Israel – Slonimer Hassidim who removed their daughters from the Emmanuel Beit Ya’acov school are apparently trying to talk certain Sephardi parents into sending their children to the new school they are planning to open in the town, though the motives behind the move are not entirely clear.
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According to a Thursday report in Yediot Aharonot, Slonimer Hassidim attending an assembly at the recently reunified Beit Ya’acov school last week apologized to the Sephardi parents and said they’d had no intention of saying the latter were insufficiently observant, which they had implied during the heated affair surrounding the school that recently reached a resolution.
“We didn’t go to prison because we are racists,” they said, and proceeded to invite some of the parents of girls in the so-called “general track” to send their girls to the new school they had in the works.
Last month, the High Court of Justice imprisoned 35 fathers of girls enrolled in Emmanuel’s Beit Ya’acov primary school for holding the court in contempt. The parents had refused to return their daughters to the school once the separation they had unlawfully established between the more stringent hassidic track and the general track had been removed.
The original petition was submitted by Yoav Laloum and the nonprofit organization Noar Kahalacha in July 2008. The petitioners charged that the mostly hassidic parents had established, without permission from the Education Ministry, a separate school within the confines of the recognized Beit Ya’acov school.
Only those girls who adhered to the strict and Ashkenazi-oriented regulations of the new school were admitted. As a result, the overwhelming majority of students in the new school were Ashkenazi.
On August 16, 2009, the court accepted Laloum’s petition and ordered all elements of discrimination in the school to be removed.
When the Independent Education Center (Hinuch Atzma’i) obeyed the order and removed the partitions, the hassidic-track parents responded by withdrawing their daughters from the school and establishing an adhoc, unauthorized school.
Over the school year, these primarily Slonim parents continued to refuse to merge their daughters with the mainstream girls, arguing that their own religious customs and ways of life differed from those of the other families.
 They insisted that their demand for separation had nothing to do with ethnic discrimination.
The court found the parents in contempt of court and ordered their imprisonment.
However, after accepting a proposal by Shas spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and the rebbe of Slonim, according to which all the girls studying in Emmanuel would come together at the Beit Ya’acov school for three days of lectures by spiritual leaders from all streams, the court temporarily suspended the ruling that had led to the fathers’ incarceration.
While the Slonimers have claimed all along that the separation was a result of religious stringency and not racial discrimination, the Yediot report said that the recent outreach was most probably due to the fact that the hassidim needed a certain quota of students to get the partial state funding for their planned school.
Rabbi Yitzhak Weinberg, one of the Emmanuel fathers who spent just over a week in prison, stressed that while the new school was indeed short a few heads, money was not behind the appeal to the Sephardi parents.
“All along, we said it’s not about race, but the High Court went out against our rabbis, and therefore we went to prison. We will take any student who meets the criteria,” he said.
In response Thursday, Laloum said, “We are glad that the segregating hassidim in Emmanuel have internalized that through the unity of Israel we will bring about the redeemer.”
He also expressed hope that the underlying motivation for inviting these girls would change from being fiscal. Citing the words of Emmanuel’s Ashkenazi Rabbi Yitzhak Barlev, according to whom there is no real difference between the girls, Laloum said that in light of that attitude, “we would hope that the unity would be real, and not only due to budgetary concerns.”
Hard for me to understand why they apologized. They keep saying they did absolutely nothing wrong. To say they aren’t looking for money sounds phony. What school could say they don’t need to fill the classes. Are the slonim suddenly so rich.
What a joke lalum,you put rav barlev in jail and now you quote him.
I thing they only call for sphardi girls who r going dressed & meets the way the other girls r doing & this was evan before the separation so what’s the big news about the apology its just to clear up what they wanted is not race only the good of their kids & anybody who meets their standard is fully welcome its about ‘don’t get us rong’that’s about it
First Sephardics, then Boys (mixed), then Arabs —Dont they learn we are a different “Holy Class” . These Sephardics dont eat Gefilte fish, Chren, Kugels, Plus they eat Rice on Pesach!! Might as well make the School reform- Ohh Nebach. In Bais Yakoov in kiryas Joel we are Sephardic free!!
until you fools realize that this was a racistist segragationist act and only now under pressure they are turning the other cheek this will continue. what fools they made of us all. this is about money and nothing else if they could go it alone they would
It is pure racism i dont care what religious twist, or fancy religious explanation you put on it..
they are calling the same parents they called last year only those how are willing to sign to follow the codes of their school and there nothing new with that.
by the way there are more then 30% sefardi girls in the slonimer school how are as frum and go with them all the way there where 14 sefardi parents in jail and only 13 slonimers and 14 from other chasides, that is a bit more then 34% of the parents in jail where sefardi parents
that’s the fact’s.
This article seems to be saying that they apologized for insinuating that the Sephardi parents weren’t sufficiently religious. If that’s the case, then what was the actual issue?
Did Yediot Achronot also include the fact that 120,00 plus frum jews supported and protested in a dignified manner to support the Slonimer Rebbe? Did they report that the torah giants of our generation beginning with Rav Elyashiv and Rav Vosner of Bnei Brak both 100 years old spoke and led their respective unaligned followers in 100 degree heat to protest a chilul hashem of the secular court. Is yediot Achronot a source of our tradtion fom Sinai? Can we trust them for unbiased reporting?
To #6 – FYI, about 20% of kids in Kiryas Yoel are sephardic. Neither they, nor Slonimers care whether the girls are ashkenazi or not, it’s levels of observance that make up the criteria.
And if you’re such a civil rights buff, why shouldn’t the schools have to accept arab girls as well ? Racism !
I don’t need to check my facts, I learned there. There are plenty sephardic kids in generic mosdos – from y”k to snif to tzeirim ulemaale bakoidesh.
And actually what you’re talking about exists as well. See bnei yoel.
to comment number 5 what about Moshe Rabeinu would you let him into your school i doubt he ever saw a gefilta fish