Jerusalem funds program to keep girls Orthodox

Meir Turgeman, an opposition member on Jerusalem’s city council, on Wednesday asked the Jerusalem District Court to prevent the transfer of city funds to an organization which aims to preserve the religiosity of Orthodox girls after they graduate high school.

The city allocated in February NIS 500,000 ($138,000) from its budget to fund a program called “Inner Lights,” which has the expressed goal of preventing girls from Orthodox backgrounds from “leaving religion or the meaning and lifestyle of it.”

The funds were approved by the city at the request of ultra-Orthodox council members, and were to be used in a number of educational frameworks throughout the city, Haaretz reported.

In the petition, Turgeman questions the idea of investing public funds in programs meant to preserve the religious lifestyle of women after high school. “This is a serious issue with national importance,” the petition stated, emphasizing how every person must choose his or her beliefs. The topic is not one “which local authorities should deal with” or receive public funds, it said.

The girls who abandon such a lifestyle aren’t in trouble, they’re bright and brave girls who need help because they made a decision that can’t be easy, MK Zahava Gal-on (Meretz) wrote on her Facebook page.

“Instead of helping [the girls] get a general education and work skills, the Jerusalem municipality thinks it’s logical to waste public funds and terrorize them,” Gal-on said.

On Thursday, Haaretz reported that the Jerusalem Municipality claimed it had canceled the plan’s funding, while Yitzhak Pindrus — a council member in charge of ultra-Orthodox education in the city — said it was still in place.