Jerusalem – Issues of discrimination should not be resolved via the legal system, Shas chair Eli Yishai told Army Radio on Sunday morning. “I won’t participate in blasphemy, the matter of discrimination is solved through dialogue, not through courts,” he said in the interview.
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Yishai was responding to criticism leveled against Shas for not speaking out against alleged discrimination in the Emmanuel affair, in which dozens of parents have been jailed for refusing to send their daughters to the Beit Ya’acov school.
The spiritual leader of Shas, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said earlier that those who turn to secular courts for justice will not take part in the “next world.” Yishai refused to comment on the rabbi’s statement.
Rabbi Yoseph’s son, Ya’acov Yoseph, the spiritual mentor of the group that filed the petition against the Emmanuel school, has decided to stop his activities against racial discrimination, after he and his family have been threatened.
Rabbi Ya’acov Yoseph announced on Saturday night that he was ceasing his activities against racial discrimination in the Emmanuel Beit Ya’acov school, following a recent influx of threats on members of his family, including his children and grandchildren. “So long as the threats were aimed at me, I continued my struggle. But now that my family members are being targeted, I’m quitting,” he was quoted by Kikar Hashabat as saying.
Yoseph is the spiritual mentor of Yoav Laloum, who along with his NGO Noar Kahalacha filed the original petition against the segregation at the Emmanuel school. Haredi assailants had also affronted Ya’acov Yosef on more than one occasion on Thursday, but he was not harmed.
Israel Radio cited Ya’acov Yosef as saying that there remain 33 rabbis dedicated to fighting racial discrimination in the haredi world, but they will remain anonymous to ensure their safety and steadfastness in their struggle.
The rabbi said he was willing to take the pressure himself and push forward with the struggle, but once the matter began to affect those around him, he was forced to back down.
The decision may have significant repercussions, since Rabbi Yosef is the only one to give halachic backing to the struggle’s leader, Yoav Lalum, and even went to the High Court of Justice despite a halachic ruling that forbids speaking before legal sessions that do not follow Jewish Law.
Lalum confirmed to Ynet that his rabbi was ending involvement in the struggle, and reiterated his commitment to act according to his instructions.
Haredi elements doubted the rabbi’s explanation and linked his decision to comments made by his father, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Saturday night, who spoke out against rabbis appealing to the secular courts.
“You know how I feel about the Supreme Court, beware of this thing, you have seen what they did this week, you have seen their path. We are separate from them, we have the holy Torah,” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said Saturday night.
Yakov Yosef should resign from being a rabbi ! After all his own father, maran shalita said that such people have no cheilek….
He’s no Rosa Parks.
too late yaakov yosef!
The damage was allready done 35 Fathers are separated from their famillies locked in prison all because of you!! laloum and his co horts desecrated the name of hashem in the worst way…
hashem is the true judge.
Before anyone brings up the stupid claims of racism.Better look up the video of the family lang,both baalei tshuvah.The father ashkenazi,the mother sephardi!And the father is going to jail for racism!It’s from arutz 2 in hebrew,posted on the bchadrei chdorim site.
Look he can’t bear to see his family being threatend for something he is responsible for doing, and he is the one who had 22 families of chariedishe yidden missing their lovely father at the shbbas table this shabbos, WOW what a man… Shame on you! His father said it well, NO CHIELIK TO OLAM HABA for you, that’s it!!!
R’ Yaakov Yosef is a big Boki , not as big as his father,but huge, he also has tremendous Kovod to other talmidei Chachomim & Bnei Torah.
However he is ver gulible, & has little back bone, which means Lalum [SHR”Y] could manipulate the psak he wants.
As for his father unfortunatly the differences are going on for years, since he bacame a Lubavitcher Chosid & believes his Rebe is still Moshiach. Reb Ovadia was a verement misnagid of the Lubavitcher, the same way R’ Shach Z”L was.
This isn’t the first public critisism of his strayed son.
#6 Right, they probably threatened his family by….. threatening to throw them out of school, due to a Father a Kofer (according to R’ Ovadye Yosef’s opinion). Nothing wrong with that, as long as they don’t distance themselves from him.
Also what do you imagine happened when “Haredi assailants had also affronted Yaacov Yosef on more than one occasion on Thursday”, probably they were screaming at him, nothing more…
But I can guess you are one of those who believe the Turks in the Flotilla incident…
This about going to secular courts (about which, of course, he is 100% right, as in Shulchan Oruch), does it apply to Satmar in general and its rebbes in particular?
please can you vin post an artilce what the issue is.
In my kids school there are sephardim, less orthodox kids (some not orthodox period). as long as the school curiculim is the one we want, and our houses are strong, what else should be of concern, at the very most, maybe we can have a posotive influence on the other kids (less observent).
A pox on both their houses. Hashem is punishing the Chareidim for being parasites and not funding their own schools and the Sefardim for having a Chacham who will sell his p’sak din to the highest bidder.
