The head of the Shas Torah Council HaGaon HaRav Shalom Cohen Shlita has instructed Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Tzvika Cohen to wage a tenacious battle for Sephardi girls trying to get into the “old” seminary. Rav Cohen reportedly told Councilman Cohen that he must make certain that a single Sephardi girl does not remain on the street without a school to attend.
Councilman Cohen visited Rav Cohen at his home, addressing the ongoing battle surrounding the acceptance of 21 girls that were assigned to the school by the city’s chareidi education unit.
Last week there was a harsh exchange of words between Councilman Cohen and the head of the seminary, Rav Yisrael Levine, who replaced Rav Binyamin Sharansky. Cohen is not backing down, reportedly threatening if the girls are not accepted he will work to shut down the school.
Levine explained the reason the girls cannot be accepted is because he is cutting down class size from 50 to 40. That means the school will accept 50 fewer girls, ten less from each of the five classes.
The city sent 35 girls to the school, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, and the school agreed to accept 14 of them, leaving 21 without a school. Levine has informed Councilman Cohen he does not plan to take all the girls because he lacks the space and in addition, he will only accept girls that have been interviewed and accepted by the school, those meeting the guidelines set forth by gedolei yisrael not by the municipality. Rav Levine explains these are the instructions he received regarding the acceptance of new students in the school.
Cohen stated that the school does not have an alternative and it is compelled to accept the girls assigned by city education officials in line with the law. He added that he is acting as a shaliach of Rabbi Shalom Cohen and they will not back down in their battle to bring an end to discrimination against Sephardi girls.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
this article makes it sound like this is the only school in Yerushalayim. there are plenty of places, mostly sefardi schools, which can take the girls but for some reason it appears that they don’t like the sefardi education system so they force the Ashkenazim to take them when there is no room. the Yashan has plenty of sefardi girls, no one can accuse them of discrimination.
I suggest that Shas spend some of their money, instead of promoting their name brand school for boys all over the country, on girl’s seminarim.
Why doesn’t someone accuse them of not considering girls worthy of their efforts and money, sexism, rather than force schools long ago established by the Ashkenazim and say that’s ,”racism.”
There’s lots of Ashkenazi girls also “remaining on the street.”
This is another example of using cultural warfare when it’s just plain old economics.
It is completely unacceptable that a girl or boy should have their race (Ashkenazic or Sephardic) considered when applying to a school. In America this would never happen, and we all get along fine. When it is stopped being tolerated in Eretz Yisroel they too will get along fine. Better close down a school then tolerate this racism.