Petach Tikva has always been in the forefront of the debate over exclusivity and inclusion in the state religious school system.
Introduction: A Short History of Integration and Private Schools in Petach Tikva

Petach Tikva has both affluent and poor neighborhoods. There has long been bad feeling when integration in elementary school has been “forced.” The resentment increased with the establishment of private schools that drew affluent children from the public religious schools and left a higher percentage of weaker and poorer students in the public system.

Never one to shy away from the issues, Lion of Zion posts about criteria for choosing a school. . . . the yeshivah year in Israel . . . is one of the biggest scams of the Orthodox community. Here is a post about how most programs for girls expect them to make their own Shabbat arrangements.

Read more on Is a Year of Yeshiva in Israel a Scam?…

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Next week begins the three weeks of school vacation for the seven-day Passover holiday. The organization Working Parents for Change is working for the government to have fewer vacation days from school and more activities for children during the summer holidays.

Read more on Working Parents and School Vacation in Israel: Proposal…

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My son’s school has been emphasizing the importance of the environment. He insists on bringing his sandwich in a reusable container and refuses a recycled bread bag. And a few months ago the school hosted an event on environmental topics, including making crafts with recycled items and a discussion of water in Judaism. Cardboard boxes, prepared by the municipality, were provided for each household to collect old paper. The box reads: “You recycled? You helped! In Petach Tikva we take responsibility for the environment.” Petach Tikva, refreshingly, is first in the country for percentage of trash recycled.

Read more on Environmental Dissidence…

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We’re approaching the time of year when parents make decisions about schools for their children. With the oldest, some parents believe they will find the perfect school. But it’s much more likely that they will have to make compromises. This post, geared toward choosing an elementary school, will help you think about the issues.

How to find information:

Read more on Questions to Ask When Choosing a School for Your Children…

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In light of my previous post, Lion of Zion asked about the issues in the upcoming municipal elections.

We will cast two ballots this Tuesday, one for the local council (27 seats) and another for mayor. This year 159,000 residents have voting rights, beginning at age 17. The incumbent mayor, Itzik Ohayon, has overseen tremendous development in the city, but the other four candidates claim his candidacy has been a bastion of corruption and cronyism. When a mayor is involved in so many decisions about building, transportation, and development, there are going to be a lot of complaints, and worse.

According to Wikipedia, Petach Tikva’s population grows at an annual rate of 2.4%.

One supporter advising a storekeeper to vote for O’Hayon told me to vote for him too. “But of course you will,” he added, when he noticed my religious dress. It’s true that the National Religious Party (NRP or Mafdal in Hebrew) and Aguduah (Ashkenazi haredim) are supporting O’Hayon, who has close ties with the religious community.

Campaign “Ushpizin” sign for the Sukkah

When the NRP’s long-time leader resigned in a surprise move, “outsider” Moti Zaft was appointed to take over. This breathed new life into the campaign, leading most of the community’s rabbis, along with school principals from both the public and private religious schools, to support the party. However, a letter in our mailbox signed by “private school parents” objected to Zaft’s appointment.

The NRP’s main competition comes from a private individual who ran five years ago and got one seat. The NRP protested when representatives of this party known “Anachnu Maaminim bePetach Tikva” (We Believe in Petach Tikva) kept their positions in the governing body of the local NRP, despite campaigning against the party. Zaft said in an interview in the local religious paper that because of this he refused to sign a vote-exchange agreement (in which loose votes from both parties can be combined to give one of the parties an extra seat). But my son said that other parties also chose not to sign such agreements, because experts consider it poor strategy.

Every Friday and erev chag since Sukkot, cars blasted up and down the streets playing the theme song to the tune of “Anachnu maaminim bnei maaminim.” My seven-year-old received the above poster outside his school, and the NRP distributed Simchat Torah flags in synagogues. At a public religious school function the head of the parents’ committee reminded everyone to cast a ballot for the NRP.

A couple we know had agreed to support the leader of Anachnu Maaminim until learning that Moti Zaft, a close friend, would be running with the NRP. They found themselves in an uncomfortable position and unable to campaign for either party.

Read more on Petach Tikva: Election Issues…

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On Orthonomics a guest post about Orthodox homeschooling generated the following comment by “l”:

One problem that parents encounter is that in families where there are both older and very young children, the toddlers and infants often require many hours a day of the parents’ care and leave little time left over to work with the older ones.

I think the comment reflects misconceptions both about homeschooling and large families.

Read more on How Do Parents of Large Families Manage? Meet Tal and Talia…

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[Haveil Havalim is up at Shiloh Musings.]

My daughter entered ninth grade this year. This year she has “the best teacher and the best class.” She was able to request a number of friends, and they’ll be together for the next four years.

Her school has six grades, each with about eight classes of thirty girls. The six grades are divided into three batim (lit. houses), each with its own building, vice-principal, secretary, advisor, and two teachers who serve as grade-level coordinators.

The school operates several large volunteer projects:

Read more on A High School in Israel…

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When I told a friend about this (be sure to click on the comments), she argued that it was “chutzpah” for parents to send their children to yeshiva tichonit and then host a bar mitzvah with mixed dancing. She maintained that mixed dancing is on the fringe of Orthodox social behavior. I don’t know that she’s correct, especially regarding sephardi circles. But I do believe that sending to a school with significantly different religious standards than the home can cause conflict in the children, and this choice can ultimately backfire. This is true whether the school’s standards are higher or lower than the home’s, but parents only seem interested in schools that are “frummer.” It’s like they want to make up for what they are lacking.

Anyway, let’s say such parents do want a school with a strict religious standard or a high level of Jewish studies. Does the school try to accommodate them? They could set guidelines for the parents upon admission (i.e. cover hair at school pickup, no mixed dancing at the bar mitzvah) or accept them without qualification. Or do they send parents away, in order to keep the student population homogeneous? Schools choosing the latter option seem to get a higher level of applicants, at least outside of Jerusalem.

Read more on More on schools and mixed dancing…

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On Ynet, Yael Mishali writes about first meeting the parents at her son’s seventh-grade class at the yeshiva high school Nechalim. One mother asked that the yeshiva officially oppose mixed dancing at bar mitzvah celebrations, so that the boys can avoid temptation. The mother asserted that mixed dancing is not in the “spirit of the yeshiva.”
Mishali dislikes the mother’s superior tone, and goes on to describe ways that parents send the message that families less stringent in Jewish law are inferior and should not be associated with.