The City of Jerusalem has authorized the transfer of millions
of shekels in budget funding for exempt and recognized-but-
unofficial institutions in the chareidi education system
earmarked for major renovations, equipment purchases,
educational programs and safety activities.
This makes Jerusalem the first local authority to officially
budget these institutions, after legal directives issued by
Atty. Amnon de Hartoch forbidding local authorities from
supporting the institutions. The monetary transfer was made
possible by a precedent-setting move initiated by Mayor Rabbi
Uri Lupoliansky according to which legal experts from the
municipality and elsewhere formulated new criteria that
enable local authorities to provide support funding for
exempt and recognized-but-unofficial institutions in an
orderly, legal manner.
Deputy Mayor and Chareidi Education Commissioner Rabbi Uri
Maklev, who was actively involved in formulating and
overseeing the move, called this a major development and
another building-block in the effort to bring equality for
chareidi students, who are regularly denied much of the
funding available to mainstream schools around the
country.
Rabbi Maklev also noted that with the new criteria in place
the Department for Chareidi Education is increasing its
budget and notifying various institutions of newly available
funding.
The new support criteria were drawn up following a court
decision in a case against the City of Petach Tikva.
Following the ruling the Justice Ministry instructed local
authorities to stop supporting exempt and recognized-but-
unofficial institutions, which are not classified as full
municipal institutions. The recent move solved the problem by
funding them as non-municipal institutions.
