Many police were assigned to Beit Shemesh for the opening day of the nation’s school system on Monday, 6 Elul. One school that is site of controversy is “שפות ותרבויות”, a non frum school which is now partially being used by chareidim.
Police detected hate graffiti on the partition built in the school, graffiti including “A disgrace to Zionism” and “the partition fence”. Not everyone is pleased with the decision to allocate some of the classrooms to the chareidi tzibur. The partition was constructed to separate the different streams to avoid conflict.
Police confirm the sheetrock partition was built to separate between religious and non-religious students.
Kikar Shabbos reports that some of the city councilmen representing the non-chareidi sector feel this is yet another factor that may lead to the division of the city in the future. The report quotes them anonymously saying “you wanted separation in the schools so you will receive separation in the entire city”.
The report cites there are only 140 non religious students in the school, which had many empty classrooms last year while the chareidi community lacks sufficient classroom space in the city. The city’s Shas affiliated Mayor Moshe Abutbul decided to take four of the empty classrooms in the school and allocate them for chareidi students. The decision was not viewed favorably by the non-religious parents. The Ministry of Education decided to shut the school. In its statement the ministry spoke of the “unilateral decision of the mayor regarding a public school in the city…”
However the ministry stated, “because of the consequences of Operation Protective Edge they will permit student to come to the school and take part in workshops against violence”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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17 Responses
Fathom just for a moment,if this was the other way around
what you would be reading on the media
Those who predominate all over, manipulate developments(,tragic ones as well),stirring their targeted mass(es) to their goals
For some of us it’s of course obvious
Why doesn’t anyone in that city talk to each other & work out conflicts & confrontations during the summer months? Why must there be a wall? Why can’t here be two separate entrance ways & a lobby to say hello?
YWN, this article is a convoluted distortion of reality.
Lo charva Yerushalayim ela bishvil SINAAT CHINAM
Fully agree; this graffiti is a disgrace to Zionism! All over the world we face antisemitisem and graffiti on Shuls and Schools and here come the Jews in Israel no better.
The reality is to many if not most secular Israelis, the goal of zionism is just as much to destroy Torah as it is to uproot the Palestinians in order to create a secular Jewish homeland.
#7 or moreso
Agree with #7; that’s why Zionism is a disgrace.
Presently the word ZIONISM means very little besides the survival of the Jewish State with religious coercion. Or Judaism with different strokes for different folks. Nothing more than that!!
Above. With=WITHOUT
It is a real abomination to wall off the sections of the school allocated to Chareidi girls. Even if the parents of these poor girls don’t want them to be educated in the normal schools, they could learn much by having the opportunity to mingle with normal kids coming and going to school. At the same time, it would expose the secular and MO girls to the frum kids and perhaps serve as a bridge so that some girls who have no exposure to true yiddeshkeit have the opportunity to get to know them
#10 #11zionflag
Wonderful!how nice!
Sounds almost akin to chalda”l
So what term would you use for all the others?
TEL Avivism?
#12:
There is so much to object to in your short post that I don’t even know where to start.
One thing should be obvious: We are not talking about a wall between a girls’ Noam school and a Bais Yaakov. We’re talking about a completely secular, co-ed school, the dress code of which is obvious from the picture above.
Let me ask you something: If there were such a thing in the U.S. as taking a public school and allocating some of the classrooms to Bais Yaakov, would you want your daughter there with “separate entrances and a lobby to say hello?”
Would you send your children to co-ed public schools? If not, why? Would you consider your duaghters to be “poor girls” whose parents don’t want them to be educated in “normal schools?” Would you think that they could “learn much” by mingling with the “normal kids” coming and going to school?
Your post makes it obvious that you consider Israeli secular kids to be normal, while chareidi girls are abnormal children who attend abnormal schools. What do you base that on, may I ask?
And if you say that there’s nothing to compare between a public school in the U.S. to an Israelu public school, then you’ve never seen an Israeli public school. Yes, most of the kids are Jewish (no, not all). But in terms of the values, the dress code (or lack thereof), the code of behavior between boys and girls (or lack thereof), the language, and the culture, there is unfortunately not one iota of difference.
12 – please find out about things before being negative about a group of Jews. These kids are not from such closed homes however BH they want to give their children a great education. Would you like your 6 year old to see the hatred coming from the chilonim as they go to school. In this area we try to teach our kids to be tolerant of all Jews. Unfortunately if they saw what was going on the other side they would gain hatred.
I use to agree with you and now I am sickened by the way the chilonim are acting I realize there is no choice, one needs a wall.
bklynmom
what you are suggesting is akin to having bais yaakov girls associate with public school kids. fourth graders should not be exposed to this. Would you want this happening in your bais yaakov in brooklyn? The wall wasn’t neccessary in any case since there are separate entrances, and separate floors in the building. The wall does keep the kids from seeing each other in the play area outside.
I live near this school and I see the kids who go there; unfortunately, sometimes I’m on the bus at dismissal. Enough said.