Israel – The “Noar K’Halacha” organization has filed a petition with the High Court against a Beit Yaakov Girls School in Emanuel over the school’s continued separation of Ashkenazic-Hassidic pupils from students of Sephardic and Middle Eastern background.
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The court had already ruled that the school was required to integrate classes, but has not done so yet.
The petition included a complaint against the Education Ministry over disrespect to the court order.
The court had ordered the Ministry to strip the school of its license if it did not comply with the order, but the Ministry has not done so yet, despite the ongoing refusal of the school to change its policies, which the court called “racist”.
this sick, discusting…there is something wrong with our charaidi way of life we are behind by 200 years,,,enough is enough!!
The Torah tells us we are forbidden to even mention that a convert was once a Jew. How much worse to separate out Jews for because their relatives came from one Diaspora country instead of another. If we discriminate against Yidden we cannot complain when others do the same.
racist racist racist I dont understand why they wont except other people because they’re of different ethnicity. Do they think Ashkenazim or white people are better then sefardim this is some bull it really makes me angry that this is going on, and with my own people, Hashem have ruchmanis please
A real shanda how frum sefardim are treated.
This isn’t about racism, it is about mesora. The Sephardi girls have different laws of kashrut, candle lighting, siddurim and different customs of tzniut and often have close family members and even parents who are not familiar with the stringincies of the Ashkenazi haredi girls. To integrate the classes would be tantamount to robbing us of our tradition and substituting European ones for the wealth of Eastern customs we have. Those who complain of racism are the same ones who decry the Satmar integration of Yeminite families into the Hasidic tradition.
i think you people are overreacing. just like the sefardim werent put in the same class as ashkenazim one could argue that they discriminated against the ashkenazim for not allowing them to be in the sefardi class. had they treated the sefardim worse ex poorer classroom conditions poorer food etc.. you would have a point. this division in classes is simply not to have cultere clashes. i think most parents and children especailly if chasidish are more comfortable with children their type and likewise the sefardim. that doesnt mean we look down at the other side it just means people especaiilly children are more comfortable with their style. plus a beis yakov should be teaching minhagim and chasidim and sefrdim have diffrent minhagim. i dont know if it still does this but by of bp use to have separate classes of more chasidish, less chassidish ,kollel /rebbe type children . its perfecly normal. do we daven in sefardi shuls not to discrimante? the awnser is no does that mean we dont like them i dont think so.
i disagree with the comments here. many sefardim have a different way of life and upbringing and i sould not be forced to have to educate my child in a way that the sefardim.
what goes thru someones mind when they start separating children based on family traditions and heritage….. this is nothing less than racism at its worst
any school who did or does this should be ashamed of themselves
i thought we left the racism back in europe?
I met a avreich from Emanuel, it was sick hearing him try to explain to me why they are racist. He actually had reasons for being a Rasha! Made me vomit.
But he had no problem coming to America to file for social security benefits, appantly their religion allows this even though he lives in Israel and pays no taxes
Do they do the same thing in Boro Park Beis Yakov for girls ???
“A real shanda how frum sefardim are treated…”
So its not a shanda when frum litvashe yidden are treated like dreche because they come from a poor background or even worse, from a “loser caste” chassidus. The problem of sinas chinam is pervasive within the frumme community as we see today in Kiryas Joel, the hatred among the Satmer for the lower end Zalmanites and the treatment of moishichists by mainstream chabad
How many Hasidishe children are enrolled at Magen David in Brooklyn? Any cries of racism? Different way for each shevet, that’s all. We all dance at the same weddings.
It is actually possible to teach a mixed group of girls saying “Ashkenazim have this custom, the Sepharadim have this custom, you should each follow your family’s minhag. If you are confused, ask your family’s Rav.”
Kids are not stupid, seriously, give them some credit. They understand there are different minhagim and can figure out to still follow their family’s minhagim EVEN THOUGH they may have friends at school with different minhagim.
