The Jerusalem Municipality's Department for Chareidi
Education has set up a special assistance center for new
immigrants seeking to enroll their children in chareidi
schools. The project is a part of the Pashut Latet Sherut
project initiated by Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky.
Manned by professionals from the department and volunteers
speaking various languages, the service is available without
appointment for parents of children entering kindergarten,
primary school and secondary school, providing information on
discounts and terms they are eligible for in the coming
school year.
Immigrants who arrived after 2002 receive a 90 percent
discount on tuition at municipal schools.
Rabbi Binyomin Cohen, director of the Department for Chareidi
Education, says the center makes use of a database to find
kindergartens run by the Department and makes contact with
the administrations of the schools in the city to make a
match between the parents' demands and the schools'
demands.
"Within a short time after starting to operate," says Deputy
Mayor and Education Commissioner Rabbi Uri Maklev, "the
center has assisted dozens of immigrants seeking to send
their children to chareidi educational institutions. This
year the Department for Chareidi Education ran projects to
take some of the burden off the parents, including the
kindergarten enrollment centers, which came to various
residential neighborhoods and worked in the framework of the
kindergartens themselves."
Information on the hours of operation and the necessary
paperwork can be obtained from the Department of Chareidi
Education at (02) 629-7710.