Settlement Preschool Allegedly Rejects Student With Non-Jewish Mother
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A preschool in a West Bank settlement reportedly has refused to enroll a 2-year-old because her mother is not Jewish.
The child is the daughter of a Jewish man and his partner, a non-Jewish woman from Kenya, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Sunday.
Amit Hai Rubin has lived in the Avnei Hefetz settlement in the northern West Bank for the last five years. When he tried to enroll his daughter, Hila, in a preschool operated by the community he said he was told that it would have to be approved by Avnei Hefetz’s admissions committee and that the fact that his daughter is not Jewish according to Orthodox Jewish law could be an issue, Haaretz reported.
Avnei Hefetz responded to Haaretz in a statement saying that Rubin had requested a midyear placement for his daughter, when the program was full. “The director said the child could register for the coming year and he was asked to register her when registration starts for the next year. Mr. Rubin agreed to these facts and they also appear in the letter by his attorney to the settlement. Since then, although he has been invited, he has not come to register the child and he chooses to hurl false accusations,” the statement said.
Israel’s Ministry of Economy, which oversees the country’s pre-schools, told the newspaper that the schools cannot discriminate against students and that it would investigate.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
