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29 Adar 5759 - March 17, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Talmud Torah Yaldei Esrog Students Granted Temporary Occupation of Building

by Betzalel Kahn

Students of Talmud Torah Yaldei Esrog will officially occupy the building in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood which they illegally entered last week. This agreement was reached in the office of the director general of the Jerusalem Municipality, Raanan Dinur, together with the director of the Education Department, Meir Kraus.

The Municipality has affirmed the temporary placement of the children in the former Tidhar School building, which they entered without permission. The Municipal spokesman stressed that, "The Esrog Talmud Torah is a private institution, and there are many others like it in the city. The Jerusalem Municipality is concerned first and foremost for public schools, and then does its maximum to help private schools."

The Yaldei Esrog Torah school for girls was founded 14 years ago in the Katamon section of Yerushalayim. Three years later a parallel school for boys was founded.

Both schools were part of a network of Torah schools that was started 18 years ago by Rav Abba Sawiatitzky, with the blessings of gedolei Yisroel. Maran HaRav Shach, shlita, wrote him a letter in Teves, 5744 (1984).

Today, almost 1,500 students fill the five schools of this Torah network. In Ramot there are about 600 students; in Katamon a total of about 450; in Pisgat Ze'ev 150 students; in Maale Adumim 100; and in the newest branch, in Tel Aviv, there are currently almost 70 students. The schools are financed by the tuition payments of the parents, as well as donations.

The school that serves the southern Yerushalayim neighborhoods known as the Katamonim has been located in several caravans in the Beit Tzefafa area, somewhat distant from the neighborhood. The structures are prefabricated, and the current electrical supply is inadequate to the need, and cannot support heating or air-conditioning, which are really necessities in such uninsulated buildings.

Recently the school and its administration have been under intense pressure from the parents to find adequate facilities. For years they have asked the city to help them, but without results. They heard about an empty school building in their area and, after the city continued to ignore their requests, they decided to move in.

The city reacted with unusual sharpness, arresting the principal, Rav Dovid Ben Chamo, and four teachers. However in the end it seems that the city recognized the justice of the demands, and reached an agreement to alleviate the most critical problems.

The directors of the school and the general director of the Municipality agreed that it makes no sense for the Tidhar building on Yossi ben Yoezer Street to remain empty while the children have no place to study. It was agreed that within ten days, improvements on the electricity infrastructure would begin on its old caravans in Beit Tzefafa in time for the forthcoming year. In the event that a suitable structure isn't found, the Municipality will transfer new caravans to the school, and the municipal committee for the location of sites will find a site for the construction of a new building for the school.

Jerusalem Classroom Shortages: The Reality

The difficulties of the Yaldei Esrog school are more intense than many, but they are far from unique.

The shortage of classrooms for chareidi elementary education in Jerusalem is not a new phenomenon. According to Deputy Mayor Rabbi Uri Maklev, during the last five years no building used by a secular or a mamlachti dati (national-religious) school has been transferred to the chareidi school system.

It is no secret that the national (secular) schools as well as the mamlachti dati schools in Yerushalayim are losing students. There are several reasons for this. An increasing number of students are leaving these systems and entering chareidi schools. The secular population of Yerushalayim is decreasing -- in no small measure due to the strife stimulated by the anti-religious.

In contrast, the natural increase in the chareidi population automatically increases the number of students in its educational system. In the lower grades, for example, students in chareidi schools constitute over fifty percent of all Jerusalem students.

The Knesset Education Committee, headed by Emanuel Zissman, held two deliberations in the last few months about this situation. The session was entitled, "The Impending Danger of the Closure of Public Schools in Jerusalem." To Zissman, this is indeed a dangerous situation. The honorable MK is guided by the following idea: "It is inconceivable that public school kindergartens and elementary schools in secular neighborhoods be closed and other schools be opened in place of them, usually chareidi schools. We must keep Jerusalem strong, with coexistence between secular and religious. Secular Jews also have right in the city, and the danger of the closing of the city's secular schools is a struggle over the character of the city."

Zissman called upon the mayor to negotiate with representatives of schools about to be combined or closed, in order to find acceptable solutions. If this is not done, "The Committee, along with the parents, will struggle to keep these schools open, in order to maintain the city's demographic character," said Zissman.

In response, Shmuel Halpert, a member of the Committee, stated, "I can't understand the fear that an empty secular school will turn into a chareidi school. Are we speaking of, cholila, the PLO or Hamas? There are natural demographic changes. In the past, Chinuch Atzmai schools in Tel Aviv were closed when they lacked sufficient pupils. Jerusalem will never close a school where there are still students."

Meir Kraus, director of the Municipal Education Authority, was unequivocal in his remarks: "There are 400 empty classrooms in secular schools throughout the city, because of a reduction in the local secular population. On the other hand, classrooms are extremely overcrowded in other schools. There is no solution other than to combine two small schools into one stable, normal-sized school."

Last week, Rabbi Uri Maklev stated that the Knesset Education Committee prefers to let classrooms stand empty, rather than have chareidim use them. Often, according to Rabbi Maklev, if there is a 30-room secular school with most of the classrooms empty due to a lack of students, the rooms are simply enlarged; play rooms, libraries and large sport facilities are built, so such a school, after the renovations, only has eight classrooms, which is what it needs.

"Only tough policy decisions on the part of the mayor and the senior officials will enable the transfer of empty buildings to the chareidi school system," stated Rabbi Maklev. "Perhaps the Education Authority needs the buildings for various purposes, but they claim that they have a system of priorities, and their priorities are not always desirable. They use buildings as if they were the personal property of the Education Authority."

On the other hand, it should be noted that the Municipality has built many school buildings for the chareidi educational system and many classrooms have been added throughout the neighborhoods. (Politically it is not as hard to build new schools as to transfer existing schools.) In Ramat Shlomo, for example, new buildings have been built for schools; in Ramot, 16 classes have been added to the Beit Yaakov school; the Talmud Torah Itri in Ramot has received additional classrooms; Har Nof has benefited from the new Talmud Torah Derech Hachaim, among others.

Even after almost six years as the largest party in Yerushalayim, the children of United Torah Judaism do not yet have their minimal needs fulfilled.


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