Zichron Yaakov Municipal Council head Eli Abutbul in conjunction with the Ministry of Education on Wednesday morning 11 Kislev 5775 shut down the ‘Zichron Gavriel’ cheider operating in the city, alleging the cheider discriminates against Sephardim. Two Sephardi children from the same family were accepted to the school after compelled to do so by the Education Ministry.
Council security personnel manned the doors and prohibited parents and children from entering.
What seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back is the two Sephardi children arrived in their classroom on Tuesday morning to find it was empty. This reportedly occurred a number of times since they were pushed into the school by the ministry as part of the protest by parents who do not want them in the school.
Earlier this week, a closure order was issued by Education Minister Shai Piron against the Zelnik Girl’s High School in Elad, also citing discrimination against Sephardi pupils. Piron announced that schools that refuse to comply with ministry police to desegregate will be closed down.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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24 Responses
let the sephardem have their own school why would any sane person push his children into such a situation where they’re not wanted?
Those that run chinuch Atzmai have said it forever; that the best and easiest time for them in chinuch was when shulamis aloni was the minister of education; she was chiloni and couldn’t care less. The biggest problemm for the chareidim was and always will be the mizrachim/Daati Leumi. They have a fundamental vandetta against chareidim. Chareidim have supported them thru their hardest times and they never get support back for anything. They are the ones mostly minding the shita of the chareidim; they’re so convinced that only their derech is right.
1. Was the school discriminating on the basis of Sefardi/Ashkenazi or on the basis of level of frumkeit. Past debates on the matter revealed that the schools accused of discrimination had Sefardi students, and the students were rejected not based on their nusach but based on not following the customs mandated by the school (in terms of such matters as internet access, clothing, etc.).
2. Was this a government school, or a private school. If the government pays for the school, they get to decide who goes and what goes on. That’s what money buys – control.
It should matter whether they were discriminated based on sefadi ashkenaz or frum or less frum its wrong to discriminate period. this elitist attitude schools have is disgusting, children from less frum home will only gain in frumkeit by going to a frum school and the children who are more frum will not be brought down. this is proven from all the out of town schools were the one community school except everyone and the ones that gain the most and turn into bnei torah are all the children who started out in less frum homes. look no further than our parents who grew up in NY everyone went to torah vadas frum and not so frum did your parents get mushpah? i think not if the home is strong the child will do ok either way and if the homes weak the child will fail no matter the school policy
I think it’s about time. ‘They’ is the wrong pronoun to use when describing Sephardim. It’s all ‘We’.
No one should jump to conclusions without knowing the other sd ide of the story!
בכלל, to me it sounds like a bunch of לשון הרע.
“Education Minister Shai Piron”
Now ‘former’ because Lapid was booted out!
All Jews are Sefardi…
Ashknaz came later on.
Ashknazim have a very shvach yichut….
Avraham Avinu was from Ur Kasdim not Germany.
The Jews left Egypt not POLAND…
As long as they don’t bring down other students, why not let them in?
Horrible the discrimination bt groups in Israel… Open doors & educate everyone. The polarization, hate & jealous is sickening & time to end it all..
Time that Zion can & should learn from America when it comes to Chinuch. There is no no no school in tri state area that is 100% of only one type.
Kehath64
Lol!!!
Good one.
#8 The divide happened after Bayis Rishon.
Ashknazi DNA comes from jews who lived through the struggles of Eretz Yisroel and the Mediteranean Basin during bayis sheini,while Sefardi DNA derives from those who stayed in Bavel
(Proof: Palestinian arab DNA is closer to Ashknazi )
It is, once again, a frumkeit issue. The rejected prospective students have solely been rejected due to lower lever of frumkeit. It is not only the right of any Yeshiva to determine what criteria in frumkeit is demanded of the student body without governmental interference, it certainly does negatively affect the frumkeit of the frummer students when less frum students are accepted.
the “Establishment”‘s glorious game plan:
When you have a poor defense,keep on the offense
Americans living in israel have long suffered as much or more,but their complaints were/are ignored by the establishment & courts
How come?
