Dr. Netanel Leibowitz of the Israel Democracy Institute probed the willingness of Israelis to combine state religious and non-religious elementary schools. He learned that 64% support the current separation as opposed to 16% opposed and 8% undecided. The study also shows that the percentage of people supporting separation increases with one’s religious observance. 83% of religious respondents want separate schools as compared to 73.8% of religious /traditional; 57.5% among traditional/non-frum; and 60.1% among non frum.

Interestingly, respondents seem to feel an ideal situation would be a merger between the religious and non-religious schools with an option of separation of classes. 57% of respondents support mixed classes, religious and non-religious students learning together.79% feel that such classrooms may have religious and non-religious teachers and 75% support a curriculum containing content important to both the religious and non-religious communities.

The doctor probed the response for the creation of a third option in addition to state religious and non-religious schools; state mixed schools. 44% responded they would register their children in separate schools; 33% would register to the mixed school and 27% are undecided.

A breakdown of the response by self-defined religious respondents shows the highest support for merged schools is among those classifying themselves as non-frum (46%) and traditional/religious (41%). There is less support among those who view themselves as not-frum (29%) and even less support among the frum (11%). However, 51% of those calling themselves religious would register their children to state religious schools while 30% are undecided.

The study demonstrates that society endorses the current separate schools. The desire for separation increases with the level of self-defined religiosity or secularist lifestyle but when given the option of mixed education, many of them actually choose this option.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)