Jerusalem's Messianic Day School Denied License
Wednesday, October 09, 2013 | Ryan Jones
Makor Hatikvah, Jerusalem’s only Messianic Jewish day school, has been denied a license of operate by Israel’s Ministry of Education.
The school first applied for a license a year ago, while at the same time also seeking recognition as an official state school, a status that would provide Makor Hatikvah with government funding.
But the Ministry of Education not only denied that initial request, it filed an order to have the school closed as it had failed to acquire a license during its previous 20 years in operation.
Started in 1990 as a small ministry where primarily transient Christian volunteers and local staff would send their kids to learn a bit of Hebrew, Makor Hatikvah has over the past five years blossomed into a serious institute of learning boasting a healthy student body of both Israelis and foreigners living in the land.
But the Messianic nature of the school would seem to be a roadblock to the state’s acceptance of its presence in the city. Makor Hatikvah’s latest request for a license to operate for the 2013–2014 school year met with rejection late last month.
The school will continue to operate as its lawyers appeal the decision, and even if that appeal fails, there are other means to keep the doors open. But the battle that is being waged over the issue is seen by school staff and the school’s lawyers as evidence of government bias against Messianic faith-based education.
One of the Ministry of Education’s arguments against Makor Hatikvah is that it is too homogenous, meaning that its students are not adequately exposed to Israeli society at large, a claim that is wholly untrue. And even if it was, the reality is that hundreds of ultra-Orthodox schools that are all but completely cut off from mainstream society operate with the blessing and funding of the State of Israel.
In short, the school sees the current proceedings as a spiritual battle, and have asked for believers everywhere who value Messianic education in Israel to pray.
To learn more about Makor Hatikvah, click here to visit their website
