Ra'anana Religious School Plan Sparks Outrage Over Industrial Zone Location
A plan by the Ra'anana municipality to establish a new state-religious (Mamam) school in prefabricated classrooms located in the city's industrial zone has ignited a significant public and educational controversy. While the city's coalition hails the initiative as a major achievement, parents and opposition members are expressing shock at the chosen site. The complex is situated in the heart of the industrial area, mere hundreds of meters from a gas station, garages, car rental agencies, used car dealerships, and the municipal beautification department's operational yard.
Critics are furious that the municipality opted to repurpose this site, which previously housed special education facilities and later accommodated war evacuees, as a permanent solution. They argue that a modern school should have been built on available public land on Burlah Street in the city center, which was ultimately converted into a public park. Avi Yosef, a city council member and chairman of the audit committee, harshly criticized the move, accusing Mayor Chaim Broyde of intentional discrimination against the religious public.
Yosef explained that ten classrooms in prefabricated structures do not constitute a real school and are unsuitable for first-graders. He detailed that within a 300-400 meter radius of these classrooms operate garages, gas stations, parking lots, and car dealerships, with additional garages and significant disarray within a kilometer. Yosef pointed out that coalition members had the opportunity to approve the construction of a new, modern school on land designated for public buildings on Burlah Street but chose instead to fulfill Mayor Broyde's whims and plant grass there, while sending Mamam students to temporary buildings in the industrial zone as part of a policy of disrespect and discrimination.
Two Nina Amos, a parent leadership representative for the Ra'anana Forum for Preserving Jewish Identity, joined the criticism, presenting data she claims indicates ongoing neglect of religious education in the city. She stated that Ra'anana has grown to nearly 100,000 residents, with the religious population now constituting about half of the urban growth and approximately 35% of the city's total population. Amos noted that out of 330 new immigrant families who recently arrived in the city, about 80% are religious, with similar figures recorded in previous years.
Despite this significant growth, Amos revealed that no new state-religious school has been built in Ra'anana for 35 years, while new secular neighborhoods like Neve Zemer and Lev HaPark have only established secular schools. Consequently, existing religious schools suffer from extreme overcrowding, with 600 to 800 students, forcing the municipality to encroach on their courtyards and playgrounds to install portable classrooms. Amos elaborated that the industrial zone facility consists of prefabricated buildings, and the municipality is investing approximately five million shekels to paint and renovate them to present them as a new school, an amount insufficient for building a proper school from scratch.
In addition to the physical challenges, Amos warned of severe traffic congestion and accessibility issues in the industrial zone near Highway 4, preventing children from walking to school and forcing them into long commutes via shuttles and buses. She suggested a simpler solution: in the city center, within the religious population's concentration, there are four secular schools that are half-empty due to the internal migration of secular families to new neighborhoods. Amos claimed that instead of consolidating these schools for the needed Mamam classes, the municipality quickly filled them with special education classes to appear full and prevent their repurposing for Mamam, a move parents and the opposition describe as severe discrimination and a clear unwillingness to support religious education in the city.
