Dei'ah veDibur - Information &
Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

6 Nisan 5775 - March 26, 2015 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

OBSERVATIONS

HOME
& FAMILY

IN- DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

POPULAR EDITORIALS

HOMEPAGE

 

Produced and housed by
Chareidi.org
Chareidi.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS
After a Long Struggle, a School Building in Beit Shemesh goes to Bais Yaakov

by Yisrael Rosner

The Education Ministry approved moving the Languages and Cultures school out of the large building its 144 students occupy in favor of the Bais Yaakov Mishkenos Yaakov school with over 900 students. The Languages and Cultures school will be merged with another existing school.

Despite the political reality of the mayor and a majority of the Beit Shemesh town council affiliated with chareidi parties, and fundamental justice and normal procedures, the process was long and drawn out, and accompanied by noisy press campaigns and court battles.

Mayor Rabbi Moshe Abutbol of Shas, as well as Degel HaTorah representatives deputy mayor Rabbi Shmuel Greenberg, Rabbi Moshe Montag, Rabbi Yisroel Silverstone and Rabbi Yeshaya Ehrenreich, worked very hard to achieve this. The approval of the Ministry of Education gives the chareidi community what is coming to it by right and not by chesed. Six months ago (http://www.chareidi.org/archives5774/kisovo/abeitshemeshksv74.htm), at the start of school year 5775, the city of Beit Shemesh took over about half of the large building, designed for over 500 students. The move was taken in desperation, after numerous attempts at negotiation led nowhere. The municipal education department, which owns the building, finally ordered the Bais Yaakov to move in.

"It is a huge building which can easily accommodate more than 500 students. The Languages and Cultures School has only 144 students this year. Most of them do not even live nearby," read a press release issued by the city of Beit Shemesh at the time. "There is no good reason that the building should not house students of a neighborhood school that has a severe lack of classrooms due to the lack of education buildings in the area."

The Languages and Cultures school was opened just ten years ago in a new building constructed in the heart of the chareidi neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh A. The then mayor, Danny Vaknin, did this to try to arrest the growth of the neighborhoods of the chareidi public, by allotting many educational facilities to the secular and government-religious networks, despite the fact that its student body did not even live in the neighborhood.

Last fall the city built a fence separating the two schools and this is what drew the most criticism. In a battle fought in the courts, including the High Court of Justice, the city won decisively, as the courts made it clear that the city owns the buildings and has the right to decide about their use.

 

All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.