The ministry of education on Friday said an application had yet to be filed for the founding of a Jewish faith-based educational institution in Limassol.

According to earlier reports sourced from Israeli media, the school is slated to open its doors in 2027 and stakeholders had carried out a tour of the school’s already designated site.

Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler, who is leading the project, said the vision was to establish a “Zionist school” for Jewish children in Cyprus, which would be “open to all Jewish denominations”, as the pupils’ needs could not be met by the island’s existing schools.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail a ministry source said that no application for approval had been received from the school in question to date.

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“All private schools on the island must apply for approval and pass strict curricular and other criteria set by the ministry, which are aligned with internationally recognised practices,” a ministry source told the Cyprus Mail.

Thus, “any school practices intended to convert children to a particular faith or to proselytise” are not legal on the island, the source said.

The Republic’s legal framework does not currently permit for the establishment of an exclusively religious school, the source said, clarifying that what this meant in practice is that all schools must offer all their pupils the choice to “opt out” of religious education classes, should they so desire.

The ministry assesses and approves curricula from private or foreign schools only if they are intended to prepare students for examinations set up by internationally recognised boards, such as international baccalaureate and IGCSE’s – and at present in Cyprus, certain Russian criteria are also considered, the ministry source stated.

Schools founded and owned by individuals or entities from non-EU states can only proceed by explicit approval from the interior minister, the source added.

In the aftermath of October 7 and the Hamas attacks in Israel, a request to set up a temporary institution had been forwarded to the state authorities, with the aim of serving displaced Israeli children, Cyprus Mail learned.

However, the request was rejected as no legal framework for this exceptional format exists.

“Pupils can’t be taught in a makeshift facility as it brings up matters of health and safety as well as quality of education,” the ministry source explained.

Thus, Israelis who had sought to depart from their country and resettle in Cyprus, after the terrorist event, were accommodated in other private schools on the island.

Cyprus Mail has contacted the Limassol planning department for further clarification on the state of the building permitting process for the proposed Jewish school’s site, which, as relayed by the Jerusalem Post, was already in progress thanks to financial support from the Yael Foundation.

The school is projected to serve 1,500 students and offer “an immersive Jewish experience” in its effort to guard against the effects of rising antisemitism, according to the news source.