Breaking Down the Separation Wall

More than 2,000 families in Israel live in mixed (religious and non-religious) communities and send their children to secular-religious schools where they learn to respect one another regardless of differences.

Some 120 families in the community of Shoham are working ardently to have the new school they have set up ready to open on September 1. What makes this new school so unique is the fact that it is part of a mixed community of secular and religious families, who chose to educate their children together.

"We have all kinds of families in our community," said Elad Eyal, a secular father of three who is married to a religious woman. "In our family, for instance, the kids will probably be brought up religious, but without any condescension towards the secular side. This was very important for me," he explained.

"On the other hand, we have religious families who feel that the religious education is moving in a haredi-nationalist direction that doesn´t reflect the way they want to raise their children."

Eyal and the other community members believe that the era of separate education systems has passed. "Why should secular and religious young people meet each other for the first time in the army, when they have already formed stereotypes about one another? Why shouldn´t they learn together and respect each other from a young age?" he asked.

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