[Video below.] Thirty-four chareidi fathers from Emmanuel were released from Ma’asiyahu low-security prison today after ten days’ incarceration, just before the court was about to send 22 of their wives to jail as well.
The release was made possible by a compromise brokered by Shas Chairman Eli Yishai and agreed to by Chacham Ovadiah Yosef and the Slonimer Rebbe.
The High Court claimed that the parents refused to send their daughters to the Bais Yaakov in Emanuel because of disdain for Sephardic students there – a patently absurd contention considering that over a dozen of the parents of Sephardim themselves.
The fathers celebrated their freedom today with song and dance outside the jail. The compromise reached by Chacham Ovadiah and the Slonimer Rebbe calls for the girls to learn together at the school for the three days remaining on the current school calendar. During this time, the girls will attend shiurim and shmuessen from mechanchim of various backgrounds, during which the themes of achdus and ahavas Yisroel will be stressed. Girls from the Lubavitch school in Emmanuel will also attend the study days.
Attorney Aviad Visouly, who represented several jailed fathers, said the compromise was “a victory for the rabbonim over the High Court,” according to Arutz Shevah. The court, he noted, backed down from its earlier insistence that the parents sign a commitment to send their daughters to the school. By accepting the compromise between the rabbonim, the attorney said, the court essentially admitted that the rabbonim were sovereign to decide the matter, not the court, stated Arutz Shevah.
There is no question that the entire Emmanuel school scandal was inflated by those interested in making chareidi Yidden look bad. As Eli Yishai has pointed out, the High Court itself has only one Sephardic judge out of 14 judges, while 30% of the supposedly all-Ashkenazi class in Emmanuel were in fact Sephardic.
Click below to view a clip of the meeting between Chacham Ovadiah Yosef and the Slonimer Rebbe:
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{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel/Arutz Shevah contributed to this report}
Baruch Hashem to see that we can all sit together as one!!! Maybe now we defeated the SAMACH_MEM once and for all and soon even today we can witness the coming of Moshaich Tzidkeinu!!
Amen!
The High Court claimed that the parents refused to send their daughters to the Bais Yaakov in Emanuel because of disdain for Sephardic students there – a patently absurd contention considering that over a dozen of the parents of Sephardim themselves.”
OK. Sorry. I misconstrued this paragraph in my discussion above. Now I see where you were going with your contention. But the insertion of your own politics is still not warranted.