You guys going to court are such loosers!!
You have no backing from the torah!!
Not from the ashkenazim, and now no longer from the sefardim!!
As Harav Ovadye said, NO OLEM HA-BA!!!
And you still claim that the reasen you went to court is because of ahavas yisrael?!?!
Now I just releize why the ahkenazim don’t want there kids to go with them to school!!
The are doing things in oposition of the torah!!
With no backing of there own leaders!!!
Lalum has been rejected by more than one Beis Din and only then opted for Supreme Court.
Why? Because in fact, even if there was separation based on religious views, Edah or even color of the skin (which is entirely false) – no Beis Din can rule it is illegal according to Jewish law. It is that simple.
For the same reason no Beis Din can pasken that Shas is illegal because there are no Ashkenazi members there.
This is why the “perpetually oppressed” need the secularist system which bases it’s rulings on sublime feelings rather than on laws. Halacha can’t grant them anything in any conceivable scenario.
They turned to secular court because the Beis Yaakov refused to go to an independent Din Torah.
Rav Yaakov Yosef is a massive talmid chacham, certainly greater than all the Rabbonim who were dancing in the streets and making a circus out of this very complex situation
I am now proud to be a worthless MO
The point is that they caused embarassment to others in the same class – in the middle of a school year to put up a mechitza because they wanted to be more frum – someone who causes embarrasment and says rechilus has no chelek in olam haba. A year earlier it was ok to be in the same class but all of a sudden you got more frum and needed a mechitaza? And it happened to be that most of the newly more frum peopled were Ashekenai..Coincindence? I think not. Prison should be the worst punishment they get for being malshin and prentending they are more frum. The others in the class are frum – just becaue you are super machmir doesn’t give you the right to call the other ‘less’ frum classmates goyim.
It is sad because Rav Yakov Yosef, shlita, was the only one of the gadolim who correctly defined the issue here and was mesiras nefesh for himself and his family to correct this pervasive racial injustice cloaked in the name of differing levels of observance. I would hope his father, Rav Ovadia Yosef, should gracefully retire and alllow a younger and more torah-minded and intellectually gifted generation of rabbonim to move into the leadership of the Sephardeshe kehillah.
They went to secular court because the Ashkenazim would not honor a summons to a din torah on a matter they had already decided for themselves on the basis that some Ashkenazi rabbonim including the Slonim, etc. had already paskined and their views required no further review by a beis din. They were the ones who thumbed their noses at daas torah and they are now bearing the consequences.
This is a complex issue that has been simmering since at least 1948. The issues here runs much deeper than the issue of discrimination. The core of the problem is a lack of mutal respect and trust between the two communities and the failure to work for honest compromises. Both the Ashkanazic and Sefardic communities are centiries old and have their unique customs and cultures based on the Shulchan Aruch. There is more that both communities have in common than what they have that is different. They are all Jews and have the common goals of wanting their children to come close to Hashem. Unfortunately, pride and selfish arrogance have made some individuals focus on the differences between each community rather than what they have in common. The Talmud in Gittin tells us that senseless hatred and the strict adherance to fight to defend minor customs caused the destruction of Israel during Roman times. Unfortunately, this scene is being repeated here. I am an Askanazi who prays in a Sefardic shule and I get along with everyone without any problems because I respect them and they respect me. If you have Ahavas Yisroel (love for every Jew) you can overcome differences.
Both communities must realize they are on both on the same team. They all want their children to learn the ways of Hashem. This fight teaches us the greatest lesson of all about unity. Without Ahavas Yisroel (love of each Jew), Yiras Shamayim, and humility there can be no peace and dedication to Hashem. The problem is that there is no mutual respect or trust between each community. Each community looks at the other as being the enemy. There were 12 tribes and each of the tribes were able to get along despite their differences. Rashi tells us that it was this unity that enabled the tribes to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. However, when the untiy of the tribes broke down they were sent into exile. This fight, like all fights must be stopped and legitamate concerns should be addressed based on the Shulchan Aruch. Unfortunately, politics and money often play a role in in-fighting between Jews. The discussions to resolve the issues should only involve the leaders and the children should not be used as pawns to esculate the fight into the gutter. There are solutuions to every problem. Do the leaders involved really want peace or is their own agendas more important?
There should not be anyone pushing away sephardim from learning together with their children in the same school….but to have their own strict standards of religion is fine. If the chareidim want the school system to educate their children according to their standards, that is their right. But to refuse to have sephardim in their school system does not sound fair. Something is not being addressed properly. This does not sound like true ahavas yisroel….
Reply to #49
In other words you are saying that the religious standards of the two groups are incompatable and that no common ground can ever be found between the two groups. This means that an impasse has been reached and there can be no solutions other than the complete segragation between the two groups. Thus the secular court trying to impose a solution will never work. Do you have any solutions that can be used to solve this dilema? The goal should be peace and to reach a solution through peaceful means. How can such a situation be resolved? Do you have any ideas? I would like to hear them.
