The Jerusalem Municipality has imposed a fine on the well-known Loichter (לויכטר) Talmid Torah in Bayit Vegan after the school was adamant in its refusal to accept a child from a home of Baalei Teshuva.
The discrimination seems to be alive and well, allegedly because one’s religious status, and in this case, the Jerusalem Municipality has decided to step in and take punitive action against the school.
A sephardi baal teshuva family was unsuccessful in having their young son accepted to the talmid torah. The son, Ovadia, was not accepted to the Bayit Vegan talmid torah and this led to a stir in the city’s Chareidi Education Department. The city decided to enroll him in the school, but this too did not help. Hence, the matter was taken to court.
The head of the Chareidi Education Department in Jerusalem City Hall, Itamar Bar Ezer issued the following statement: “The rules of the game regarding Talmid Torah Loichter have changed, and they, the heads of the talmid torah, are not meeting the agreement with the city regarding running the school. If I do not receive notification this morning that the children have been accepted to the talmid torah…I understand that the talmid torah’s administration has reached a unilateral decision…”
There was at least one addition letter sent warning the school’s administration.
The school’s administration insists that “nothing has changed” and it continues to adhere to its agreement, pointing out, that each year, all the students accepted are interviewed and then a decision is made, as was the case this year.
In fact, the school administrators accuse the city of interfering by enrolling the child unilaterally, which represents violating the terms of the school’s operating agreement with the city.
*****SIGN UP NOW —- GET YOUR NEWS IN RECORD TIME***** Make sure you are one of the more than 22,000 that signed up to YWN WhatsApp Status to receive news in live time. Click this link – or send a message to 1-888-4-YW-NEWS (888-499-6397) – to see our status posts*****
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
How Dare you discriminate against a Sephardishe boy ? A Chutzpah, enough is enough it is about time Israeli Ashkenzim face criminal charges for their blunt DISCRIMINATION
Denaying any Religious Jew in Israel, the right to a Yeshiva education should be a crime, the Hefkerus with the Askenazi institutions has crossed all the red lines because in מדינת ישראל there are no stiff laws like in USA to persecute discrimination.
It is true that not every child is a fit, but here we’re dealing with blunt hate from Ashkenazy Jews who themselves are the victims of worst hate where they came from and yet מה ששנאו עליהם הם שונים על חבריהם
Israeli Ashkenazim are the descendants of parents that suffered persecution and discrimination of the worst degree,yet right here in the very land that is home to the Jewish people they inflict hate in a very blunt way against Sephardi Jews
UNACCEPTABLE .
Israeli Ashkenazi institutions have gotten away with this garbage for much too long and HATE sensed from Religious Ashkenazim is actually worse than from the Secular Ashkenazim
How do you know this is a case of discrimination and not for a different, valid, reason?
Sephardi children are better of in Sephardi schools.
All too often parents (from all communities) claim to adhere to a high religious standard when that’s not quite the case and can adversely affect the peers in the class.