Unlike its policy in previous years, this year the Education
Ministry has refused to subsidize the cost of security guards
in chareidi educational institutions during the months of
July and August, months when secular schools are on vacation.
Throughout the rest of the year, the Education Ministry
contributes to the cost of employing a security guard at
every educational institution in Jerusalem.
This was revealed last week at a meeting of the Council of
Talmud Torah Principals. The principals are understandably
upset by this decision, due to their concern for the
children's safety.
Rabbi Yitzchok Goldknopf, director of the Association of
Talmudei Torah, wrote to director of the Department for
Chareidi Education, Rabbi Binyomin Cohen, asking him in the
name of the Talmud Torah principals to do his utmost to see
to it that children attending educational institutions in the
summer are not left without security arrangements.
"Jerusalemites have been deeply affected by the terrible
accident in which a toddler and a thirteen-year-old girl were
killed while on the sidewalk by a school transport vehicle
which suffered brake failure. Let us not cause parents
further anxiety. The principals of the talmudei Torah
will back your efforts to help them secure what they deserve
as citizens of the city," he writes.
Various officials in the Municipality say that the Education
Ministry and the Internal Security Ministry are the bodies
who subsidize security in the educational institutions. They
transfer monies through the Jerusalem Municipality to the
schools. Every cut in funding stems from decisions of these
two government ministries.
