Israel – The High Court of Justice today ordered a haredi girls’ school in the settlement of Emmanuel to stop separating students based on their ethnicity and to remove all marks of discrimination from its midst without delay.
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In its decision the court accepted the petition of No’ar Kehalacha, a non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of discriminatory policies in haredi education.
Meanwhile, the court ordered the Education Ministry to make use of all the legal means it possesses to rectify the situation, including revoking the school’s license and stopping the institution’s funding.
In 2007 a policy of segregation was enacted in the school, with its Sephardi minority being cordoned off from the Ashkenazi majority.
Different entrances were set up for the two groups, plaster walls were erected inside the school and fences were constructed in the courtyard to separate the populations. In addition, the girls were instructed to wear different school uniforms based on their ethnicity.
The judges wrote in their decision that the school had “violated the Sephardi students’ right to equality.” The judges also criticized the Education Ministry for failing to use its authority to stop the school’s discriminatory policies. Meanwhile, the school’s administration was ordered to pay the petitioners’ legal expenses, at NIS 75,000.
I am aware of the longstanding bigotry against Sepharadim by Ashkenazim, but I am at a loss to understand it, much less to see why anyone would want to separate school students. Can anybody explain this, please?
Jewish people demand the WHOLE WORLD to respect them and their religion, while dont even respect each other!
hey in america there is no discrimination from the ashkenazim even after the whole scandal we just had
and we the syrians don’t discriminate even the other way even before our scandal
This is absolutely disgusting!!! Didn’t we just have Tisha B’av? Did we not learn anything?!!!??
i cant beleave its still going on.and why would they send their kids to that school and put them though that.
Actually, the segregation is Ashkenazi / Sephardi only by coincidence. The Sehpardi girls are not from families with the same level of observance as the Ashkenazi girls, who are completely Haredi i.e. no television at home etc. This is not about black / white at all, but about trying to avoid exposing more religious girls to subjects that can be avoided by simply separating the girls. This way, they can receive equal education without any risk to the other girls.
Good, chaverim kol yisroel
I wonder why there is no outrage on this like on the mosser Dwek. These people are everything but Jewish in their ways, these are the type of people who would join the KKK if only they weren’t Jewish. All in the name of G-d of course
please tell me this is a joke and did not really happen!!! these are jewish people? charaydim? this is being fum??? THIS MUST BE A JOKE!!!
yes #1 I have the same questions – I am Ashkanaz but have no clue why some Ashkanazim think that they are in any way “better” than sefardim – it makes no logical sense at all!! We are all yidden and part of the same Klal yisroel.
Let’s see…
Item 1: Different uniform required.
Item 2: Different ethnicity fenced off.
This sounds really familiar… a little over 60 years ago.
This is not what one Jew is supposed to do to another. The administration of this “school” should be removed from any position of authority in education as soon as possible.
I say we cordon off the entire yeshuv of Emmanuel. I, for one, don’t want those idiots mixing with my children.
The rabbonim and government administrators who allowed this disgusting practice should be publicly reprimanded and never again be allowed to have any role in schools or education. It seems like there is no end to the ability of yidden to act like the worst antisemitim and discriminate based on their own fears, ignorance and intolerance.
it had to be done becuase the sfardishe mydlech dont speak yidsh.
The Sefardic Torah tradition is older and purer than the Ashkenazic. If anything, we should want that the Sefardi girls DO influence the Askenazi girls.
i say let the Ashkenazim stop discriminatiing against their own in yeshivas when will we wake up
I attended a very frum Bais Yakov in Bnei Brak 24 years ago. There were separate classes for the sephardic girls but no separation of buildings or anything like that. They had a different schedule of academics and I was very naive back then, but I did sense that they were being taught as second class citizens, although I did not know if they requested the classes or if this was just the way the school set it up. Many of them got married the year I was there which would be the year after 12th grade. They were all very religious and perfectly tznius and sweet girls. Still wondering what was really going on there….and now……
This sounds like another case of Brown v School board. (get the pun?) As for me, I come from a community whose minhagim are 2,500 years old. I’ve had to endure this all my life. One guy decided to insult me, he called me a “Sephardi.” As we go through the month of Av and all of the things that have happened therein, please think about whether we want the Beit HaMikdash. To want is one thing. To do real acts to bring it is another.
