Ashkenazi Girls Skip School To Protest Anti-Segregation Court Ruling

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schoolbooksSome 70 students at the Bais Yaakov girls’ school in Immanuel, Israel, have not been attending class, in the wake of Education Ministry attempts to force the school to comply with a Supreme Court ruling against segregating Sephardi and Ashkenazi students.

The ministry may prosecute the parents of the absent students under the mandatory education law, officials said.

In August the court ruled that Bais Yaakov and the Independent Education Center have “impinged upon the Sephardi students’ right to equality” by segregating them from their Ashkenazi peers. It also said the Education Ministry “deviated from its authority by not using all the means available to prevent discrimination.”

The court demanded the school “remove every formal and material sign of the rampant discrimination.” The court ruling came in response to a petition by Yoav Lalum of the Noar Kahalacha association, and Dr. Aviad Hacohen, dean of the Sha’arei Mishpat law school.

Two weeks ago, Lalum and Hacohen complained the school and education network were in contempt of court, and were not following the ruling. The Education Ministry’s comment on the complaint states that representatives of the school network claimed they did indeed remove every sign of segregation, including different uniforms, different recess times and different school rules.

However, the educators also said they were still entitled to divide the students between “Chassidic” and “General” programs. Lalum says the Chassidic program is attended exclusively by Ashkenazi girls, while the general program is attended by Sephardi girls.

The school has 215 students from first to eighth grade, 35 percent of whom are Sephardi.

Ministry director general Shimshon Shoshani rejected the school’s interpretation of the verdict.

“The existence of two separate programs based on different customs is unacceptable … the two programs must be merged, and the discrimination must stop immediately,” he wrote in the ministry’s comment, submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday.

The school was given until December 10 to carry out the ministry order. A ministry inspector who came to the school that day found that 70 of the Chassidic students were not there.

“It was therefore impossible to verify that the classes had been merged, and that the students were studying together and wearing identical uniform,” the inspector wrote.

The inspector returned to the school on Sunday, and found the Chassidic students still were not there, “but right outside the school I encountered a group of students who would not tell me where they were heading. In a nearby hall owned by the local council, there was a group of students who apparently were studying, with a teacher apparently hired by the parents.”

The school denied any connection to the group.

The ministry sent letters to the school and the local council, reminding them that by law, parents must send their children to school. It also said that unless the segregation ends, “The ministry will consider taking steps to enforce integration at the school, including withholding budgets or canceling the school’s license.”

Senior school officials rejected the argument that the separate programs were discriminatory. “We respected the court’s decision and unified the programs. It wasn’t simple, and some parents decided their children shouldn’t study together,” an official said.

Lalum responded the teachers teaching at the council’s hall were from the Chassidic program, and said the claim that this was an independent initiative was little more than “pretense.”

He called on the ministry “stop talking and begin to act to stop the discrimination.”

{Haaretz}

{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}


11 COMMENTS

  1. In Lakewood, can a Sephardi girl attend the same school and be in the same class as an Ashkenazi girl? If the answer is yes, then why not in Israel?
    In Baltimore, Iranians and other non Ashkenazim are totally integrated into all our mosdos on all levels, what is bad about that?

  2. To L. Oberstein – Respectfully i live in Lakewood too, and know that matzav very well in Israel. Its two different worlds. It should be like America, but its not. We wish!

  3. Just to clarify: this is an elementary school, so I assume it’s parents who object who are keeping them home?
    Parents with such keen hakpados must be equally makpid on following daas Torah. Who is their daas Torah?

  4. Torah Yid, if it is two different worlds which is correct, WHY are we so quick to accept Daas Torah and Chumros from Israel that have no connection to our American lifestyle?

  5. Do the Sephardi parents in Immanuel want their daughters to lead a Chasideshe lifestyle

    (i relize i dont know other than whats posted here

  6. disgusting, cant even begin to understand. hope there perhaps is some glitch in the report, like some anti-religious propaganda

  7. A YID IS A YID IS A YID! DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE FROM WHERE THE YIDDEN COME FROM!
    HITLER YIMACH SHEMO VE ZICHRO DID NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE AS WELL! EVEN SEPHARDIM FROM GREECE AND LIBYA ENDED UP IN AUSHWITZ!
    HOW CAN WE ALLOW THIS DISGRACEFUL ACT TO HAPPEN 2,000 YEARS AFTER THE CHURBAN BAIS HAMIKDASH FOR SINAT CHINUM – CAUSLESS HATRED IN ERETZ YISRAEL OR ANYWHERE! DISGUSTING, NOW YOU KNOW WHY WE ARE SUFFERING IN GOLUS AND SO MANY PEOPLE ARE ILL, SUFFERING ECONOMICALLY, CHILDREN OFF THE DERECH AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, WHY MOPSHIACH BEN DOVID IS NOT HERE!

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