Bnei Brak Rabbis Protest Transfer of National Religious School to Haredi Neighborhood

Rabbis in Bnei Brak have issued a strong letter opposing the relocation of the National Religious school to the Kiryat Herzog neighborhood, intensifying a long-standing dispute over the school's placement and its proximity to Haredi educational institutions. This new development follows a series of controversial events in the neighborhood, including the welding shut of the school's entrance gate and a prior warning from the neighborhood's rabbi, Yehuda Aryeh Schwartz, about the difficulties arising from the interaction between students of different institutions.

The incident with the gate occurred at the "Afikim" school, where students and parents discovered the entrance welded closed overnight. Police were called to the scene, and parents had to use a cutting disc to open the gate for students. Extremist elements are suspected of carrying out the act in protest of the school's co-educational nature, which includes students in special education.

Rabbi Schwartz's letter described the encounters between students at the entrances and exits of the schools as causing "terrible distress" to yeshiva students. He noted that the Bnei Brak Municipality's education department is working on a solution, but the issue remains unresolved. Following instructions from the head of the yeshiva, Moshe Hillel Hirsch, institutions delayed the start of classes by half an hour to minimize student interactions.

The rabbis' current call against moving the school to Kiryat Herzog revives the debate about its location and the need for a resolution to manage relations between the neighborhood's educational institutions. This is not a new conflict; in 2016, rabbis in Kiryat Herzog already protested the proposed move of a girls' school from the city center into the Haredi neighborhood, presenting alternative solutions to preserve the neighborhood's character to then-Mayor Hanoch Zeibert.