Israeli court frees ultra-Orthodox parents who defied school segregation ruling

Parents freed in Israeli school segregation row

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court has freed a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents who were jailed for violating an order banning segregation in a West Bank girls’ school.

A court spokeswoman said on Sunday that under a compromise, the girls will study together until the end of the school year, which falls on Wednesday.

The sides pledged to work out their differences over the summer.

Parents of European, or Ashkenazi, descent at the school in the West Bank settlement of Emanuel don’t want their daughters to study with girls of Mideast and North African origin, known as Sephardim. They claim the Sephardic families are not religious enough.

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews turned out to protest against the court when more than two dozen parents were jailed on June 17.