disgusting disgusting!!!!! where i live the bais yaacov is half and half. my daughters good friends are sefardy. what is becoming of us? what makes the other girls more frume? tv? thats ridiculous! everyone should stop being so religous, bec if this is the way then all their priorities are messed up!
as for the rest of the parents in our school they are not so much better. our school has to make sure the classes are split equally or hell breaks loose. and this is from all the fine families that we all want our children to marry!
“The rabbonim and government administrators who allowed this disgusting practice should be publicly reprimanded and never again be allowed to have any role in schools or education.”
Great idea. Let us teach the children to be malbin pnei chavero brabim so you can feel better.
Everyone is complaining and condemning without ever hearing any statement from an official of the school.
On the surface segregation without any good reason is wrong. However, any sane administrator would never enact such a policy since it would create an outrage and they would have the funding problems that have arisen.
I think the jury is out until we hear the school’s side of the story.
I am Sephardi and this is no more racist than Porat Yosef. This school is no longer allowed to selectively admit girls based on whether or not they fit into the community standard or not. There are Sephardi and mixed heritage girls in the main program BTW, even children of gerim. This is not a new story and it is completely out of context and inflammatory. Being a parent, and having the pleasure of Rabbis coming to our home to see how we live, whether we have TV or internet, ladies fashion magazines etc, I appreciate the discrimination because it gives us a way to lessen the risk to our children. For better or worse, there are schools that don’t mind lesser observant or secular children, but that is just not our way.
I know of many Sephardim and mixed Sephardi-Ashkenazi couples who change their names when they mqke aliyah in order to get their children into good Bait Yaakovs and Yeshivot. We must make a major tikkun for this avlah! Baruch Hashem that SHAS created their own school system, or many precious neshamot would have been lost.
another stellar example of chareidi actions sanctifying God’s name…
i bet they have some convoluted expalnation which is ofcourse above my limited intelligence.or maybe …
its the usual antisemetic conspiracy torturing those gallant charedim (whoops its israel — it must be the secularist anti – emmanuel charedi ashkenazi elementary education department or the communists no its hamas no its…you pick one.).
i read post number 32 and realize we as a people need to reflect and do tshuva.. the most lacking trait today for the jewish people is unity..
these episodes clearly demonstrate that point.. maybe if the chareidim gave up yiddish and the sepharadim give up arabic we could as a people move forward.
together we are more than the sum of the parts.
personally i am disgusted by the behavior mentioned in this article…
Don’t freak out!
Think before you shoot back at me stupidly.
Orthodox Jews have sgregated schools.
Is that discrimination?
Absolutely not.
We simply don’t want our children mingling and….
So we keep them apart. We don’t love or hate either sex but it is healthier for them to grow up seperately.
Right?
Now,
Sephardic Jews have very different beliefs and opinions then Ashkenazic Jews. Those beliefs and opinions are not wrong or more lenient. They are simply “different”.
To most Ashkenazic orthodox women uncovered hair and pants are inacceptable while to most Sephardic women it is very acceptable.
Therefore, it is a very wise idea to keep them seperated.
Over 30 years ago I spent a college semester in Israel and did a research paper on the issue of discrimination in Israel and segregation between Ashkenazi and Sephardi. It broke my heart then, and it breaks my heart even more now that it still exists. At least I am pleased to see that most of the comments agree that this is a shanda and only one or two tried to make justifications.
