob girls school system. There can be no exceptions, and higher academic studies in places like Bar Illan University or haredi programs at other colleges are absolutely forbidden.

Rabbi Hezekiyahu Mishkovsky of the Orchot Torah yeshiva told the conference a story about a haredi scholar who told Steinman his daughter wanted to get an academic degree.

“Why?” Steinman asked.

“Because she wants to earn more money to support her family,” the man said. (Many haredi husbands don’t work and are instead full time yeshiva students well into middle age, and wives are often haredi families’ main breadwinner.)

"I have a better idea how to make a fortune,” Steinman replied. “Steal.”

“The rosh yeshiva [Steinman] equates academic training with theft?" the man asked.

"It's worse [than theft]! What you steal can be returned, you can repent and return the money, but these things [that you hear, see and read in non-haredi academic institutions] are worse [than theft] because once you are exposed to them, you can’t ever get them out of your soul.”

The rabbis at the emergency conference went on to insist that academic degrees for women “cause incest and idolatry.”

“The gedolim [top rabbis] of previous generations barely allowed women to leave their home to earn a living, but if there is a concern that leaving the home will easily damage the spirituality of the home, it is not permitted to allow [women to do so, and that is the case with academic studies,]” the #2 non-hasidic Ashkenazi haredi rabbinic leader Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky reportedly told the conference. He implored attendees to ensure their students establish homes full of Torah.

The hasidic Vizhnitzer Rebbe also addressed the conference, which was attended by the heads of haredi girls schools from across the country.

Following their rabbis' guidance, the conference participants agreed to ban all academic studies by, in part, refusing to recognize degrees granted by outside institutions like Bar Illan University and various colleges with haredi programs. Women with degrees from those institutions will not be able to use them to qualify for a job or to gain a promotion.