  The Dirac masses of neutrinos can exhibit a strong hierarchy even if the
Majorana masses of the right-handed neutrinos are degenerate and the hierarchy
of the mass scales governing the oscillations of solar and atmospheric
neutrinos is rather small. This phenomenon results from the see-saw mechanism
and the algebraic structure of the effective mass operator for the active
neutrinos. The large hierarchy of the Dirac masses is drastically modified by a
symmetric unitary matrix $R$ acting in the flavor space. A realistic pattern of
neutrino masses and mixing is obtained. Maximal mixing for atmospheric
neutrinos is attributed to the charged lepton sector. Large mixing in solar
neutrino oscillations is due to the neutrino sector. Small $U_{e3}$ is a
natural consequence of the model. The masses of the active neutrinos are given
by $\mu_3\approx\sqrt{\Delta m_{@}^2}$ and $\mu_1/\mu_2\approx
\tan^2\theta_\odot$.
