Jerusalem (CNN) -- Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel were staging a protest Thursday over what they feel is the intervention of the Israeli state into religious affairs, police told CNN.
Police said an estimated 50,000 people staged protests in Jerusalem and 20,000 in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv.
The protesters dislike a ruling by Israel's Supreme court that orders the jailing of parents of European, or Ashkenazi, background for refusing to send their daughters to a school with Sephardic girls, those from the Middle East.
The school is Beit Yaakov in the West Bank settlement of Immanuel.
Micky Rosenfeld, police spokesman, said roads in demonstration areas of Jerusalem are closed and that the protest was to move in the direction of the Russian compound police station where 20 ultra-Orthodox people are being held.
