Rav Motcha Blau debated Rav Yehuda Avidan on Kol Chai Radio on Tuesday morning 4 Elul surrounding the controversy in Elad and the alleged discrimination against Sephardi girls by the Zluznik and Ladaas Chacham girl’s high schools. These are schools that accept eighth grade graduates from the city’s Beis Yaakov system.
Rav Blau was adamant in his position, that a seminary has the right to have its requirements and standards, and from his perspective, this means girls from homes that have internet connectivity and smartphones may not be permitted in these schools.
Avidan angrily retorted that these regulations are discriminatory and illegal, and the system may not permit directors of a school that receives state funding to do as they please. Rav Blau remained firm, explaining if a schools was set up and built based on certain values, the school is entitled to and responsible to maintain these standards and bringing in girls from homes that have internet and use smartphone will compromise the lofty standard that is maintained. Rav Blau added that Rabbi Shimon Ba’adani along with Rabbi Lieberman have set up a “Fine Sephardi seminary in Elad” and he does not understand why the girls that do not have a school register there. Rav Blau insists that the students must attend schools that address their lifestyle and minhagim and all of the girls cannot be in the same classrooms.
The two obviously did not reach agreement but they did succeed in highlighting some of the issue surrounding this long-standing argument which leaves Sephardi girls at home each year as they do not find a school to attend.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
It’s obvious that none of our daughters would be accepted either, and the vast majority of us are Ashkenazim
I wouldn’t go to any school that would have me as a student.
Would guess that Rav Blau is NOT Sefardi.
How did we get from “working parents” to smartphones & Internet? Last time I was in Israel saw a handful of Rebbeim with smartphones (to connect with talmidim,etc)
‘working parents’ is a nice cover up name for homes with iphones and internet.
here in israel people with iphones are considered ‘מוקצה מחמת מיאוס’
oh, ps. the name is Motka Blau and the seminary is called Zalaznik
#1:
I’m assuming you’re not in EY. Since here we have what are dubbed “kosher cellphones” – i.e., no texting, no internet, just a phone – far less chareidim have smartphones than in other countries. We also have what are called “kosher smartphones” for people who need them for business, which are smartphones that do have email and texting but limited internet access.
In general, while it is very unfortunately true that there are schools that don’t accept as many Sefardi girls, it is also true that many times, a Sefardi family that is not accepted for the reasons Rabbi Blau mentioned – that the family’s lifestyle doesn’t shtim with the school’s, for example because they have open internet and open smartphones – will jump on the “they didn’t take me because I’m Sefardi” bandwagon when that has nothing to do with why they weren’t accepted.
It would be like someone whose family has a TV applying to a Bais Yaakov in the US which doesn’t take families with television, and when they are rejected saying that it has to do with a completely different reason.
There are plenty of schools for everyone and the reason that Sefardi as well as Askenazi girls sit home every year for a few months is because they cannot get accepted into the school they want and refuse to go any place else.
The “working ” parents referred to fathers (not mothers) who have NEVER learned in kollel and not to fathers who are “yeshivish” and left to have parnasa for their families.
And what’s wrong with having never learned in Kollel? For the most part these are the families with the Internet and and it’s a completely different level of frumkeit. Which might also be argued that it’t not so terrible, but we have the right to choose which type of classmates we want for our daughters.
I would ask Rav Blau since when is racism and narrow mindedness a “lofty” standard?
Girls whose fathers work may chas v’shalom think that their sustenance comes from working and not from Hashem. How can we allow them to corrupt our heilege neshamos?
The daughter of the chofetz chaim would not be able to get into any of these schools – after all, he worked in a grocery store!