All higher secular educational facilites discriminate
(just ask my neighbor, a post doctoral sefaradi)
Another smokescreen
It mainly a means to lower the level of charedi schools
There’s a decorated IDF veteran yemenite carsalesman in NJ ,who applied to University in Israel using his real name.He “failed” his application
HE then applied again ,using an Askenasi name.
Guess what?He was accepted.
eric55,
Whether or not you may like it,klal yisroel does need a multi-tiered school system.
It is extremely difficult to decide who should be in and who should out
The problem is Israel Ashknazim across the board are akin to the british,and have a elitist attitude system that operates accordingly
Oh, and 90% of those who attended torah vadas did not send their own children and grandchildren there
How come?
What could bring about greater Sinas chinam then an entire class not showing up because you do?
To a child this is absolutely devastating.
I can’t imagine any decent school advocating this as an effective or acceptable means of protesting whom to admit.
The lawyer representing the school pointed out that 40-50% of the students in the school are Sefardi. It was just over the family’s level of frumkeit, and the Education Ministry’s determination to make as much trouble as possible for the frum.
It is impossible to say that there is not a Sefardi/Ashkenazi issue in Israel. What is entirely hypocritical, as #14 pointed out, is that the discrimination in the secular schools is far worse than that in the frum schools – and the more secular and the more leftist, the worse the discrimination gets.
That said, those who say that we need to see if this is the whole story are correct. It wouldn’t be the first time that a parent screamed “discrimination”, and then it turned out that the family’s level of frumkeit was below that of the school, and that they had no intention of doing anything to change that fact.
If a family is less frum than a school’s standards but are willing to adhere to all school rules, both in school and without, then it would seem there is a basis to give it a trial run. Unfortunately, that is generally not the case.
I cannot imagine the pain and humiliation those children must have felt when they came to school and found an empty classroom. Hashem Yirachem how can yidden do such a thing to each other?
Someone is out of reality of Torah is really about.
to the person who wrote: ‘It is not only the right of any Yeshiva to determine what criteria in frumkeit is demanded of the student body without governmental interference”
Only if they don’t except government money. By analogy, once the grocery sells the glatt meat and halav yisrael cheese to someone, the store owner has no standing to complain if the person made a cheesburger. Once a school decides to be a government school, in return for money they give up control over policies.
In the US, would anyone tolerate a situation in which a public school tested students on their patriotism and expelled those not found to be sufficiently loyal to American culture and values???
#13-Lior….how do you know their level of frumkeit???? You know them????
These 2 little innocent boys actually happen to be my lil cousins. They are 6 and 5, and come from a very frum home. Their grandfather has been a Mashgiach in the yeshiva in Zichron for over 20 years and would’ve never fanthom that such a thing could’ve happened to his grandchildren. All their parents wanted was to put them in a frum cheder so they can learn torah! Isn’t it enough all the tzaros am yisrael is going through??! These kids are obviously scarred for life. They feel unwanted but don’t understand why. The family is emotionally broken and are obviously packing up their things and moving out of Zichron-including the grandparents who are such amazing and yirei shamayim yidden. Good job “zichron gavriel”…
I’m absolutely repulsed!
#8:
As #12 stated, Ashkenazim come from Eretz Yisroel while Sefardim come from Bavel. Additionally, Sefardim come from Spain. Sefard is Spain.
Its known that Moshe Rabbenu was Sefardi, after all, his name was Moshe Rabbenu, NOT Moshie Rabanowitz!
I read some of the comments here and it is obvious why we don’t have Bayis Shlishi. We still obviously have a problem with Sinas Chinam. There is also a problem with gaivah. Have you seen how Rav Shteinman reacted toa similar situation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx-XpZDdyjw