Reply to # 49
What are the major points of the dispute between the Charaidim and the non-Charaidim? The issues haven’t been clarified in these articles over the last 2 weeks. I still don’t really know what the fight is all about. can you please inform me?
Reply to #49
Despite the differences between the two sides why should either side disrespect each other? Why can’t the problems be setteled in a calm peaceful way? The way to get meaningful and positive results is to discuss the problems in a peaceful, friendly, and calm atmosphere. Why was the militant approach used to try to solve the problems between the two groups? These tatics only lead to an increase in anger and discord? What does the term Charaidim mean? What is the difference between Charaidim and Haimish? What is the difference between the term Litvish and the term Yeshivish? Why aren’t we all refered to as just Jews? Why was this fight started in the first place? Can these two groups ever get along or segration is the only solution? What can be done to solve this problem? Are there any solutions to this dispute? I would like to hear your thoughts #49 .
To 51, 52 and 53.
Let’s make this issue clear. The issue here is not about racism, rather about religious freedom. Fisrst is the question whether the school should be able to have two tracks for different levels of observance. To be completely honest, I don’t know how much of a state sponsored school this is, if it’s like private schools here in America that get funding for some school programs or it’s considrered more like public school. If the former is the case, then the Bagatz has no right mixing in, otherwise Israel cannot call itself a demacratic country. If the latter is the case, if it’s a gov. school meaning, the parents do not pay tuition, then the gov. can decide what or what not and how subjects should be taught.
However, the racism itself is not a issue here, for if the less than religious parents that want to integrate their kids with the more religous ones, would happen to be Ashkenazim and not like in this case Sephardim, there would be as much resistence to them than to the Sephardim.
This is an issue of the less religious wanting their kids to integrate with the more religious. However this is still not the MAIN issue here.
The main issue here is that EVERY SInGLE PARENT HAS A RIGHT TO PLACE THEIR CHILD IN WHICHEVER SCHOOL THEY CHOOSE. Is Israel a democracy or not? If it is, they cannot jail parents for wanting to transfer their girls to a different scool. The fact that Bagatz, the hypocrital, racist “judicial” body, that has very, very few appointed Sephardic judges, feels they can FORCE parents to send to their children to educational institutions that Bagatz decided the parents MUST send is a travesty of democracy. Bagatz are using these innocent children and their parents to promote their agenda of “showing the world how pro liberal they are”.
Now let me make it clear, I as a Chareidi would NOT put my kids in schools with children from less religious homes than me, meaning homes where children have TV, dress differently, etc. That does not mean that I’m racist, that does not mean that I don’t like Jews that are less religious than me, that I look down on them as human beings or Jews. Not at all. Part of being a religious Jew is loving each and every Jew. However, loving others does not mean that we need to give up out identity.
Putting Chareidi kids in the same school will definitely cause a large part of the Chariedi kids to become more negatively modernized as they have access through their less religious peers, venues to what we Chareidim percieve as negative modernization. Nobody has to agree with us whether they feel that we are right with that view or narrowminded, but it is our right as parents to have the choice of our children’s uprbringing.
Years ago, before the rampant immorality and decadence that descended on our world, there could be more mixing of the different religious groups,because for example, what did you already see on TV? However these days, between the violence, immorality and all other decadence it is very hard to keep our kids pure from negative influences.
Now I still very much feel, that klal Yisroel as a whole, should accept each others differences, Chareidi, Mizrachi, Secular everyone, all of klal Yisroel should love each other, otherwise with all the hate there is we are shooting ourselves in the foot. If the hate continues we will c”v breach our walls of the security of unity and make way for our enemies to win over us, God forbid.
Any religious figure that brainwashes the followers to not respect the law and the courts of the land needs to be jailed or expelled from the country for incitement and national security concerns. Charedi world in Israel is becoming the second 5th Column of the Israeli society. First, the Arabs spit on the state and now the Charedi spit on the sate but always demand to be fed by the same state that they don’t respect. If you don’t have faith in secular courts go rely on Hashem to be fed, don’t ask for handouts from the secular state for survival.
Shas has always been a self hating party of Sefardi/Mizrahiu Jews who tap to the tune of their Ashkenazi Charedi overlords to be accepted. Shas is like the black man that tries to act white and hides its cultural traditions in order to succeed in the white controlled business world. The Ashkenazi dominated racist religious entity has convinced many Mizrahi Torah Jews that they are inferior in every-way. This is why many accept segregation and are willing to follow along not to create tension. How sad,outrageous and bizarre. One thing the Charedi can learn from Muslims and Christians is that racism is not the way to God.
You are totally wrong!They tried to set up their own privately funded school.It was closed down by the education ministry.