Education: Rumblings in Israel

The man on the Jerusalem bus would have had no objection to the two little girls in front of him, except for the fact that they were wearing their blue-and-white school uniforms. That meant that they were students at the Catholic École de Secours de Saint Joseph, and the man could not help exploding. “You are very wicked,” he said to the girls, “very wicked for going to a Christian school.”

The man was not alone last week in thinking so. Though the number of Israeli children attending the 30-odd Catholic and Protestant mission schools is still small, it is increasing. Last year there were 1,000; this year there are 1,500. Next year there will probably be even more from Israel’s 300,000 youngsters.

The reason for the trend is not religious. The fact is that some Israeli parents are fed up with the condition of the public schools. First of all, they are divided into ideological categories—labor, religious and general. Even first-graders are organized into special youth groups sponsored by the various political parties. More important, many schools are hopelessly overcrowded, with some operating on three shifts. Many cannot serve the hot meals that the mission schools do; nor can all of them afford bus transportation or supervised play. Far from being free, high-school tuitions are some 75% higher than in the Christian schools.

So far, the government has refused to take any action, but each day the grumblings of the nationalists grow louder. Cried Herut, official organ of the extreme right-wing Freedom Party: “The souls of these children [in mission schools] are being systematically destroyed. The future of the nation is in danger.”