The Ministry of Education has announced that the Gan Hodaya nursery school in Jerusalem's Giv'at Mordechai neighborhood will remain a religious institution.
Deputy Mayor Dov Kalmanovich said he began to be flooded with calls about a month ago about the school being transferred to haredi hands, setting off a campaign to maintain the status quo. While the ministry's announcement took a weight off his shoulders, Kalmanovich said, "We still have a lot of work to do, and there are unfortunately a few religious Zionist institutions in the capital that are about to pass [into haredi hands]." He concluded, "The time has come for religious Zionism to raise its head and stop being the whipping boy of Jerusalem."