HaGaon HaRav Yehoshua Fink is a member of the Education Committee of the Moetzas Gedolei Hatorah and a representative of the Belz Chassidus. He is also the rav of a Bnei Brak beis medrash and one of the participants in the urgent gathering of principals in Bnei Brak on Sunday evening to discuss government involvement in chareidi education.
In his address, Rav Fink denied any discrimination, explaining yes, at times a girl is not accepted to a school because she is not suited and this has nothing to do with one’s ethnicity. He tells of one girl “whose father wears a black yarmulke”, continuing to explain that while he claims to know Yiddish, clearly he does not unless he refers to a dialect no one else knows. He explains “We stood hear and spoke Yiddish” and clearly, the man was clueless.
Rabbi Fink drew a comparison to gefilte fish by explaining “some like the sweet and other prefer a different taste” and this he feels is the situation pertaining to the girl’s schools, a matter of suitability and not discrimination.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
did he ever work for hillary??
how about the family that had to change their name?
Sorry Rabbi Fink, when dealing with gefilta fish it is called a matter of taste, when dealing with people it’s called DISCRIMINATION.
Exactly why is a useless Judeo-German dialect, aka Yiddish, a criteria for admittance to a Jewish school?
A very strong argument can be made that the speaking of Yiddish today is an ISSUR DEORISA. It is an instrument of MACHLOKUS. It causes an artificial and forbidden division amongst Jews.
During our long history, we have generally need to know two languages: Loshon Hakodesh, so as to have a heleck in olam haba and Loshon Hakessef, so as to have a heleck in olam haze. Loshon Hakodesh is eternal and has not changed but Loshon Hakessef changes from time to time and from place to place. Today in most places it is English. So exactly where does Yiddish fit into all of this? It is nearly useless to give one a heleck in olam haze and totally useless to give one a heleck in olam haba.
So his daughter wasn’t accepted bc he wears a black velvet kippa and doesn’t speak Yiddish? Very Jewish of them. Im sure will keep a seat empty besides him for such a menahelllllllll
Oh no, we don’t discriminate against Sephardic Jews. We just need the father to speak Yiddish. The many many Sephardic Jews that speak fluent Yiddish, why, we will accept their daughter immediately!
IF a school also excludes Ashkenazim who don’t speak Yiddish (and today, most don’t), then this is easy to defend against the goyim (human rights laws protect linguistic minorities desiring to preserve languages with a small number of native speakers), but will be very hard to defend in dealing with the zionists (for whom Yiddish was “public enemy number one” for many years, though they have mellowed a bit). However, from a Torah perspective, it might be harder to justify since their isn’t really any halachic reason to exclude suitable frum students based on language.
Commenter no. 3 makes an excellent point and a serious mistake. The excellent point: Jews need to be fluent in 2 languages, Loshon Hakodesh and the language of the society in which they find themselves. These days, that would be English (in America) and contemporary Hebrew (in the State of Israel). Come to think of it, Israelis should know English also, as it is a widely spoken language throughout the world. Those communities of Jews who cling to Yiddish are mistaken in thinking that Yiddishkeit is somehow tied to a Judeo-German dialect. We should gladly give up Judeo-German, and we should be thankful that German has failed to become a world language. If the Germans had behaved better after World War I.
The serious mistake: Jews have to know a third language – Aramaic, the language of the Talmud. It is not Torahic Hebrew, and if we don’t understand the subtleties of Aramaic, we cannot understand the subtleties of the Talmud.
Based on what
HaGaon HaRav Yehoshua Fink said ,should Messiach come soon iyh wearing on his head only black kippa and will not speak Yiddish .Then Rav Fink will NOT accept him as Messiach.I hope and pray that Hashem in his mercy send Messiach to us NOW EVEN THOUGH WE ARE NOT WORTHY OF HIM.