Stop the sinas chinam.
we need to send them shnitzlr tape and they should listen to track 5
To 5, 6 and 7: I strongly disagree with your excuses. These are the same types of excuses that the whites who promoted apartheid in south africa used — “oh we just want to let everyone preserve and pass on their culture.” Baloney.
Why cant the schools explain that there are different customs, here are what they are, they are all beautiful and meaningful and you should follow your own customs in your own homes, but respect other people’s customs too. That wouldn’t be so hard to do.
This is a disgrace. In the 1950’s when a great many Sephardim made Aliyah, they were mistreated for many years by the government; but there we understand that many erev rav were in control and today the erev rav is in complete control. The erev rav have other ways of going against Torah and Jews, as ‘racism’ is not politically correct today. But to think that religious Jews in the Yeshiva world would dare commit such a sin is beyond a shonda. Many of these Sephardim that send their children to Yeshiva descend from very great tzadikim, where many of these Ashkenazim who attend the Yeshiva might not come from such yichusim, These children learn at an early age that they are different and it brings sinat chinam. As far as mesorah, different customs; isn’t it about time that Ashkenazim,Sephardim,Chasidim & Litvish unite & we become one people again. This should definitely be corrected. Otherwise, this makes for sinas chinam, in a time where we never needed ahavat chinam as much as we do today. Israel is in crisis and so is the rest of the world. All this unwarranted sinah is keeping Moshiach from showing up!
There are many yidden who follow ashkenaz tradition who are as frum as sehpardim and many sephardic rabbonim also have the same level of lamdus and yiras shamayim as sephardic rabbonim.
Do they have Sephardi water fountains too?
As someone who lives in Emanuel, I can only say that the secular media is playing this story up to show how “racist” haredi Jews are. The facts are that about half of the girls in the “ashkenazi” school are ethnically sefardis. The girls who attend the Beis Yacov Chasidi in Emanuel have their roots in the following countries: Iraq, Persia, Morocco, Kurdistan, Yemen, India, Egypt, The Old Yishuv here in Israel, Tunisia, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Germany. What makes this school different is its standards, in particular standards concerning tznius (length and tightness of dress), no makeup, no MP3s, etc. The parents who objected to the current standards of the city Beis Yakov either bussed their girls to Bnei Brak or tried to start another school. I have lived in Emanuel for eleven years, have six kids who have been and are still attending schools here. When we first came, there were three schools for boys and one for girls – the only school for girls was the Beis Yacov, which already had within in a split off Chabad school, which soon after moved to its own building. The original Beis Yacov was largely comprised of Chassidic families. The three boys schools were then and continue to be Chabad, Chassidic, and Sephardic. “Chassidic” does not mean “Ashkenazic”. Members of both communities marry each other, so these terms really refer to minhagim (traditions) and not ethnic group. This point cannot be emphasized enough. It is nearly impossible to point to a family and declare, “They are Ashkenazim” or “Sephardim” if you are speaking in ethnic terms. We are already blended. Though some families are still obviously of beautiful Yemenite origin – and their girls are attending the Beis Yacov Chasidi.
The demographics here changed. Chassidim were moving out, and the flavor the original Beis Yacov was becoming more modern. The formation of the Beis Yacov Chasidi was an effort by members of the original Chassidic population here to re-create the kind of Beis Yacov that they had a decade ago. It was a stricter school – in terms of dress, exposure to media, even to some aspects of Haredi culture that they feel is not for them as in Haredi “rock music”, choice of careers, etc – and certainly NOT of an “Ashkenazic” school! This was after a couple of years of outreach programs meant to encourage people to move the original Beis Yacov back towards its original narrower interpretation of the Israeli Haredi lifestyle. This outreach did not succeed, to the Chassidim formed their own school – in their minds, returning to the original school’s former style.
Are you aware that this year another school opened in Emanuel in 2007? It is called “Beis Rachel and Leah”. It opened under the auspices of the boy’s Sephardic school. Why has that attracted no media attention?
Because of its small size, Emanuel has been a nice place for people to get to know members of different kinds of communities more easily than in a large city perhaps. That makes this horrendous media fabrication all that more ironic – and painful.