Agreed with Barry, the hilchot Ben Ish Hai are far different from those of Rav Moishe Feinstein ZTK”L, and how to teach fully to both traditions is not fully available. Sephardic girls can’t eat the same food as Ashkenazi girls for example, Beit Yosef meat versus Glatt. Sephardi girls can’t wear sheitels when they get married, and Lubavich girls can’t wear snoods. We want to teach our children our traditions, not dilute them or mix them with other ones, they are what makes us unique and strong. We are forbidden to ask others to take on our customs, and to take on those of others, shame on the government for trying to be the Rabbis and shame on the posters for starting a race riot when nothing is happening!
Tp all those blabbering about the fact that Ashkenazim and Sephardim have different traditions. Think for a second. Men and women have different laws. we all seem to understand that each have their own. There is no reason kids can not be taught, that people from different backgrounds have different customs,a nd still be friends in the same class.
My sister learned in an ashkenaz school in Brooklyn but grew up knowing that she had different customs, though that does not make her worth any less or different. This is nothing to do with learning in school.
Don’t we learn Both bet shamai and Bet Hillel? maybe we should segregate them as they have different laws?
It’s one thing to have different classes….it’s a something else to have a fence and different uniforms….Also, this has been going on for a long time and not just this school so any one who tries to make justifications for such racist behavior is part the problem….If we do not learn ahavas yisroel soon, and learn that derech eretz and acting like a mentch is more important than what color your table cloth is…hashem yerachem….we should all do teshuvah and merit to see mashiach in our days…
Let’s segregate the Shulchan Aruch from the Rama. We don’t want R Moshe Isserlis to be unduly influenced by the Beis Yosef. And while we’re at it,let’s have separate gemaras- Ashkenazim will learn Rashi, Rosh, etc. While the Sefardim can learn the Milchamos and the Rif.
My education was enriched as an Chabad ashkenazi by attending a school which not only had about a 50 percent sefardic heritage population, a great percentage of those were not yet observant.
My friends, religious and not, sefardi or ashkenazi, chabad or not, were always warmly by my parents in my home. A great many of my school went on to becoming more frum and establishing frum, beautiful families. Some of my sefardic friends married Ashkenazim, and some of my Ashkenazi friends married sefardim.
I am enriched for it and ever grateful to have received an excellent chinuch both in learning, avoda and ahavas yisrael, which I pass on to my children.
Like I always say, authentic Judaism (the religion aspect) has disappeared from the face of the earth at around time of the RAMBAM. Today we just have different sects who repeat same rituals year to year like parrots but there is no humanity behind the game. Hate, racism, class-ism, segregation, and disrespect of different Jewish groups exists and will continue to exist because no one learns anything from practicing in organized religious communities because there is no thought behind all these rituals. If Tishabav and Yom Kippur had a real meaning, the superiority complex between Hassidim and non Hassidim, Ashkenazi and Sefardi, Orthodox and Modern Orthodox and so on would stop thousand years ago. Today, religious rituals and halahik practices are all just an external facade.
To all those who wish to justify what is going on in Eretz Yisroel, don’t even bother! Every Ashkenazi institution, with virtually no exceptions has a ‘quota’ for Sefardim. We are a tolerant Ashkenazi family. Our grandson was a few months away from registration at cheder. Our son in law was phoned by a good friend who was managing the registration for a well known cheder and asked why he wasn’t registering his son there. He replied that he had a good friend who was a serious avreich in a kolel and full of yiras shomayim who wanted to send his son to them but was rejected for the terrible sin of being a Sefardi. Our son in law told them that he would never send his son to such a place and hung up on him. Our grandson is at a wonderful cheder with an excellent reputation , but which is one of the few places with a completely non-discriminatory policy.
Do you want more? Our daughter was initially rejected by a well known Beis Yaakov in Jerusalem because they ‘mistakenly’ thought our surname sounded Sefardi – they actually told us this when they were persuaded to meet us for an interview! Of course, once they discovered that we were not ‘cursed’ then they were happy to take our daughter.
i love everyone. what the world needs now is love sweet love its the only thing that we have to little of.