A Krayot Magistrate’s Court justice fined a chareidi non-profit organization NIS 5,000 last week for operating a pirate daycare center in a private home in the community of Kfar Vradim. Justice Laufer-Hasson exhibited a modicum of understanding for the local chareidi community, but she explained she is bound by the law. She even recommended that the chareidi community take their case to the High Court of Justice.

The local municipality targeted the daycare center while ignoring some 15 other daycare centers operating within its confines, also with permits, none chareidi. When chareidi leaders pointed this out to local officials, they appeared genuinely uninterested, fixated with shutting down the chareidi center.

The court explained it is powerless to get involved in the case other than addressing the dry legal issues. The court rejected a request to levy a NIS 22,000 fine and issue a closure order for the daycare center, delaying such a move for a year, permitting the chareidi community to find a solution.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)