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120 Kids. No School. Ra’anana fails Religious Sector

59 4
thursday
For over half a year, 120 children in Ra’anana have been left stranded without a school. And the reason is simple: the municipality, elected and funded by the residents, has chosen to work against its residents. Instead of serving their needs, they have decided to serve a political agenda. These children were not abandoned by accident. They were blocked. What is the story? 10 Chabad kindergartens operate in Ra’anana, all overflowing with waiting lists. Parents have for years been demanding a formal continuation of this education into primary school. The municipality has dragged its feet time after time. In 2022 the city agreed to formally recognize the school. Due to a high level of demand, the Chabad school began operating privately and informally, with the municipality’s knowledge, and even with its support. During this time, Chabad requested to operate a municipality run Mamlachti Charedi school, which would teach both secular and religious studies. Isn’t this what the state has demanded time after time – state run schools that teach both types of education to the nation’s children.

This could have been an excellent solution. But the city refused to open a Mamlachti Charedi school, despite the fact that under the law there should be one in each city. Ra’anana has zero Mamlachti Charedi schools in its city. This refusal persists despite more than 30 years of growth in Ra’anana’s religious population, during which not a single new religious school has been built, even as demand has steadily and significantly increased. This refusal also comes despite repeated admissions by officials in letters and in official meetings that existing state-religious schools are overcrowded. (Attached letter from the municipality from 2022). (Attached similar admission from an official meeting in Dec 2025). As a result of the municipality’s refusal under any circumstance to open a state-religious Charedi school despite demand from its residents, parents were forced to try and hold together their school (operating for over 3 years with support from the municipality) under a “recognized but unofficial” status, not by choice, but by necessity. When the municipality refused to provide its residents a building for a school that is in high demand in the city, the parents acted responsibly.
 They found and leased a building privately at 23 Ahuzah Street, a building designated for public use. They collectively invested millions of........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)