A neighborhood gan moves on

The woman in the golden cape that says "WOW" is my daughter, orchestrating a Purim party at a local playschool which she founded.

My daughter is known to hundreds of Tel Aviv children and their families by her nicknames of My, or Mymy. Her official name is Michal.

For more than a dozen years, My's playschool (in Hebrew, gan, which is short for gan yeladim, or kindergarten) has been a fixture in its central Tel Aviv neighborhood. Families are attracted by her sensitive and successful approach to early-childhood education. Her pupils have included children and grandchildren of various Israeli personalities in the arts, politics and the media.

This week the gan made a forced move to new quarters, after vacating its original location.

Leaving the gan's original home was not a happy departure. Hard work had gone into transforming the original quarters into a pleasant, cheerful place for children. Before My and the children arrived, it was a dark, gloomy space with crooked floors on a neglected, weed-infested site.

It was inevitable that the gan would have to move some day, but the manner in which the property-owner has chosen to bring this about is deplorable. The move comes as part of a nasty and totally unnecessary eviction process, including some harassment.

We can expect some interesting developments if the case continues in court.

--- Joseph M. Hochstein, Tel Aviv