Jailed ultra-Orthodox men freed after schools row

Jerusalem, Israel - Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday ordered the immediate release of 35 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men jailed for disobeying a court order on school integration.

A copy of the court ruling posted on its website said the men were to be freed after leading rabbis reached a compromise over mixing Jewish children of Ashkenazi -- European -- descent with others whose families have roots in the Middle East, known as Sephardis, at a girls' school in a West Bank settlement.

The fathers, from the small and close-knit Slonim Hassidic sect within the broader Ashkenazi community, were jailed on June 17 for contempt of court after ignoring an earlier court order to integrate the Sephardi girls.

Under the pact, Judge Edmond Levy wrote, the girls would hold a series of joint workshops at the school, attended by rabbis from both communities, "in order to move them closer in their hearts."

The workshops are to be held over the next three days, after which the school breaks for the long summer holiday.

Israeli army radio said that when classes resume in autumn a privately-funded school outside the state education system would cater to the Slonim girls.

The fathers' arrest was marked by a rally of around 100,000 angry ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, their largest demonstration in 10 years.

The parents say their stance is not based on racism or ethnicity, but is about differences in religious observance between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions.