Israel – While the shocking discrimination in Emmanuel schools has yet to be solved, another case appears within the haredi community. Sephardic residents of Modiin Illit report blatant racism on the part of Modiin Illit Mayor Yakov Gutterman and the ruling Ashkenazi establishment in the city, which they claim discriminates against them in the religious and educational institutions, the city’s admissions committee, and the upkeep of their neighborhoods.
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Modiin Illit is made up of about 30% Sephardim. However, this is not represented in the city’s educational institutions as there are only five Sephardic religious schools versus about 30 Ashkenazi religious schools. The Sephardim indicated that Ashkenazi facilities are housed in impressive buildings, while many Sephardic facilities are housed in run-down trailers as they have been awaiting permanent buildings for more than 10 years.
The Sephardic residents in the city also claim that Sephardic girls seeking acceptance into an Ashkenazi institution encounter many difficulties.
“I already gave up on getting my daughter into a seminary here,” said one of the fathers on Tuesday. “She underwent an intense investigation of her knowledge and her way of life, while her Ashkenazi friend was only asked who her relatives are and that was it.”
The father said that there are four seminaries in the city, in one of which, he claims, all the Sephardic girls are concentrated. “They feel rejected. Why don’t Ashkenazis study there also?”
Even intervention from Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush was of no avail. “We feel degraded and outcast,” said one of the Sephardic girls. She does not yet know where she will be studying come the school year, while her Ashkenazi friends have already been accepted to a seminary and assigned to a class.
Yoni Mizrahi, a resident of the city leading the fight against discrimination, said on Tuesday, “Our demand is that a new seminar be opened in which girls can study without quotas or limits. The acceptance committee must be religious and not ethnic based. It is inconceivable that the girls are rejected outright just because they are Sephardic.”
The claims of discrimination also relate to the city’s religious institutions. Salary reports from various organizations appear to indicate massive pay differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardic rabbis, with Ashkenazi rabbis’ salaries sometimes reaching six times the amount of their Sephardic counterparts.
The Sephardic residents also reported discrimination in the city’s acceptance process of new residents. They claim that when they sent an application with a Sephardic surname, they were not contacted, whereas, the same application with an Ashkenazi name was invited for an interview with the admissions board.
Someone currently in the midst of the admissions process to the city admitted, “This is how it is everywhere. Every group, even in secular neighborhoods, wants to maintain homogeny. It stems from a desire to maintain an equal level of religiosity, not from racism.”
In fact, two years ago, a Sephardic couple whose admission application was rejected filed a court case claiming they were discriminated against. Their petition was upheld in court.
The Sephardim who are accepted as residents in the city are faced with discrimination in finding proper housing. On this point, the Sephardic residents indicate the municipality’s refusal to pave a road in the Ganei Modi’in neighborhood, most of whose residents are Sephardic. They note that many of the sidewalks in the area were built with funding from the residents’ pockets.
Senior rabbis in the city contacted Shas Chairman Eli Yishai three months ago on the matter.
“There is serious discrimination,” they wrote him. “There is an unfeeling double standard between blood. We ask that an end be put to the crushing and humiliation of the holy Sephardic community in Modiin Illit.”
The letter has yet to receive a response. “Just like in Emmanuel, Shas just secures jobs and deals with the Ashkenazis and take care of their friends,” said a resident of the city.
On Tuesday, the Sephardim decided that enough is enough and placed an ultimatum before the Education Ministry stipulating that should the government office not intervene by enforcing a policy of transparency in the acceptance process and criteria to schools in the city, the residents will take the case to the High Court.
If they want wane be together because the modest dressing & don’t wane fallow the school & Torah laws they can’t be together, same as here in ny its divided
Business as usual – now let’s defend the Ashkenazim who can do no wrong
And what’s wrong with discrimination? The torah separates people by tribe and in the early times they didn’t marry out of the tribe.the claim by sefardim needs to stop. They will not integrate with us as they refuse to.
They want to make a new school with open criteria. And of course the ashkenazim won’t come and once again they will claim racism.
Why do these “haredi ashkenazim” think that they are G-d’s gift to humanity?
Being Sephardi, I will fault the Sephardim. Surprised? At a certain point, you have to realize that these folks and their two color rainbow of black and white don’t like you. and if they don’t like you, why are you killing yourself to gain acceptance?
As for me, I find the Haradi world repugnant. I hope that the residents of MI will get off their duffs and find paying jobs. And, not live like social parasites. But, until that Messianic day arrives, these Sephardic folks should stop trying to kill themselves to get accepted and know that they have a culture that is rich and worthwhile.
Why can’t Sefardim just worry about themselves & stop concerning themselfs with what the Ashkenazim are doing? If they would have enough self pride to make & go to their own institutions all the problrms would be solved.
