Parents who dropped their children off at the Pashosh nursery school in Jerusalem discovered something new — a wire fence divided the playground in two. There is a sandbox on one side and a slide on the other. The children used to play on either of them but now they will be limited. The nursery school is in a neighborhood that is divided between secular Jews and the ultra-Orthodox and the nursery school is divided the same way, with one half of the building used by each group. The playground used to be shared and the children all played together during recess but a group of the ultra-Orthodox parents requested the wire fence so that the secular children would not mingle with their ultra-Orthodox children. Some of the parents say there is a simple solution — kick out the secular nursery school so the ultra-Orthodox have it all to themselves. The tensions in Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood reflect larger tensions in Israeli society between the secular majority and the growing ultra-Orthodox minority.
Christians have their own way of putting up fences as well. There is always a tension between shutting out the world and its evil influences, and being in the world to be salt and light. We should always remember that Jesus died on a cross to take down “the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). We should be fence-removing rather than fence-building people.
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Adapted from the article “A Fence Divides Secular, Religious Students in Jerusalem” by Linda Gradstein, America Online News, March 9, 2011.