Schoolgirls (file)
Schoolgirls (file)Israel news photo: Flash 90

A resident of the city of Elad east of Tel Aviv has filed suit over a local school’s rejection of his daughter. The man says his daughter was rejected for political reasons.

The school in question is affiliated with the hareidi Beit Yaakov school system for girls, and specifically, the hassidic stream.

The plaintiff argues that his daughter meets the schools “stringent standards,” and was rejected solely due to a political dispute between him and city officials. In his suit, he notes that the school management said his daughter was rejected due to late registration, a claim he rejects.

He noted in his complaint that a senior hareidi rabbi had approved of his decision to take the matter to secular court. The suit will be heard Wednesday.

In 2010, dozens of hareidi parents from the city of Emanuel were jailed for refusing to send their daughters to a local school after it was forcibly integrated with another branch of the school. Parents said the school had split into two over religious differences, but a court ruled that the split was in fact based on ethnic background.

The affair inspired an attempt to require schools to reveal their admissions standards. MK Dov Henin, who was behind the proposal, noted that the current lack of clear standards can make it impossible to punish schools for illegal discrimination.