Messianic school in Galilee threatened with closure prays petition to reverse decision will result in breakthrough

The Peniel School, a Hebrew-speaking Messianic elementary school in Tiberias, is fighting for its survival and hopes public pressure may turn back attempts to close it down.

“Parents are getting letters now, telling them that they’ll face criminal charges if they don’t enroll their children in the public school system right away. We are in the middle of the school year and it is very damaging to uproot a child and enroll him into a totally new environment,” explained Daniel Yahav, leader of the Peniel Messianic congregation.

For over 35 years, the Peniel Learning Center has been the only Messianic kindergarten and school in the entire eastern Galilee providing an education honoring biblical principles of the Old and New Testament. While teaching a full elementary curriculum, it has seen some 500 children educated through the sixth grade and then successfully enter the Israeli public school system. They have maintained good relations and cooperated fully with the local authorities and the Ministry of Education for decades, including submitting annual enrollment reports, regular nurse visits, participation in a municipal project to make computers accessible to children and more. “Our school was included; we had a good relationship,” said Yahav.

Speaking to ALL ISRAEL NEWS, Yahav explained that the initiative of the Ministry of Education to close down the Peniel Elementary School started back in 2021 with the claim that the school had no license to operate. though the school was functioning as a branch of the Anglican School of Jerusalem.

Turning to the court to stop the closure order, the judge was sympathetic to the challenges the school faced as a small, unique community and ruled that the Ministry of Education needed to take that into consideration as they applied for a license.

“We did everything to meet all the standards and regulations that the Ministry of Education demanded,” Yahav protested. "The school spent $200,000 on their facilities – building a new bomb shelter, updating the classrooms with the latest technology, and making the whole building handicap accessible. With great effort we obtained all of the permits we needed. Despite all of our efforts, our request for a license was rejected. The main reason given was that the number of students does not meet the requirements of at least 44 children in two consecutive grades." 

Failing to recognize our community of faith as a unique, minority group, the closure order added to the problem by intimidating parents from enrolling their children at the school, lowering the numbers even further. The Peniel Elementary school is now down from its average enrollment of 40 children to some 26 children in the kindergarten and school combined. 

“We’re a private school. We’re not taking a penny from the government, so why do they care about the low number of children in our school? A smaller student body allows each child to receive more attention from their teachers."

Even though the rights of minorities are protected by the freedom of religion enshrined in Israeli law, Messianic Jews often face persecution in Israel. The school was established following a spate of violent attacks against the Peniel community in the 1980s, with their meeting place set on fire and a young child beaten with a rod at school by other children because of her faith in Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. Unable to guarantee the safety of the children, a judge, at that time, granted these parents the right to homeschool their children. In 1989, the developing network of homeschoolers came under the supervision of the Anglican School in Jerusalem as a branch school, providing them with legal covering for over 30 years. 

“We really feel – not feel – we know it’s our right by law to teach our kids according to our faith, and closing our school is just really unfair, unjust,” Yahav said. “We’re not a new kid on the block that’s starting something weird. We’ve proven for over 35 years that we operate a legitimate school. The number of students is low, but so what?”

Every morning the school begins with a time of prayer with a message from the Bible about principles such as love, patience, cooperation, etc. “We are teaching them to behave differently, not like in this world,” said Yahav. “The atmosphere is much quieter, much better and because it’s smaller, each child gets much more attention.”

Indeed, the difference was noticed even by the judge during the court proceedings concerning a license to operate independent of the Anglican School last April. “During one point in the deliberations, after the Education Ministry accused us of being anarchists for not obeying the law, the judge responded, ‘They are not anarchists. I have never seen such well-behaved children in all of my life. It is clear that this is a very special community.’” Yahav told ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

Yahav hopes that raising awareness among the wider evangelical community will get the attention of the Israeli elected officials and decision makers, causing them to reconsider their unfortunate decision and reverse it.  

“Israel is getting so much support from the evangelical world today. We are calling on our government to grant a license to the only school in the entire Galilee that serves Messianic Jews and evangelical children that live here in the region of Tiberias, on the very shores of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus ministered 2,000 years ago. Our desire is to continue to educate our children in accordance with our convictions, to raise them to love God with all their hearts and to love the nation of Israel chosen by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

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