Honestly there is a problem that activists tend to look out more for people closer to them so Ashkenazi activists will look out more for the Askenazim who are naturaly closer to them, but where are all the Sefardi activists? The only thing they seem to know how to do is to complain that Ashkenazim are discriminating against them.
Same for politicians. Naturaly a politician care more for potential voters. All Ashkenazim are potential voters of UTJ but most Sefardim vote Shas. Where are the Shas politicians? All around Shas is much bigger than UTJ. If all they do is secure jobs and deals with the Ashkenazis and take care of their friends it’s not the Ashkenazim who are to blame.
This is as shocking as snow in the Arctic. It is common knowledge that in Kiryat Sefer (Modiin Illit) Sefardim (frenkim, with apologies) are second class. That’s the way it is. Their level of torah observance and tznius is equal to the Ashkenazim, so that is not the issue. The issue is, well, they are not unzereh, end of discussion. The counterclaim is that the Sefradim knew of this attitude before they moved in, so why all the fuss now? They should have known better.
What will be very instructive is how the Ashkenazim will maneuver out of the racism charge. They are experts at this, it will be a classic lesson in double-speak. Stay tuned.
“Why can’t Sefardim just worry about themselves & stop concerning themselfs with what the Ashkenazim are doing? If they would have enough self pride to make & go to their own institutions all the problrms would be solved.”
Because, at least in this case, it is the town counsel which is discrmininating in how it hands out the taxpayers’ money. Everyone has to pay taxes and that gets distributed based on need. For the town to underfund schools because they are Sephardic or because they are not part of the political establishment is a misuse of the public’s funds.
(We have to remember that in Israel much more of the economy and the moneys spent on education and other social needs are funnelled through the government. In America, we are used to doing things privately, with privately funded institutions. It’s a very different context.)
All of you have either obtusely or conveniently managed to ignore the crux of this story. To make it easy for you I have starred (**) the most important points:
“Modiin Illit is made up of about 30% Sephardim. However, this is **not represented in the city’s educational institutions as there are only five Sephardic religious schools versus about 30 Ashkenazi religious schools**. The Sephardim indicated that **Ashkenazi facilities are housed in impressive buildings**, while many **Sephardic facilities are housed in run-down trailers as they have been awaiting permanent buildings for more than 10 years**.”
The Sefaradim are NOT asking to enrol their daughters in Ashkenazi schools; all they want in Modi’in Illit is **decent** school facilities on a par with those constructed for Ashkenaziot.
Now argue about that.
This article reflects a distorted view of things. While only five schools are Sfardi they are around 0 percent Sfardim unlike the Ashkenazi ones which have at least 0 Sfardim.
Second it is rare for the government to give full funding for frum schools. Even Beis Yaakov which is officialy government funded only gets by with private donations. Has it been shown that the Ashkenazi schools with alleged better conditions were favored by the government or they worked harder to reach where they reached.
i cant speak for kiryat sefer only my kehilla in Ofakim. All the religious sephardim want their kids in askenizy sc hools because they are better and thats the fact. the problem here is the askenazim will only let in 50 percent and no more otherwise their own mosad will be sephardi. When more sephardim are not accepted they cry racis. Now when the askenazim ask please vote degel so we can get more money to expand they cry we have Shas and Rav Yosef. So go to RTav yosef and Shas and cry to them. You cant have it both ways. Only the sephardim with all their votes and political power cant organize top flight schools. And thats a fact/ Now R abrigal ztl was ablle to organize singlehandly and if you did not tow his political line you were out. Now their is a word in hebrew called a vous vous. You know what is? its an ashkenazy Vous? vous?
I live in this type of community in Israel and the same problem exsists all over. It is very easy to pass comment when you don’t live in these communities and see firsthand the issues.
The bottom line is mentality. The sephardic mentality is radically different than the ashkenazi one. It’s like arab opposed european. In chutz lo’retz the predominent mentality takes over that’s why there very little difference if any between ashkenazim and sephardim.
I have nothing against sephardim but it is a fact that the majority of the kids going off the derech, or those displaying a lack of derech eretz, or tznius are sephardim. I am not saying that it does not happen by the ashkenazim but the facts speak for themselves.
Many a time my kids complain that they are set upon by sephardi kids. Many times the shule where I daven has stones thrown at the windows by the kids from the neighboring sephardi shule. I often seeing them fighting and cursing each other.
Infact most of their behavior reminds me of the goyim. The best way to look at the situation is by comparing black and white americans.
This is Torah? separate facilities? and all they care about is who can grab the biggest slice of public pie. sickening.
would you separate your kids from those going off the derech? stealing and obnoxious behavior? but thats racism against sephardim!