When Shalom Azrad came to live in Gedera, it was a small settlement with 10,000 residents. Since then, the place has expanded and is now home to no less than 27,000 people, with no less than six secular schools, and one religious school, which has only been shrinking since then.
Where's the problem? So there you go.
A year ago, a group of parents, who value Jewish tradition, got together and decided to establish a school that would educate in the spirit of Yisrael Saba. Azard helped them and managed what needed to be managed, while deciding not to integrate the school - 'Shelhavot' - into the independent education system or Shas' Bnei Yosef network. "The less politics," he tells Haredim 10. "We want Torah education without a political title," he explains why he is not interested in a sectoral identity that would deter parents.
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
Hani Karniel, a Chabad follower who previously worked in the Shas Torah Education Network and in Or Avner, was appointed as principal. The parents are certainly satisfied after a year of activity at the school.
But suddenly, dark clouds began to hover over Gedera: one of the department directors at the Ministry of Education set out to close the school, without granting it a legal license to operate, perhaps out of fear that the prolific enrollment at the Torah school would harm the MAMD school - 'Ohel Shalom'.
""Superintendent Shai Calderon, who came to see the school before it closed, said: 'You don't close something like that,'" says Azard - adding: "We have 70 students, 46 in first grade. It's heartbreaking to close the place.".
The head of the local council, Yoel Gamliel, is helping the school with all his might, but according to the Ministry of Education, if 200 children leave the school every morning to study elsewhere, even after the 70 students have registered for 'Shelhavot' - the school is unnecessary. Let more children go out. What's more, there is a structural problem, they claim.
Azard dismissed the claims. "The head of the authority will allocate us space, if only the Ministry of Education would be kind enough to approve our trailers. As for the children going out of Gedera, what's the point of taking dozens more students out every morning on buses? ""Gedera is just getting bigger, its religious state school is just getting smaller, there is a thirst for Torah education, parents fought for it for a whole year, and in the end, throw them to the curb like that?""
An investigation reveals that the problem exists in other places throughout the country: the Ministry of Education feels that the Ministry of Education (Torah schools under the control of the Ministry of Education, a creation of former Minister of Education Dr. Shai Piron) is 'stealing' students from it, and therefore there are those in the Ministry of Education who put their feet up in every school that is established and belongs to the Ministry of Education. An exception are Haredi schools that are undergoing conversion to the Ministry of Education. This process is encouraged in the ministry.
The decision on the fate of 'Shelhabot' was left to the Director General of the Ministry of Education, Michal Cohen. She listened to the parties and passed the decision on to Amalia Haimovitz, the director of the Central District. The director requested lists, went through them carefully to make sure that they were not students who were also registered at the school run by the Ministry of Education, and came to the conclusion that everything was in order, fair and smooth, and that this was a public whose children would be sent to Torah schools outside of Gedera by Iluli 'Shelhabot'.
Her puzzling recommendation, according to the administrators, was: to open the MMAH only in 2018, that is, only in a year. "In other words, they tried to break us.".
It should be noted that already today, over 200 students leave the colony on buses every day - to study at Haredi schools, some of which are independent and not recognized.
""I had a heated argument with the head of the field at the Ministry of Education, whose name we won't mention here," the principal says. "I came to meet with him. He said to me: 'Hello, you're also Torah, why do you have a new school?' I said to him, 'Hello, only from the fourth grade, with separation between boys and girls.'.
""He answered me: 'So what?' I said to him: 'At the Peace Tent, the teachers don't cover their heads,' he said to me: 'So what?'... I said to him: 'The teachers wear short, immodest clothes.' He said to me: 'So what?' I said to him: 'At the Peace Tent, a large portion of the parents publicly desecrate Shabbat.' He said to me: 'So, so what?' I said to him: 'So what are you religious about? If you're not interested in Shabbat and modesty, what are you religious about?'... It got into a personal argument, but we feel that the person is really fighting us, so that we won't be allowed to build the school.
""We need to remember that Gedera won a provincial and national education award about a year ago. How is it possible that parents' freedom of choice about where to send their children to be educated is being alienated like this? Why direct children to study at a private school, when that is not the parents' wish? And why not establish another school and increase competition, when it is only for the benefit of the students in the end?""
Another source in the community wonders: "Is the Ministry of Education fulfilling its role here, as someone who takes care of educational places for Israeli children, each according to their personal choice, while helping the heads of the authorities - or is it trying to re-educate someone?""
The Ministry of Education's response has not yet been received. When it is received, it will be published.
