A Fence Divides Secular, Religious Kids in Jerusalem School

JERUSALEM -- Every day, Esti Kirmaier drops her daughter Noga off at the Pashosh nursery school in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood. Noga is almost 2, and she likes to play in the sandbox and with the children from the nursery school in the classroom next door, who are a little older. But last week, Kirmaier found a wire fence separating Noga's class of secular children from the ultra-Orthodox children.

Now Noga can't play in the sandbox. Her side of the fence has only one small slide. Even more seriously, if there is a fire, the fire extinguisher is on the other side of the fence.

"The ultra-Orthodox can't do this unilaterally," Kirmaier told AOL News. "And we won't accept this. We intend to fight this."

The children have always attended separate classes in the school building, but they played together during recess in the school yard. Some of the ultra-Orthodox parents here said they didn't want the fence either and were just as surprised as the secular parents. However, community officials confirmed that the fence was requested by some of the ultra-Orthodox parents.

"I don't really care if there's a fence or not," said Avi Dahan, 27, wearing a black skullcap as he arrived to pick up his daughter. "I want everyone here to just get along."

But even some of the ultra-Orthodox parents who didn't want the fence said there was not enough room for their children in the existing nursery school and that they wanted the entire building to be ultra-Orthodox.

"I have to walk 15 minutes to pick up my other child," said Ruti, who did not want to give her last name. "I tried to register him in this class next door and the city said no, they were giving it to the secular. They're the ones who came here to make trouble."

A spokesman for the city of Jerusalem said officials are trying to meet everyone's needs.

"In light of the desperate lack of nursery buildings in the neighborhood of Kiryat Hayovel and with the aim of meeting the needs of all of the neighborhood's pupils, both secular and ultra- Orthodox, the municipality's budgeting committee decided to divide the existing building in a way that it will be utilized by the area's secular parents as well," spokesman Elie Isaacson told AOL News.

"The fence will be built as part of a wider perspective that provides for the quite different needs of the community as a whole."

The tensions in Kiryat Hayovel reflect larger tensions in Israeli society between the secular majority and the growing ultra-Orthodox minority. This working-class neighborhood has 25,000 residents, mostly secular or traditional, and borders on an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

Ultra-Orthodox families began moving in here five years ago for one reason: cheap housing. Today there are an estimated 500 ultra-Orthodox families, many of whom have seven to 10 children per family.

Many of the men in the ultra-Orthodox world study Jewish texts full time. They strictly observe the Jewish dietary laws and the Sabbath, meaning they do not work, drive or even use the phone from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday.

The ultra-Orthodox believe women should dress modestly, meaning married women should cover their hair with a wig or kerchief and girls should dress with long sleeves and skirts. In this case, some of the ultra-Orthodox parents did not want to see the secular teacher next door, who wears jeans.

"I went into teaching because I wanted to teach children to be open to the world and to each other," said Mika Lavi, a teacher at Pashosh. "No child should be separated based on who they are or what they wear."

She then pulls open the curtain in the window.

"Look at what we see from here -- just a fence and wire," she said sadly. "I can't even see the gate to check if someone is coming."

Rafael Tamam, the director of the local community center, said that some of the ultra-Orthodox parents had asked for the fence to be built. He also said that the classroom that houses the secular nursery school had been an ultra-Orthodox classroom last year.

"This was always a quiet neighborhood where religious and secular Jews lived together," Tamam told AOL News. "This fight has definitely increased tensions in the neighborhood."