The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, 7 Adar, is scheduled to rule on the case involving school registration for the community of Elad. The petitioners are challenging the system, seeking to compel regional registration to bring an end to discrimination against Sephardi girls in area schools. Some of the girls are not accepted and compelled to find a school elsewhere. If the court rules for regional registration, then all the girls living in Elad will have to be accepted in area schools.

The court will assess the situation to determine if Elad City Hall lived up to promises to provide a slot for each girl or not. If the court determines this was not so, and there are girls who were locked out, then it is likely to rule in favor of regional registration to set it in the law rather than rely upon the goodwill of Elad City Hall and local principals.

Following the machlokes that existed, the sides agreed the coming year would be regional registration. However, this was not the case for 5777 and this led to attorney Yoav Lalum filing with the court to compel regional registration as per the agreement between parents and City Hall.

Lalum explains that despite the promises from city officials, some 20 Sephardi girls were without schools, all graduates of Beis Yaakov but none of the local high school accepted them.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)